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results have not been achieved. The reversal of fortune is usually stated in the subsequent clause (often introduced by yj ‘but’).

[110]Jy gjitk ,skj ghjuekznmcz, yj gthtlevfk.

He was going to go out carousing, but changed his mind.

[111]Tkbpfdtnj/ Gtnhjdyj/ ,sk ,skj gjcnhjty yjdsq ldjhtw, yj d 1802 ujle b

эnjn ghtlcnfdkzk cj,jq hfpdfkbys.

Elizaveta Petrovna had tried to construct a new palace, but that one as well just amounted to ruins in 1802.

<sdƒkj, still used as the past tense of the iterative form of be (Wtksq vtczw lj;lz yt ,sdfkj ‘For a whole month no rain came’), is used as a parenthetical particle (set off by commas) to establish a recurrent situation in the past. The main verb is past imperfective or perfective present tense in its exemplary sense (§6.5.9). An example:

[112]F jyb, ,sdfkj, d hjzkm ljdth[e yfkbdfkb<if pst> rjymzr, gjl;bufkb<if pst> tuj,

,hjcfkb<if pst> d gkfvz cjntyyst ,evf;rb, b ltdeirb ljk;ys ,skb<pst> эnb ,evf;rb ds[dfnsdfnm b ,hfnm ct,t.

And they, it would happen, would pour cognac into a piano, light it, throw into the flame hundred-ruble bills, and girls were supposed to snatch out the bills for themselves.

6.4 Aspect and lexicon

6.4.1 Aspect made simple

Aspect, its reputation notwithstanding, is really quite simple.16

All verbs report histories, histories of states of the worlds and changes in states of the worlds. Aspect is a classification of verbs based on the kind of history that a verb reports. These histories tend to polarize into two types. Some, termed p e r f e c t i v e , report definitive change over three phases of time: a prior phase in which a state or property does not hold, a phase of change, and a resulting phase in which the state or property resulting from the change is projected to continue indefinitely. Others, termed i m p e r f e c t i v e , do not report definitive change, but instead report continuity of states or processes over time. Verbs of each aspect are used for certain characteristic functions relative to the contextual time-world.

16 Notable in the rich tradition of Russian aspectology are: Maslov 1948, 1973, 1984[a]; Bondarko 1971 (and others); Forsyth 1970 ([139], from Chekhov; [140], from Tolstoy); Breu 1980; Flier and Timberlake 1985; Durst-Andersen 1992; Paducheva 1996; and now Zalizniak and Shmelev 2000. Among general linguistic works, see Comrie 1976[b]; Dowty 1979; Dahl 1985; Binnick 1991. Consistent with this ongoing tradition, the present discussion emphasizes the interaction of lexicon (predicate histories) and context.

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Morphologically, aspect is not wholly transparent, for there is no single, unique morphological expression of perfective or imperfective aspect in verbs (§§6.4.3--6.4.4). However, there is a limited number of strategies. They differ somewhat, but still have the effect of making verbs unambiguously perfective or imperfective.

As a rule, verbs come in pairs of perfective and imperfective. That is, for a given perfective verb, there is a corresponding imperfective with the same meaning (same except for aspect), and, conversely, for a given imperfective verb, there is a unique perfective with the same meaning. However, the nature of pairing depends on the morphological strategy. In recognition of that fact, relations among aspectual partners or near-partners are written in two forms below. The relation of prefixed perfective and secondary imperfective is written with the perfective first, as lj-gbcƒnm<pf>/ lj-g∫csdfnm<if> ‘finish writing’. In contrast, the relation of a simplex imperfective to a prefixed perfective (near-) partner is written with the imperfective first, for example, kmcn∫nm<if>\gjkmcn∫nm<pf> ‘flatter’. Similarly, semelfactive perfectives are treated as dependent on the base simplex, and are written as vf[ƒnm<if>\ vf[yénm<pf> ‘wave’ (§6.4.5).

