Abstract
An important issue that often comes up in research on Russian aspect concerns the puzzling choice of the imperfective versus the perfective aspect in cases where both seem to be possible and seem to have similar meanings. This paper investigates flashback discourses, which often exemplify such cases and reveal criteria for how the choice is made. I provide an analysis of the two aspects in Russian based on these criteria, as well as a comparison of these two aspects to the English perfect and progressive.
Highlights
An important issue that often comes up in research on Russian aspect concerns the puzzling choice of the imperfective versus the perfective aspect in cases where both seem to be possible and seem to have similar meanings
The proposal is based on the observation that flashback discourses in (16)–(17) crucially differ from (25)–(27) in whether the base verb phrase (VP) denotes atomic events: While the base VPs in (16)–(17) denote atomic events, the base VPs in (25)–(27) do not
IPF applied to an accomplishment denoting VP, does not lead to such an entailment assuming that (i) accomplishment events have at least two stages and (ii) IPF does not specify which stage is contained within the location time, i.e. any one of these stages makes an imperfective sentence true
Summary
An important issue that often comes up in research on Russian aspect concerns the puzzling choice of the imperfective versus the perfective aspect in cases where both seem to be possible and seem to have similar meanings. The proposal is based on the observation that flashback discourses in (16)–(17) crucially differ from (25)–(27) in whether the base verb phrase (VP) denotes atomic events: While the base VPs in (16)–(17) denote atomic events (i.e. a kissing, a flower giving and a theater inviting), the base VPs in (25)–(27) do not (i.e. a brochure reading).7 I propose the generalization in (31)8 below and show how the culmination entailment is expected when the imperfective combines with VPs that denote atomic events because in such a case the only event that could make an imperfective sentence true is the (entire) VP-event.
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