choice of perfectives

[ammaelis.livejournal.com]

take the verb дорожать. my dictionary says the perfective form is вздорожать. but elsewhere in the same dictionary it has the word подорожать, with a perfective meaning.

i understand that the prefix по– often means 'a little bit'. but is that what's happening in this case? i can find any number of verbs with several perfective forms. can i get away with any perfective form at any one time? or are there prescribed instances for certain occasions. if so, how do i work out which one to use?

thanks.

Comments

[judiwe.livejournal.com]

Подорожать is more common, вздорожать is a little bit archaic, I won’t use it in my everyday speech.
When there are two or more forms of perfective they always differ in meaning or stylistically and it is special in each case.

[miketaran.livejournal.com]

по- doesnt mean 'a little bit' in подорожать.

вздорожать sounds very very strange... it took few seconds to read it and few moments to understand meaning... =)

[oryx_and_crake]

It does not sound strange at all, and by no means require a great mental effort you describe. Just a little bit obsolete, is all.

[miketaran.livejournal.com]

i cant imagine a situation for this word to be used it in common speach (on tv for example)
for me it sounds obsolete, poetically, pathosly, and suchlike, but absolutely uncommon... = very strange... =)

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

There's no way of figuring out which prefix to use, so you have to learn them along with the word.
vz- is the variant of voz-/vs- : vozglasit' "proclame" (from glasit'), vstat' "stand up" (stat'), it's seems to be a prefix taken from Old Church Slavic

[scolar.livejournal.com]

Prefix "по" is widely used to make a new perfect verb from inperfect one (e.g. "смотреть" - "посмотреть"; "гладить" - "погладить"; "жать" - "пожать").

But there are impervect verbs with the prefix "по", and you're absolutely correct saying that they often mean "a little bit". For the verbs I mentioned above consider the imperfect verbs "посматривать", "поглаживать" and "пожимать".

One more example: my little son likes when I throw him up ("подкидывать" - imperfect). When asking me to do that he says "поподкидывать".