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What's the semantic difference between verbs in column A and their counterparts in column B? Is there any term (in Russian) describing the verbs in A and the verbs in B? 

А                B
пл'ыть       пл'авать
идт'и        xод'ить
беж'ать      б'егать
лет'еть      лет'ать
'еxать       'ездить
попл'ыл      запл'авал
пош'ёл       заxод'ил
побеж'ал     заб'егал
полет'ел     залет'ал
по'еxал      за'ездил
пропл'ыть    попл'авать
пройт'ись    поxод'ить
пробеж'аться поб'егать
пролет'еть   полет'ать
про'еxаться  по'ездить
нест'ись     нос'иться
пронест'ись  понос'иться
ползт'и      п'олзать
прополз'ти   поп'олзать
поползт'и    зап'олзать
brilliant
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2 Answers2

6

The verbs in column A are called моторно-некратные (progressive motion verbs), those in column B are called моторно-кратные (iterative motion verbs).

Normally, iterative verbs are constructed in Russian using the suffixes -ива- or -ыва-: читать/читывать, лежать/лёживать etc.

The verbs you mentioned retain traces of Indo-European ablaut, similar to those in irregular English verbs (sing / sang / sung etc.).

Идти / ходить is formed from two distinct PIE roots, the first is akin to English ion (from Greek), the second is akin to English sit (according to Vasmer).

In other Slavic languages and in Russian dialects, the second root can form a progressive/iterative pair too: ходить / хожать ("ходи сюда / хожай тихо")

Quassnoi
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  • Thanks for your answer! "... the second root can form a progressive/iterative pair in a regular way: ходить / хаживать ("ходи сюда / хожай тихо")" - I don't understand: How is ходить not iterative? – brilliant Jun 27 '12 at 15:16
  • @brilliant: ходить is a dialectal form of идти (in some dialects). – Quassnoi Jun 27 '12 at 15:16
  • Which dialect do you mean? Would it still not serve as an iterative verb in that dialect anyway? – brilliant Jun 27 '12 at 15:17
  • @brilliant: lots of dialects, that of Kursk for instance. http://slovari.yandex.ru/~%D0%BA%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B8/%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B9%20%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C%20%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8F/%D0%A5%D0%9E%D0%94%D0%98%D0%A2%D0%AC/ – Quassnoi Jun 27 '12 at 15:19
  • @brilliant: in some, probably. I don't know dialects well. – Quassnoi Jun 27 '12 at 15:23
  • The reference you gave doesn't even consider the iterative-non-iterative difference. Both xодить (iterative, as think), идти (non-iterative) and xаживать (iterative) are all in the same entry! – brilliant Jun 27 '12 at 15:24
  • @brilliant: Ходи-ка сюда, кур. (Kursk) – Quassnoi Jun 27 '12 at 15:24
  • The English terms are unidirectional and multidirectional verbs AFAIK – Armen Tsirunyan Jun 27 '12 at 15:25
  • Ходи-ка сюда, кур. (Kursk) - I see. I guess it's a non-standard Russian, right? – brilliant Jun 27 '12 at 15:29
  • @brilliant: yes, as I said, it's a dialect :) – Quassnoi Jun 27 '12 at 15:31
  • I see. Well, in my question I am only concerned with the standard Russian, in which I guess I would never say "Xоди сюда" unless in iterative sense (like "Make trips over here") – brilliant Jun 27 '12 at 16:51
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The verbs in column A describe different types of motion that is performed only in one direction, while the verbs in column B describe same motions with constant, perhaps, sporadic change of direction. The B verbs may even have a meaning of back-and-forth type of motion. For example, Russian “идти” means simply “to go”, while “xодить” can mean “to walk around”, “to stroll about”, “to walk back and forth” or even “to make rounds or trips by walking”.

The best term that I can come up with for the first group verbs is “глаголы направленного действия” (“directed motion verbs”), and “глаголы разнонаправленного действия” for the second group (“multidirectional motion verbs”).

brilliant
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