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Aspectual Variations in Russian and Serbo-Croatian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Thomas F. Magner
Thomas F. Magner*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
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1. The most distinctive feature of the verbal system of a Slavic language is undoubtedly its verbal aspect. Stated simply, a particular Slavic verb has either perfective (P) aspect, which mean that a commitment as to completion has been added to the verb's basic meaning, or it has imperfective (I) aspect, in which is no such implication. To express the meaning ‘to write’ in Russian, a choice has to be made between the two aspectual partners pisat' I 'to write, to be in the process of writing' and napisat' P to write, to get written, to complete the writing (of)'. There are also morphological implications to aspect, in that in certain constructs the selection of a verb form of a particular aspect is obligatory; for example, the periphrastic future of Russian permits only the use of an I verb, as in ja budu pisat' 'I will write, I will be writing' (*ja budu napisat' does not occur). Exceptions to this typical aspectual pairing, such as Russian obeščat' 'to promise', which functions as either an I or a P verb, testify by their very oddity to the pervasiveness of the aspectual dichotomy.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 39 , Issue 4: October-December , December 1963, pp. 621 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © 1963 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 For a detailed discussion of aspectual meaning see James Ferrell, “The meaning of the perfective aspect in Russian', Word 7.104–35 (1951). A lucid account of aspect in Russian is to be found in B. O. Unbegaun, Russian grammar 206–28 (Oxford, 1957); helpful examples are in F. M. Borras and R. F. Christian, Russian syntax 109–42 (Oxford, 1959).

2 Cf. I. P. Mučnik, 'Dvuvidovye glagoly v russkom jazyke [Double-aspect verbs in Russian]', Voprosy kul'tury reči 93–115 (Moscow, 1961). In Mučnik's listing of double-aspect verbs of Russian (or Church Slavic) origin, there are 52 entries plus the possible reflexive derivations for some of them. If one eliminates the obsolete items on his list, about 40 verbs remain; of these only about 20 seem to have a significant frequency of use, e.g. ženit' 'to marry', while the rest are specialized, e.g. izvestkovat' 'to fertilize with lime', sonasledovat' 'to become a co-heir'.

3 Cf. N. S. Avilova, ‘Glagoly s suffiksom -ova- i ego variantami -irova-, -izirova-, -izovav russkom jazyke’, Issledovanija po grammatike russkogo literaturnogo jazyka 42–72 (Moscow, 1955). This article has many examples of verbs formed with these suffixes; the author does not concern herself with the aspect values of the verbs.

4 D. N. Ušakov, ed., Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka (Moscow, 1935–40).

5 An exceptional formation is ispol' zovyvat' I. S. P. Obnorskij ('Glagoly ispol'zoval'-ispol'zovyvat' v sovremennom jazyke', Izbrannye raboty po russkomy jazyku 206–12 [Moscow, 1960]) was much disturbed by the existence of ispol'zovyvat'. He called it ballast jazyka ‘linguistic trash’, but took comfort in the observation that at that time (1935) the verb was disappearing from use. However, a recent guide to ‘better Russian’, Pravil'nost' russkoj reči 83 (Moscow, 1962), saw fit to warn its readers against the verb and cited Obnorskij's views.

6 H. H. Bielfeldt, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der russischen Sprache der Gegenwart 262–65 (Berlin, 1958).

7 Valentin Kiparsky, Der Wortakzent der russischen Schriftsprache 295 (Heidelberg, 1962).

8 Mučnik (103) : na našix glazax. I have recently noted the verbs programmirovat' I/P 'to program (a course)' and za-programmirovat' P, which are not in the latest dictionaries.

9 Rajko Nahtigal, Slovanski jeziki 281 (Ljubljana, 1952). Old Church Slavic shows this Greek aorist stem in the verb vlasvimisati ‘to blaspheme’.

10 The earliest occurrences of verbs with the -ira- suffix are described by Josip Jernej in his article ‘Glagoli na -irati u XVII. i XVIII. stoljeću’, Filologica 2.31–40 (Zagreb, 1959). Jernej points out (32) that the existence of inherited verbs like izbirati ‘to choose’ facilitated the development of new verbs in -ira-ti. What he did not mention, though he may have assumed it, is what strikes one who has viewed the Russian adaptation of German -ier- verbs: Serbo-Croatian had, because of historical changes in the accent system, an accented -ir- in these verbs, e.g. izbírati (Russian izbirát'). Such familiar verbs in -ir-a-provide exact adaptation models for the German verbs, which uniformly have the stress on -ier-.

11 Cf. Rudolf Filipović, ‘Morphological adaptation of English loan words in Serbo-Croatian’, Studia romanica et anglica 11.100–3 (Zagreb, 1961).

12 For a good discussion of all three suffixes see Petar Skok, ‘O sufiksima -isati, -irati, -ovati’, Jezik 2.36–43 (Zagreb, 1955). Skok does not touch upon the aspectual properties of new verbs made with these suffixes.

13 Aleksandar Jovanovic, Srpskohrvatsko-Englesko-Nemačko-Francuski rečnik privrednih, komercijalnih, finansiskih, političkih, i pravnih izraza (Belgrade, 1959).

14 The great Vuk Karadžić indicates the aspect for verbs in his Srpski rječnik 4 (Belgrade, 1935 [1st ed. 1818]), but his dictionary obviously does not reflect lexical additions of the past century. The Academy dictionary, Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (Zagreb, 1880–) is only up to šarati (fasc. 72, 1960) and has few entries of recent coinage.

15 J. Dayre, M. Deanović, R. Maixner, Hrvatskosrpski-francuski rječnik viii-ix (Zagreb, 1956).

16 I. I. Tolstoj, Serbo-xorvatsko-russkij slovar' (Moscow, 1957).

17 Ivan Brabec, Mate Hraste, Sreten Živković, Gramatika hrvatskoga ili srpskog jezika 2 105 (Zagreb, 1954).

18 M. S. Lalević, Kategorije reči srpskohrvatskog jezika 2 57 (Belgrade, 1957).

19 Djuro Grubor, Aspektna značenja (Zagreb, 1953).

20 Rajko Hariton Ružić, ‘The aspects of the verb in Serbo-Croatian’, University of California publications in modern philology 25.54–5 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1943).

21 I am very grateful to Milan I. Surducki of the University of Toronto and to Christopher Spalatin of Marquette University for help in clarifying examples of aspectual use in Serbo-Croatian. Elizabeth Tolmachev also provided me with useful illustrations.

22 A. Belić, ‘O glagolima sa dva vida [Concerning verbs with two aspects]‘, Južnoslovenski filolog 21.1–11 (1955–56).

23 Cf. Ružić's example Poslao sam telegram 'I sent a telegram' as a substitute for ja sam telegrafirao ‘I telegraphed’. This substitution appears in a few of the examples I have gathered from native speakers. It also occurs in Russian, according to I. M. Pul'kina and E. B. Zaxava-Nekrasova, Učebnik russkogo jazyka dlja studentov-inostrancev 2 386 (Moscow, 1960), especially when the meaning is perfective, e.g. Včera ja dal telegrammi!, ‘Yesterday I sent a telegram’ instead of Včer ja telegrafiroval, and Zavtra ja dam telegramma ‘Tomorrow I'll send a telegram’ instead of Zavtra ja telegrafiruju.