Aspect is not only lexical and morphological, it is also contextual. Whether there is definitive change is evaluated with respect to a c o n t e x t u a l o c c a - s i o n , a time and world which the speaker deems relevant and worthy of discussion. In [113], the speaker names the contextual time explicitly.

[113]D rjywt b/kz yjxm/ z dsitk<pf> bp gjtplf yf Rjdhjdcrjv djrpfkt.

Ljyjcbkbcm<if> pderb jnlfktyyjq fhnbkkthbqcrjq rfyjyfls, ujhbpjyn jcdtofkcz<if> dcgsirfvb dscnhtkjd.

One night at the end of June I got out of the train at the Kovrovsky Station. There carried sounds of distant artillery fire, the horizon was lit up by the flares of shells.

In [113], the process of exiting from the train is bounded, definitive, in the sense that no further exiting, in this context, is expected. This definitive change is expressed by the perfective verb dßitk. More generally, aspect in Slavic hangs on the notion of a limit in context. To use a perfective, there must be change that approaches and reaches a limit. The limit is such that, once it is reached at the contextual occasion, no further change is projected afterwards; only a static continuation of the state is projected.17 Thus a verb that is perfective, when it is used in context, reports a definitive change with respect to some

17 Maslov emphasizes the importance of the “internal” or “intrinsic” limit (1948, 1973, 1984[b]). Dowty 1979 makes explicit the idea that aspect involves projecting the future from the contextual occasion -- by anticipation, Augustine would say.

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delimited contextual occasion. A verb that is imperfective reports continuity and absence of definitive change over an occasion or occasions. In [113], the sounds and flashes are perceived (ljyjc∫kbcm, jcdtoƒkcz) at the contextual occasion, the point at which the narrator exits the train. They were perceptible before and will continue to be so afterwards. It is the extension of these perceptions beyond the contextual occasion that justifies using the imperfective in [113]. Example [113] illustrates one way in which a state or activity can fail to be a definitive change over a delimited occasion. There are other ways, and they result in somewhat different senses of imperfective verbs, such as the iterative or durative senses (§§6.5.4--6.5.8, 6.5.10).

The contextual side of aspect -- its interaction with times and worlds -- shades into the way in which aspect helps shape discourse and text. We might operate with a tripartite classification of discourse structures.18 N a r r a t i v e presumes a dynamic whereby events follow each other in sequence. Each event starts from the prior situation and proceeds to a new result, which in turn becomes the starting point for the next subsequent event. Narrative, then, involves both temporal succession and modal causality. Narrative is ordinarily expressed by past-tense perfective verbs, unless the perspective is shifted (as in the “historical” use of the present tense). Language is used not only to narrate but also to talk about states of the world that overlap and coexist in time and circumstance. In this mode of language, d e s c r i p t i o n , the focus is on the complexity of the world, on the coexistence of states, rather than (as in narrative) on the replacement of one state of the world by another. Description is by nature non-changing (hence characteristically imperfective) and coincident in time (hence present tense, or the equivalent of a present displaced to the past or future realm), and realis. And third, speakers use language not only to talk about what was or what is. Language is also used to understand what might be, to compare the reality of the here and now of speech with possibilities: with what alternative states of reality might be imagined instead of the current one, and with possible changes in the future. The third mode is prolepsis, anticipation, divination -- in the broadest terms, m o da l i t y . This mode allows both aspects (though prefers perfective); it is future or irrealis modality.

These discourse or even cognitive categories are highly idealized. These three modes are not strictly temporal nor aspectual nor modal, but all three at once. The relation between these three modes of discourse and the category of aspect (and also tense and mood) is indirect. They are not expressed unambiguously by a single aspect or tense in a one-to-one fashion. There can be complex vectors; a present state can be attached to an event in the past, for example. In

18 Expanding from the bipartite division of Benveniste 1959, Weinrich 1964.

Mood, tense, and aspect 401

the discussion below, these modes are used as the fabric for the discussion of properties of aspect in context.

