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The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains

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A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2024) | Viewed by 15560

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Karolina Zuchewicz

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Guest Editor

Institute of Slavic Studies, Universität Leipzig, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
Interests: semantics and pragmatics of aspect; clausal embedding

Dr. Petr Biskup

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Guest Editor

Institute of Slavic Studies, Universität Leipzig, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
Interests: syntax; morphosyntax; aspect; information structure; prepositions; adverbials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is devoted to “The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains” workshop that was held between the 6th and 8th of November 2023 at the Universität Leipzig.

We invite contributions related to the above topic. We welcome research on both Slavic and non-Slavic languages. Besides addressing the ‘typical’ (taking it from the Slavic perspective) marking of aspectual distinctions in verbs, we welcome contributions that aim to include other grammatical domains relevant to the expression of aspectual distinctions. The following topics are of high relevance:

- Aspectual composition in Slavic and/or non-Slavic languages;

- Aspectual markers in Slavic and/or non-Slavic languages;

- Experimental methods in investigating aspectual meanings;

- Aspectual analogies between verbs and nouns and between verbal and non-verbal categories in general;

- Aspectual meanings in language comparison;

- Verbal affixes and clausal complementation.

Tentative Completion Schedule
Abstract Submission Deadline: 20 February 2024
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 20 March 2024
Full Manuscript Deadline: 20 November 2024

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors (karolina.zuchewicz@uni-leipzig.de, biskup@rz.uni-leipzig.de, reichau@uni-leipzig.de) or to the Languages Editorial Office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process.

Prof. Dr. Karolina Zuchewicz
Dr. Petr Biskup
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

aspectual composition
aspectual markers
aspectual analogies
aspect and clausal embedding
experimental methods

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 817 KB

Open AccessArticle

Compositional Incrementality Based on Polish Reveal-Type Verbs and Verbal Nouns

by Karolina Zuchewicz

Languages 2026, 11(3), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11030052 - 16 Mar 2026

Viewed by 353

Abstract

This article focuses on the realization of incrementality in Polish verbal and nominal constructions. The object of investigation is clause-embedding reveal-type concepts like ‘prove’, ‘reveal’, or ‘show’. In Slavic languages, incremental relations have traditionally been examined in direct relation to (im)perfectivity, with imperfective verbs enforcing partial affectedness of events and objects, and perfective verbs enforcing their total affectedness. In the present paper, I take a closer look at the incremental output within the reveal-type concept. I investigate whether an incremental event comes with a fixed incremental path that remains intact independently of any morphological or syntactic modifications. My research question is: Is an incremental feature specified in the lexicon as is the aspectual value ‘(im)perfective’, or does it rather arise compositionally? To answer this question, I analyze the impact of the dative argument and the nominalization on the incremental output of clause-embedding reveal-type predicates. I demonstrate that incremental meanings are affected by the properties of an entire construction. Based on that, I propose to distinguish between two types of incrementality: the non-modifiable (im)perfectivity-dependent partial and total integration requirement, and the compositional incrementality that arises as an interplay between lexical semantics, argument structure, and the morphological shape of the respective lexeme. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

62 pages, 797 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Relation of Slavic Verb Prefixes to Perfective Aspect

by Hana Filip

Languages 2026, 11(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11010005 - 26 Dec 2025

Viewed by 1613

Abstract

This paper advances two main theses: The first overarching thesis is that the Slavic perfective/imperfective distinction is predominantly of a lexical-derivational nature. Among the categories of the tense–modality–aspect (TMA) system, Slavic aspect systems represent marginal categories, rather than core ones, which are realized by means of inflectional morphology. The second, and related, thesis concerns the status of Slavic verb prefixes in Slavic aspect systems, given that prefixed verbs constitute the bulk of their perfective verbs. I will provide some arguments, also defended elsewhere, that Slavic verb prefixes are not perfective markers, e.g., do not spell out a functional head/feature in the dedicated aspect structure, as is often assumed in syntactic theories of aspect, and neither do they carry a uniform semantic function for the interpretation of perfective aspect. Instead, Slavic verb prefixes are best treated as separate from perfectivity, on both formal and semantic grounds. This separation, however, does not mean that the two are unrelated. Here, the semantics of perfectivity is represented by means of the maximalization operator (max_e). The most fundamental requirement for its application, and for any maximalization operator for that matter, is that it respect some ordering criterion. It is the role of Slavic verb prefixes to contribute to its specification. They do so by virtue of having common uses/meanings that can be analyzed as extensive or intensive measure functions or vague quantifiers over arguments of verbs to which they are attached. Such meanings are reducible to a uniform scalar-based representation, from which the requisite ordering criterion can be extracted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

