Русская глагольная префиксация и проблема видовой парности

Abstract

Aspectual correlativity in Russian is understood as a functional relation based on the ability of an imperfectiveverb to convey the meaning proper to a certain perfective verb. The paper makes two claims regarding the natureof prefixal aspectual pairs. 1) Prefixed perfective verbs form aspectual pairs with simplex imperfective verbs to theextent that they are apt to transfer their meaning to the corresponding simplex imperfective verb. Because differentprefixed perfective verbs have this ability to different extents, the category of prefixal aspectual pairs has a scalarorganization. The center of this category is formed by different sematic types of atelic verbs (uvidet’ –videt’, solgat’– lgat’, poblednet’ – blednet’ ), while telic verbs – that are cognitively salient for aspectual correlativity in Russian –typically form aspectual triplets (kleit’ – skleit’ – skleivat’) and thus are more peripheral. 2) Aspectual triplets are anintegral part of the Russian aspectual system; they emerge at the intersection of the relations of aspectual correlationbetween two verbs of opposite aspects and synonymy between a simplex and a secondary imperfective verbs.