Semantic and grammatical features of o-/ob- in verbs of emotion in Slovene

Abstract: This paper examines how the prefix o-/ob- reflects the spatial bases of emotion events that comprise emotion scripts in Slovene. It is suggested that the prefix and emotion predicates form constructions. It is shown that the spatially based metaphorical meaning of the prefix in verbs of emotion blends with the prefix’s temporal meaning (i.e., inchoative, resultative, and factitive). Thus, the prefix “cooperates” with the meanings of the emotion predicates in terms of the spatial and temporal conceptualization of an emotion event. The occurrences of o-/ob-verbs of emotion are analyzed in the context of the entire sentence; that is, nouns that are tra-jectors and landmarks of o-/ob-verbs of emotion.