6.4.2 Tests for aspect membership

The most rigid distributional test for aspect is the interaction with tense. Only imperfectives form a periphrastic combination with the forms ,éle, ,éltim, etc.: yt ,éle<fut> yfheiƒnm<if> ‘I will not disturb’. This combination is used to report incomplete events in the future. Thus imperfective verbs form three tenses: past, present, and future. In contrast, perfective verbs have only two tenses, the past and the (morphological) present. They do not combine with ,éle, ,éltim, etc:yt ,éle<fut> yfhei∫nm<pf>. Moreover, the present-tense forms of perfective verbs do not refer to events that occur at the here and now of speech, but to events that are anticipated, as viewed from the here and now, to occur in the future.

This test of three as opposed to two tenses is the most rigid and definitional test for aspect. There are in addition other tests and distributional properties of the two aspects, of greater or lesser rigidity and applicability. Only imperfectives occur as infinitival complements of p h a s a l verbs yfxƒnm/yfxbyƒnm ‘begin’, ghjljk;ƒnm ‘continue’, rj´yxbnm/rjyxƒnm ‘finish’. Imperfectives are more usual as final complements of verbs of motion (Pfxtv ns gjitk yfdtofnm<if inf> tuj? ‘Why did you go visit him?’), though perfectives do occur (Yfenhj gjitk yfdtcnbnm<pf inf> tot jlyjuj cnfhjuj pyfrjvjuj ‘In the morning I went to visit yet another old acquaintance’). Only perfectives occur freely as the complement of the perfective elƒcnmcz/elfdƒnmcz ‘manage to, to be successful at’ (§6.5.10, with rare exceptions). As a rule (though with certain exceptions), only imperfectives can occur with an accusative specifying the duration of an interval over which an activity occurs (§6.5.6). As a rule, only perfectives occur with the temporal adverb pf, since it implies a history in which an event occurs successfully within an interval of time, often against expectations: pf jlyb cenrb bp,e ckj;bkb<pf> ‘they put together a hut within a day’. (Imperfectives are possible with pf under specific conditions.) Thus these tests, above all the test of the periphrastic future, lead to an unambiguous and almost exhaustive partition of verbs into the two aspects.

6.4.3 Aspect and morphology: the core strategy

There is no single morphological unit that marks perfective or imperfective aspect. In this sense, the category of aspect is more a lexical classification than an inflectional category. But the number of morphological strategies is quite restricted, and they yield a common result: a sharp division of lexical items into perfective and imperfective.

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The core pattern -- the pattern which defines the Russian system, and which has been for a long time the most productive -- is tripartite.19 Many verbs in Russian do not have a prefix. Such s i m p l e x e s report continuous situations. These situations may be entirely static and unchanging: uhecn∫nm ‘be sad’, d∫ltnm ‘see’. Or they may involve some degree of gradual change and responsibility: cbl†nm ‘sit’, hf,j´nfnm ‘work’, vjnƒnm ‘wind’, kmcn∫nm ‘flatter’, rhen∫nm ‘wind’. Simplex verbs as a rule are imperfective.

Simplex verbs combine with one or more prefixes. Examples of prefixes and their most regular senses are given in Table 6.4.20 Prefixes impose a limit on the flow of states or activities in one of two ways. Many prefixes have two senses, qualitative and quantitative (or quantizing).

Q u a l i t a t i v e senses of prefixes present an activity as a series of continuous changes leading towards a limit. After the limit is reached, no more of the change can be contemplated (in context). Thus jn-rhen∫nm ‘remove by twisting’ defines a boundary, and indicates that some mobile entity is forced to move further away from the boundary:

[114]Z jnrhenbk<pf> gj ldf ,jknf cktdf b cghfdf.

I unscrewed two bolts each on the left and right sides.

