Russian Declension and Conjugation Chapter 8: Imperfective derivation

Discussion points Where’s the content? –I would argue that prefixes are NEVER just grammatical or semantically empty; surface form is there for a reason How big is your paradigm? –Imperfective derivation has been argued to be a part of inflection by some, derivation by others; I think it is derivation myself

More terminology for verbs Simplex -- this is a verb that doesn’t have any aspectual affixes (prefixes or suffixes), eg. писа  ть, да  ть Prefixed (or suffixed in NU) perfective -- this is a verb that has been derived from a simplex verb to create a new perfective, eg. подписа  ть, вы  дать Suffixed imperfective -- this is a verb suffixed in - aj+, -vaj+, or -ivaj+, eg. подпи  сывать, выдава  ть

Some happy news about derived imperfectives We don’t have to worry about stress! It’s always fixed! They are all the same verb type, and it’s an easy one: AJ!

Some sad news about derived imperfectives The distribution of imperfectivizing suffixes is complex (see chart on back of Townsend book) E takes all three suffixes (-aj+ and -ivaj+ like I, which has the same conjugation; and -vaj+ like EJ)

Some rules of thumb for I verbs -aj+ for Church Slavonic roots, and Church Slavonic mutations apply: прекрати  ть, прекраща  ть -ivaj+ if the root ends in a j: устро  ить, устра  ивать

What does “non-syllabic” entail? Name all the types of non-syllabic verbal stems that will insert an -i- when forming the derived imperfective. Give an example of each!

What does “non-syllabic” entail? R: утере  ть, утира  ть M/N: пожа  ть, пожима  ть N,M: поня  ть, понима  ть NIM: сня  ть, снима  ть ns-A: вы  брать, выбира  ть Non-syllabic obstruents: сже  чь, сжига  ть; сче  сть, счита  ть Non-syllabic roots before NU: прильну  ть, прилипа  ть, замкну  ть, замыка  ть

Some more notes and oddities Lots of random hardenings and softenings when imperfectivizing E verbs… All suffixes except OVA truncate before the imperfectivizing suffixes Root vowel o > a before -ivaj+: уговори  ть, угова  ривать

o > e in verbal roots Infinitives of obstruent stems: т ё к, те  чь Nonpast of some A stems (where stem final consonant is softened or mutated): прич ё сан, приче  шут Past active participle and past gerund of some D/T verbs: приве  дший (but note exceptions: м ё тший, пл ё тший, сч ё тший) Fill vowel after a prefix is always spelled o