Russian aspectual pairs: Semantic theory and Maslov’s Сriterion


2019. №3, 45-70

Elena V. Uryson
Vinogradov Russian Language Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;
uryson@gmail.com

Abstract:

It is well known that in Maslovian contexts Russian imperfective verbs denote events but not lasting processes. My goal is to explain this fact in terms of semantics. By definition, verbs in an aspectual pair have the same lexical meaning, so we can consider that the semantic component ‘event’ is a part of lexical meaning of both verbs in an aspectual pair. Thus, the grammatical meaning of perfective vs. imperfective verb is confined to modal and temporal characteristics of the denoted event and process. Different types of verbs are described.

For citation:

Uryson E. V. Russian aspectual pairs: Semantic theory and Maslov’s Сriterion. Voprosy Jazykoznanija, 2019, 3: 45–70.

Acknowledgements:

The research is supported by the grant of the Russian Scientific Foundation No. 16-18-02054.