The activity of twisting is gradual and continuous, but when the definitive limit of removal by twisting has been reached, that activity no longer continues. The change typically affects an entity named as an argument of the predicate, the aspectual argument: the object of a transitive (the bolts in [114]) or the subject of an intransitive (Ghb ecnfyjdrt vf[jdbrf ye;yj cj,k/cnb vjvtyn pfnz;rb ,jknjd, lf,s jy yt jnrhenbkcz ‘During the installation of the fly-wheel, it is necessary to monitor the torque of the bolts so that it will not come unscrewed’). Because the change proceeds continuously to a goal, or telos, prefixal derivatives of this type are commonly termed t e l i c .

Leading up to the final limit are gradual phases of change. The final change does not occur in one fell swoop; there are multiple phases before the final limit is reached. For this reason, these prefixed perfectives with qualitative meaning allow s e c o n da r y imperfectives to be formed through the addition of a derivational suffix (secondary, as opposed to the primary, or simplex, imperfectives). Thus corresponding to the perfective jn-rhen∫nm<pf>, there is a secondary imperfective jn-rhéxbdfnm<if>. These secondary imperfectives maintain the idea of potential limit, or telos -- jn-rhéxbdfnm invokes a limit of removal -- but in context undermine or contradict the idea of reaching the limit in one or another respect:

19Kartsevskii 1927. In a similar vein, see Brecht 1984.

20On the semantics of prefixes, see Boguslawski 1963, Flier 1975, 1985, Gallant 1979, Janda 1986, and detailed studies in Krongauz and Paillard 1997.

Table 6.4 Qualitative and quantizing prefixal derivatives

	qualitative	quantizing
yf-	ac c u m u l a t i o n onto a surface	ac c u m u l a t i o n of quantity, substantial relative to implicit
		standard
	yf-rhen∫nm/yf-rhéxbdfnm ‘twist onto’	yf-l†kfnm/yf-l†ksdfnm ‘make large quantity of’
d-	i n g r e s s into the interior of a space
	d-rhen∫nm/d-rhéxbdfnm ‘insert by twisting’; d-gbnƒnm/d-g∫nsdfnm
	‘absorb nourishment’; d-njgnƒnm/d-nƒgnsdfnm ‘stomp into’
ghb-	a r r i va l at spatial limit
	ghb-rhen∫nm/ghb-rhéxbdfnm ‘tie up to’; ghb-qn∫/ghb-[jl∫nm ‘arrive’
lj-	a p p r oa c h to spatial limit	a p p r oa c h to limit of possible activity [with -cz]
	lj-crfrƒnm/lj-crƒrbdfnm ‘hop up to’	lj-buhƒnmcz/lj-∫uhsdfnmcz ‘play to extreme consequences’
c-	d e s c e n t in space; c o n j u n c t i o n (= rapprochement) in space	r e t u r n to non-existence
	c-k†pnm/c-ktpƒnm ‘climb down’; c-rhen∫nm/c-rhéxbdfnm ‘twist	c-[jl∫nm/--- ‘make round trip’
	together’
hfp-	d i s p e r s a l in space	d i s p e r s a l in degree of activity [with cz]
	hfc-cntuyénm/hfc-cn=ubdfnm ‘unfasten’; hfc-rhen∫nm/hfc-rhéxbdfnm	hfc-ghjcn∫nmcz/--- ‘take leave, extensively, in all manners and
	‘wrap around; set spinning’	degrees’
bp-	e x t r a c t i o n from space	e x t r a c t i o n from existence of activity
	bp-dk†xm/bp-dktrƒnm ‘extract’	bp-véxbnm/--- ‘thoroughly torment’; bp-yjc∫nm/bp-yƒibdfnm ‘wear
		out’; bc-rjkj´nm/bc-rƒksdfnm ‘prick thoroughly, in many
		places’
jn-	d e t a c h m e n t from spatial limit	d e t a c h m e n t from existence of activity
	jn-dzpƒnm/jn-dz´psdfnm ‘untie’; jn-rhen∫nm/jn-rhéxbdfnm	jn-rjhv∫nm/jn-rƒhvkbdfnm ‘feed thoroughly’;
	‘remove by twisting’; jnj-ckƒnm/jn-cskƒnm ‘send off’;	jn-cbl†nm/jn-c∫;bdfnm ‘finish sitting’; jn-cnhflƒnm/--- ‘finish
	jn-ghz´yenm/jn-ghz´lsdfnm ‘yank away’	suffering’; jn-lsiƒnmcz/--- ‘finish breathing’

