A birelational analysis of the Russian imperfective

Abstract

This paper provides two puzzles for a theory of aspect. The first concerns the quirky behavior of the Russian imperfective with regard to its culmination properties: it seems to function like the perfect aspect in certain cases, but like the progressive in others. The other puzzle concerns how the Russian imperfective constrains the temporal location of a described event: it relates distinct event parts to a given temporal parameter. Which part is at play depends on how this parameter is specified. If it is specified by an adverbial, then an event is located in time. If it is specified by the discourse context, then a consequent state is located in time. I solve the former puzzle by appealing to the structure of atomic vs. non-atomic events and solve the latter by appealing to two temporal inputs required by an aspectual marker. These inputs reveal that aspectual meaning involves both temporal information and information about discourse connectivity.