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The Grammatical Realization of Polarity Contrast: Theoretical, empirical, and typological approaches
Edited by Christine Dimroth and Stefan Sudhoff
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 249] 2018
► pp. 203–226

Two kinds of VERUM distinguished by aspect choice in Russian

| University of Leipzig

The paper proposes a direct tie between the existential use of imperfective aspect in Russian and the expression of VERUM. It is argued that the kind of VERUM expressed in these cases differs from the kind of VERUM that utterances based on perfective verb forms convey. In the former cases the speaker invites the addressee to infer the truth of a generic proposition, whereas in the latter cases she invites the addressee to infer the truth of an episodic proposition. It is also shown that in the imperfective cases VERUM may be indicated by verum focus, whereas for perfective aspect to express VERUM verum focus is mandatory.

Keywords: imperfective, perfective, Russian, pragmatics, verum
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On aspect choice in Russian
  • 3.Varieties of “completed imperfectives”
  • 4.The semantics and pragmatics of perfective and imperfective aspect
  • 5.What is relevant instead of the target state?
  • 6.What is relevant instead of the target state?
  • 7.Existential imperfectives express VERUM
  • 8.(More or less) open issues
  • 9.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 November 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.249.07mue
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