Table 6.4 (cont.)

	qualitative	quantizing
dß-	e g r e s s from interior of space	e g r e s s from existence
	dß-rhenbnm/ds-rhéxbdfnm ‘wring out’; dß-csgfnm/ds-csgƒnm	dß-gfxrfnm/--- ‘thoroughly soil’; dß-cgfnmcz/--- ‘sleep one’s fill’
	‘sprinkle out’; dß-uhspnm/ds-uhspƒnm ‘separate out by biting’;
	dß-ujhjlbnm/ds-ujhƒ;bdfnm ‘fence off (thereby separating)’;
	dß-vfpfnm/ds-vƒpsdfnm ‘smear thoroughly’
e-	t r a n s c e n d e n c e of spatial threshold, from one domain into	t r a n s c e n d e n c e of the threshold of existence
	another
	e-n†xm/e-ntrƒnm ‘flow, run away’; e-crjkmpyénm/e-crjkmpƒnm ‘slide	e-d∫ltnm/--- ‘catch sight of ’; e-c†cnmcz/e-cƒ;bdfnmcz ‘sit for a
	away’; e-gkßnm/e-gksdƒnm ‘swim away’; e-gecn∫nm/e-gecrƒnm ‘let	good spell’
	slip away’; e-cj´[yenm/e-cs[ƒnm ‘dry out and diminish’
gj-	a t t e n u a t i o n over points in space	a t t e n u a t i o n of quantity or duration of activity
	gj-k∫nm/gj-kbdƒnm ‘begin to pour’	gj-kmcn∫nm/--- ‘flatter somewhat’; gj-uhecn∫nm/--- ‘be sad for a
		while’; gj-kt;ƒnm/--- ‘lie for a bit’
j(,)-	c i r c u m v e n t i o n around a circular space	c i r c u m v e n t i o n of affect, along all parameters
	j-rhen∫nm/j-rhéxbdfnm ‘twist around’; j,j-kmcn∫nm/j,j-kmoƒnm	j,-ktnƒnm/j,-k=nsdfnm ‘fly exhaustively’
	‘flatter, deceive, seduce’; j,-kbpƒnm/j,-k∫psdfnm ‘lick around
	one’s lips’; j-;bd∫nm/j-;bdkz´nm ‘bring to life’
gtht-	t r a n s g r e s s i o n through space or occasions (= repetition)	t r a n s g r e s s i o n of normative quantity
	gtht-rhen∫nm/gtht-rhéxbdfnm ‘rewind’; ght-kmcn∫nm/ght-kmoƒnm	gtht-[jhjy∫nm/--- ‘bury in large numbers’
	‘bring around through flattery’; gtht-xbnƒnm/gtht-x∫nsdfnm
	‘re-read’

ghj- s u f f u s i o n through space ghj-rhen∫nm/ghj-rhéxbdfnm ‘twist, wind through’;

ghj-cvjnh†nm/ghj-cvƒnhbdfnm ‘look through’; ghj-d†nhbnm/ghj-d†nhbdfnm ‘thoroughly air out’

pf d e f l e c t i o n from inertial path

pf-rhen∫nm/pf-rhéxbdfnm ‘twist around’; pf-qn∫/pf-[jl∫nm ‘drop in’; pf-ukzyénm/pf-ukz´lsdfnm ‘have a quick look at on the sly’; pf-d∫nm/pf-dbdƒnm ‘wind around’

gjl- s u b v e n t i o n under surface

gjlj-qn∫/gjl-[jl∫nm ‘come up on’; gjl-cneg∫nm/gjl-cnegƒnm ‘step up to’

yfl- s u p e r v e n t i o n over a surface yfl-h†pfnm/yfl-htpƒnm ‘cut on surface’

dp- s u p e r v e n t i o n along a vertical dimension dp-ktn†nm/dp-ktnƒnm ‘ascend’

s u f f u s i o n of possible degree of activity

ghj-cgƒnm/--- ‘sleep through time interval’; ghj-crƒrfnm/--- (cnj vbkm) ‘cover by jumping

