1. Laura A. Janda UNC-Chapel Hill janda@unc.edu, www.unc.edu/~lajanda
"Beyond the pair: integrating aspect and actionality in a model of Russian verbal derivation"
Laura A. Janda
UNC-Chapel Hill

2. The Russian aspectual system:
All verbs and all forms of all verbs are marked for either Perfective or Imperfective aspect
(Exception: a small set of biaspectual verbs lacks overt marking, but aspect is always disambiguated in context)
Perfective and Imperfective will be marked with superscript “p” and “i”
For example: писатьi ‘write’, написатьp ‘write’, пописатьp ‘write for a while’, переписатьp ‘rewrite’, переписыватьi ‘rewrite’, etc.

3. Problem: Model of aspectual “pairs” has a long tradition:
Vinogradov 1938, Šaxmatov 1941, Bondarko 1983, Čertkova 1996, Zaliznjak & Šmelev 2000, Timberlake 2004
Suspicions that aspectual relationships involve more complex clusters have arisen:
Isačenko 1960, Bertinetto & Delfitto 2000, Tatevosov 2002, Janda forthcoming

4. Solution:
There is a single implicational hierarchy that predicts all and only the aspectual clusters that exist in Russian.
This result is based on a empirical study of a multiply stratified sample of 283 verb clusters (including over 2000 verbs).

5. Overview:
Three metaphors govern the Russian aspectual system, based on: properties of matter, motion, granularity
These metaphors motivate the derivation of four different types of perfective verbs
These metaphors interact to motivate the structure of aspectual clusters of Russian verbs

6. The three metaphors
Solid vs. Substance => Perfective vs. Imperfective
Travel vs. Motion => Construal of Completability
Granular vs. Fluid => Construal of Singularizability

7. Travel vs. Motion One can travel to a destination
or –
One can move without a destination
This distinction is grammaticalized in Russian motion verbs: идтиi ‘walk (somewhere)’ vs. ходитьi ‘walk (around, back and forth)’
This can be likened to the Completability of an action

8. Completability:
Писатель пишетi книгу.
‘The writer is writing a book.’
Профессор работаетi в университете.
‘The professor is working at the university.’
Note that Completability is a scale involving various kinds of construal.

9. Completability: Many verbs are Ambiguous:
Completable
Писатель пишетi книгу ‘A writer is writing a book’
Non-Completable
Писатель пишетi книги ‘A writer writes books’
Some verbs are Non-Completable: стонатьi ‘moan’
But some can be Completable if specialized
работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’
Few verbs are unambiguously Completable:
крепнутьi > окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’

10. What Completability means for aspectual derivation:
Only verbs that can be construed as Completable have Natural Perfectives
писатьi ‘write’ > написатьp ‘write’, крепнутьi ‘get stronger’ > окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’
Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable have Complex Act Perfectives
писатьi ‘write’> пописатьp ‘write a while’, стонатьi ‘moan’> постонатьp ‘moan a while’, работатьi ‘work’> поработатьp ‘work a while’
Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives
писатьi ‘write’> переписатьp ‘rewrite’, работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’

11. Granular vs. Fluid: Substances can be: Particulate, like sand
Continuous, like water
This can be likened to Singularizability of an action

12. Singularizability: Мальчик дулi на одуванчик.
‘The boy was blowing on the dandelion.’
Мальчик дунулp на одуванчик.
‘The boy blew once on the dandelion.’
Профессор работалi в университете.
‘The professor was working at the university.’

13. What Singularizability means for aspectual derivation:
Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable and have a Complex Act can also have a Single Act Perfective:
щипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’ + пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’ > щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’
дутьi ‘blow’ + подутьp ‘blow a while’ > дунутьp ‘blow once’
скрипетьi ‘squeak’ + поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’ > скрипнутьp ‘squeak once’
работатьi ‘work’ + поработатьp ‘work a while’ > *работнутьp ‘work once’ [NB: Some are formed ad-hoc]

14. Summary thus far:
Two metaphors distinguish four different types of Perfectives:
Natural Perfectives
писатьi ‘write’ > написатьp ‘write’
Specialized Perfectives
работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’
Complex Act Perfectives
стонатьi ‘moan’> постонатьp ‘moan a while’
Single Act Perfectives
дутьi ‘blow’ + подутьp ‘blow a while’ > дунутьp ‘blow once’

15. Definition:
An aspectual cluster is a group of verbs joined via transitive relationships on the basis of aspectual derivational morphology
All verbs in a cluster are aspectually related to a single lexical item
In addition to Imperfective Activity verbs, an aspectual cluster can include all four types of Perfective verbs:
Natural Perfective, Specialized Perfective, Complex Act, Single Act

16. Distribution of the four types of Perfectives:
Natural Perfective:
написатьp ‘write’, связатьp ‘tie’, о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’, окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’
Specialized Perfective:
переписатьp ‘rewrite’, развязатьp ‘untie’, переработатьp ‘revise’, вдутьp ‘blow in’, выщипатьp ‘pluck out’
Complex Act:
пописатьp ‘write a while’, поработатьp ‘work a while’, подутьp ‘blow a while’, пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’
Single Act:
дунутьp ‘blow once’, щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнутьp ‘squeak once’

17. Cluster components:
Five items (Imperfective Activity + four types of Perfectives) can compose 31 different combinations, but only 12 cluster types are attested
The three metaphors motivate an Implicational Hierarchy that constrains the structure of aspectual clusters

18. The Implicational Hierarchy:
Activity
щипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’
> (Natural/Specialized Perfective)
о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’/выщипатьp ‘pluck out’
> Complex Act
пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’
> Single Act
щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’

19. Extant verb clusters Activity Activity + Natural Perfective
Activity + Specialized Perfective
Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective
To any of the above one can add either:
…+ Complex Act
…+ Complex Act + Single Act
Total: 12 extant cluster types

20. What the hierarchy excludes:
18 unattested cluster types
1 cluster type that is rare, but known to exist:
Natural Perfective (perfectiva tantum)
рухнутьp ‘collapse’, уцелетьp ‘survive’
morphologically complex, probably remnants of clusters that were historically larger

21. Distribution of extant cluster types:
Three cluster types account for over half the verbs in the lexicon
Activity+Natural+Specialized+Complex Act
Like писатьi ‘write’
Activity+Natural+Specialized
Like вязатьi ‘tie’
Activity+Specialized+Complex Act
Like работатьi ‘work’
Five cluster types follow, each representing less than 10% of verbs
Remaining cluster types are rare (2% or less)

22. Comparison with “pair” model:
Activity + Natural Perfective type accounts for only 6.4%, and is a semantically unusual group (can be continued after result is achieved):
Иван окреп. Потом он еще больше окреп.
‘Ivan got stronger. Then he got even stronger.’
Иван написал книгу. *Потом он еще больше написал книгу.
‘Ivan wrote a book. *Then he wrote the book even more.’
Most attested cluster structures have 3-5 components
The three most common cluster structures have 3 or 4 components

23. Conclusions:
The cluster model gives a richer, more accurate account of aspectual relationships than the “pair” model.
Cluster structures are highly constrained and transparently motivated.
Both linguists and pedagogs should describe aspectual relationships in terms of clusters.