Mood, tense, and aspect 415

[130]Z pfitk<pf> d ,b,kbjntre b dpzk<pf> rybue Cntqy,trf ≤Uhjplmz uytdf≥. I stopped by at the library and got Steinbeck’s book, The Grapes of Wrath.

The imperfective is used when the mobile entity is no longer at the destination; in [131], the narrative immediately reports on Tolstoy’s activities after he has returned from his trip:

[131]R ytve d <jujhjlbwr hfpujdfhbdfnm j dtht ghbtp;fk<if> Ktd Njkcnjq b dgjcktlcndbb jgbcfk bvtybt, rfr bvtybt Dhjycrb[.

To him in Bogoroditsk Lev Tolstoy once came to talk about faith and subsequently described the estate as the estate of the Vronskys.

The use of the imperfective here is similar to the use of the imperfective for reversed results: z jnrhsdfk<if> jryj ‘I did open the window [though it is now closed]’.

6.5 Aspect and context

6.5.1 Preliminaries

As noted (§6.4.1), aspect is first of all a division of the lexicon into two groups, but beyond that, it is a series of expectations about the relationship between these lexical groups and context. Each aspect is used in characteristic contexts. Some contexts allow both aspects, some are inclined to require one or the other aspect.

6.5.2 Past ‘‘aoristic” narrative: perfective

In narrative in the past tense, events often follow each other in sequence.28 Typically, at any point in the narrative, a preceding perfective event will have left us with a resulting state and expectations about what might happen in the future, relative to that time. In the narrative of [132], the act of hiding opens up two possible futures, in one of which mother and child remain hidden; in another, they might not, with all the unpleasant consequences that implies:

[132]Hfccrfpsdf/n, jlyf rfpfxrf dj dhtvz hfpuhjvf cghznfkfcm<pf> c ht,tyrjv d legkj cnjktnytuj lthtdf. Cjklfn ifhbk<if> insrjv d legkt, bphtitnbk<pf> tuj, hfybk<pf> ht,tyrf. Yj rfpfxjyjr yt pfgkfrfk<pf> , b nfr jyb cgfckbcm<pf> . They tell how a Cossack woman during an uprising hid with her child in the hollow in a hundred-year-old tree. A soldier poked with his bayonet around the hollow, stuck it full of holes, injured the child. But the little Cossack lad did not cry out, and so they were saved.

28The fact that bounded aspects (aorist, perfective) are used for advancing sequential narrative has been known at least since Goodwin 1880/1965. For observations on specifically Slavic material, see Maslov 1984[a], 1984[b], Paducheva 1996.

416A Reference Grammar of Russian

After this initial event, other events follow. The thorough poking of the tree by the soldier follows from the previous hiding (the soldier must have been suspicious), and this act generates again the expectation that they might be discovered. This expectation is frustrated with the final negated perfective: the child failed to begin to cry when one might have expected it. This naive oral text illustrates how, in narrative, each event responds to prior possibilities and in turn generates new expectations (new future divinations).

It is a commonplace to observe that narrative is carried out by using perfective verbs, while, in contrast, description and commentary are expressed by imperfective verbs. It is common to see diagrams in which perfective events are located in sequence along one axis of a diagram, one after the other, and imperfectives are positioned on the other axis, simultaneous with other events. Indeed, in the brief narrative of [132], most of the verbs are perfective (cghz´nfkfcm ‘hid’, pfgkƒrfk ‘began to cry’, cgfck∫cm ‘be saved’). But one, iƒhbk ‘fumbled around’, is a simplex imperfective, and hƒybk ‘injured’ is anaspectual, and they are put in sequence with other events. True, iƒhbnm by itself does not state a definitive change, but names a kind of activity: there existed, for an indeterminate interval of time, an activity that can be identified by the name of poking. This imperfective requires some other verb to give us a new result, here bphtitn∫nm. Evidently, imperfectives can be located in the temporal sequence of events, but they still do not implement the cycle of result and divination that is characteristic of narrative. Perfective verbs create narrative not only by putting events in temporal sequence, but also by leading to new results and new expectations. Narrative, then, has a rich cycle: there are inherited expectations; the current event that responds to these prior expectations, yielding a new result and new expectations. This cycle is sharper with perfectives, but imperfectives can participate to some extent.

In context, perfectives often (perhaps almost always) have certain overtones: action viewed as whole, singularity of action, and result.

6.5.3 Retrospective (‘‘perfect”) contexts: perfective and imperfective

While it may be usual for a narrative in the past tense to keep progressing in a series of perfective events, each following immediately after the other, it is nevertheless possible to look retrospectively back from the contextual occasion to some further time in the past. Such retrospective contexts in English would use the pluperfect or perfect. In Russian, events viewed retrospectively are expressed simply in the past.