(a hundred miles’)

d e f l e c t i o n from inertial state of non-existence (= i n c e p t i o n )

pf-kmcn∫nm/--- ‘initiate flattery’; pf-reh∫nm/pf-réhbdfnm ‘begin to smoke’; pf-rke,∫nmcz/--- ‘begin to gust in clumps’; pf-,hßpufnm/pf-,hßpubdfnm ‘cover by splashing stuff ’

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for example, the activity is repeated, even though on each occasion it may reach the limit (yf rf;ljq jcnfyjdrt jy ,hjcfk d rfcce vjytnrb b jnrhexbdfk<if> ct,t ,bktn ‘at each stop he put money in the box and twisted himself off a ticket’); the activity with a potential limit is caught in progress (ujcnb vjkxfkb, htrnjh Rfqpth cnfhfntkmyj jnrhexbdfk<if> geujdbwe e cvjrbyuf ‘the guests were silent, Rector Kaiser was assiduously twisting off the button on his jacket’); the import is the existence of an activity or attempted activity (Cthutq jnrhexbdfk<if> ,jkn b gjntk ‘Sergei was trying to unscrew the bolt and was sweating’); or some details of the activity as it progresses are reported (jy yt gjvybn, ult jy ghj,re jnrhexbdfk<if> ‘he doesn’t remember where he twisted the stopper out’). These prefixed perfectives that have a sense of continuous activity readily form secondary imperfectives, and the morphologically derived secondary imperfectives are particularly close in meaning to the corresponding perfectives. Together, qualitative perfectives and their secondary imperfectives are true aspectual pairs.

Other senses of prefixes place limits on the very nature of the activity; they treat the activity in discrete quanta. Such prefixed perfectives could be termed quantifying or even q u a n t i z i n g , since they deal with discrete quanta of activity.21 The activity either exists or not, or exists over a certain quantity of time, or leads to a certain measurable, quantitative result. For example, pfuhecn∫nm ‘begin to be sad’ talks about the inception of a state, where inception is quantitative, in the sense that the activity goes from none to some; gjuhecn∫nm ‘be sad a bit’ attenuates the duration of the state to a limited period; yf-ckéifnmcz (dczrb[ yt,skbw j yfc TOLKIENbcnf[) ‘listen to a sufficient quantity (of all kinds of nonsense about us Tolkien fans)’ means that a large quantity of nonsense has been heard. Quantizing perfectives have an all-or-nothing quality to them. The quantum result is achieved only over a whole interval of time. For this reason, such perfectives form secondary imperfectives reluctantly. There are no regular secondary imperfectives associated with pf-uhecn∫nm, gj-uhecn∫nm, or yf-ckéifnmcz. When quantizing perfectives do form secondary imperfectives, the imperfective is often used only in a specific sense, the iterative sense of achieving the quantitative result over multiple separate occasions: yf-rhéxbdfnm<if> is a possible imperfective, but only in the sense of repeated instances of preparing in quantity.

While prefixed perfectives and their corresponding secondary imperfectives form canonical aspect pairs, the status of simplex verbs is less transparent. Because (as a rule) simplex verbs simply name a state or activity, they have no intrinsic boundaries, and (as a rule) are imperfective. If a context demands a

21 Isaˇcenko 1975 calls the distinction modificational vs. quantitative. E. Adger Williams (p.c.) suggested the term “quantizing” -- operating with discrete quanta rather than scalar properties.