[133]Jyf b hfymit cj,bhfkfcm<if> dthyenmcz d <jujhjlbwr, gjcvjnhtnm, rfr vs ;bdtv.

Mood, tense, and aspect 417

She even earlier had been planning to return to Bogoroditsk, to see how we were getting along.

[134]C Cthuttv Bcnjvbysv z tot hfymit gjlhe;bkcz<pf> . With Sergei Istomin I had become friends even earlier.

There is no direct correlation between retrospection and aspect, though perfectives occur more often in this function, because they lead to a result that can be discussed ([134]), but imperfectives can be used as well ([133]). Also, perfectives are often used to summarize the cumulative results of a series of events; a summary perfective is then not in sequence with other events.

[135]Bnfr, vs cjdthibkb<pf> rhfnrbq эrcrehc d bcnjhb/ dpktnjd b gfltybq yfituj uthjz.

Thus we have completed a brief excursus into the history of achievements and failures of our hero.

6.5.4 The essentialist context: imperfective

An imperfective history is one in which there is continuity over phases. There are many ways in which an imperfective history can express continuity and lack boundaries.

Often, without much context, the imperfective establishes the existence of an activity of a certain type, in opposition to the possible absence of activity or to the existence of other types of activity. This sense is analogous to essentialist reference of arguments, and could be termed the e x i s t e n t i a l or e s s e n t i a l imperfective.

[136]Xthtp lthtdy/ ghj[jlbn<if> ijcct. A highway ran through the village.

[137]Ujhtk<if> vfufpby rfr hfp gjl yfitq rdfhnbhjq. The store right below our apartment was on fire.

To illustrate: what we can say about the village is that it is crossed by a highway ([136]); what we can say by way of explanation of the midnight disturbance is that there was a fire burning ([137]). In both instances, all that is relevant is that the world at this time includes states or activities of a certain type. The imperfective, then, can have the function of establishing the existence of a state or activity of a certain type.

The imperfective is appropriate, further, in contexts whose import revolves around the polarity of the event -- whether it exists at all -- even when a single event is under discussion. More specifically, the imperfective can be used to question whether an event exists:

418 A Reference Grammar of Russian

[138]Gfgf e;t dcnfdfk<if> ?

Has Papa already gotten up?

An imperfective can be used to insist emphatically that an activity has occurred, even if the consequences are uncertain:

[139]D эnjv ujle z e;t ,hfk<if> hfp jngecr. I have already taken a leave this year.

[140]-- Yflj ,skj pfzdbnm<pf> njulf ;t, -- crfpfk jy.

--Z pfzdkzk<if> .

--You should have made a statement at the time, -- he said.

--I did make a statement.

As in [140], the essentialist imperfective can be understood to include those instances described as “reversal of result” or the like. Some activity takes place that one might expect to lead to a certain result. Using a perfective would imply that the result has been achieved and the resulting state has continued. If the state is reversed or canceled, the imperfective can be used to indicate that some of a certain kind of activity has occurred, though it has not led to the expected permanent result. Prefixed verbs of motion show this behavior, as does jnrhßnm/jnrhsdƒnm ‘open’: jy jnrhsdfk<if pst> jryj ‘he opened the window’ can be used when the window is no longer open. As in [140], this sense of the imperfective often reflects an attempt (c o n a t i o n ).

The imperfective can also be used when a past event is negated, though the perfective is also an option. The difference revolves around the way in which the speaker conceptualizes the possible occasions for an event. In narrative, the perfective indicates that the possible time when the event might have occurred (even though it did not) is bounded and placed in sequence ([141]), while an imperfective leaves the door open to further change ([142]):29

[141]Ytelfxf yt jcnfyjdbkf<pf> vj/ vfnm. Tq gjcjdtnjdfkb<pf> jhufybpjdfnm fhntkm.

Vfnm yfgbcfkf<pf> gbcmvj [jhjitq yfitq pyfrjvjq, Fyyt Dfcbkmtdyt <b,brjdjq. B ltkj gjikj<pf> .

This failure did not stop mother. They advised her to organize an atelier. She wrote to our friend, Anna Vasilevna Bibikova. And things took off.

[142]Xfcjdjq yt jcnfyfdkbdfkcz<if> . Lj ytuj jcnfdfkjcm<if> ltcznm vtnhjd. Djctvm.

Gznm.

The sentry did not stop. There remained only ten meters. Then eight. Five.

In dialogue (specifically, in a negative response to a question with a perfective verb), the perfective is used if both interlocutors agree that the event was

29 Merrill 1985, with references [(142)].