28 pages, 1964 KB

Open AccessArticle

Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb and Its Nominal Analogies

by Petr Biskup

Languages 2025, 10(11), 274; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10110274 - 29 Oct 2025

Viewed by 1178

Abstract

It has been argued that there are analogies between the nominal domain and the verbal domain in natural languages. Most approaches dealing with these analogies in Slavic languages investigate them from the semantic and aspectual points of view. In contrast to them, this article focuses on morphosyntactic parallels. It investigates all five aspectual markers of verbal predicates: prefixes, the secondary imperfective, the semelfactive morpheme, the iterative -a and the habitual suffix. The analysis follows the Distributed Morphology framework. This article addresses the question of which morphosyntactic correspondences these aspectual markers have in the nominal domain. It is argued that the iterative secondary imperfective is a parallel of the nominal number projection and that the habitual morpheme in North Slavic languages is the counterpart of the nominal determiner. Verbal prefixes are analogous to nominal classifiers, and in addition, lexical prefixes parallel the nominal complement, and superlexical prefixes correspond to adjectival modifiers of the nominal domain. The internal iterative -a, as a spell-out of the verbal categorizing head, is analogous to the categorizing head of nouns. Thus, it is argued that Slavic also has event-internal and event-external pluractional markers. The semelfactive morpheme parallels the singulative (diminutive) marker of the nominal domain, and we argue that these markers adjoin to the root before the categorizing head. This argues against the standard claim that semelfactives are derived from iteratives (multiplicatives). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

36 pages, 614 KB

Open AccessArticle

Iterative/Semelfactive = Collective/Singulative? Parallels in Slavic

by Marcin Wągiel

Languages 2025, 10(9), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10090203 - 22 Aug 2025

Viewed by 1640

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss a topic concerning part–whole structures in the nominal and verbal domain. Specifically, I will address the question of whether there is a universal mechanism for the individuation of entities and events by exploring parallels between singulatives and semelfactives in Slavic. Singulatives are derived unit nouns, whereas semelfactives are punctual verbs that describe a brief event which culminates by returning to the initial state. Cross-linguistically, singulative morphology often alternates with collective marking, whereas semelfactives alternate with iteratives. Collectives and iteratives describe homogenous groupings of entities and events, respectively. From a conceptual perspective, both singulatives and semelfactives individuate to the effect of singular bounded unit reference and in the literature, the parallel between the mass count/distinction and aspect has often been drawn. In Slavic, singulative and semelfactive morphologies share a component; specifically, both markers involve a nasal -n and a vocalic component, e.g., compare Russian gorox ‘peas (as a mass)’ ∼goroš-in-a ‘a pea’ and prygať ‘to jump (repeatedly)’ ∼ pryg-nu-ť ‘to jump once’. I will argue that the singulative -in and semelfactive -nu are complex and both involve the very same -n, which denotes a declustering atomizer modeled in mereotopological terms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

29 pages, 532 KB

Open AccessArticle

Aspect Architecture in Bulgarian: Morphology and Semantics

by Hagen Pitsch

Languages 2025, 10(5), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10050091 - 24 Apr 2025

Viewed by 1849

Abstract

The present paper addresses the aspectual categories of modern Bulgarian: viewpoint aspect (imperfective vs. perfective), temporal aspect (imperfect vs. aorist), and perfect aspect. More precisely, it concerns their morphological encoding, hierarchical relation, semantic contributions, and interaction. Within a compositional interval-relational framework, the study puts forward a synthesis of existing accounts so as to capture the Bulgarian aspect system as a whole. Among other things, it reveals that ‘aorist’ is a largely illusional grammatical entity, and demonstrates how an interval-relational analysis of the perfect can solve some puzzles associated with the so-called evidential moods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

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21 pages, 2829 KB

Open AccessArticle

Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic

by Dorota Klimek-Jankowska, Alberto Frasson and Piotr Gulgowski

Languages 2025, 10(4), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040078 - 8 Apr 2025

Viewed by 1653

Abstract

This study examines variation in the use and interpretation of the perfective (pfv) aspect in negated past tense contexts across East Slavic and selected West and Southwest Slavic languages. Unlike West and Southwest Slavic, where the pfv + neg in past tense contexts allows for an interpretation denying the existence of the event at any past time, East Slavic uniquely interprets the pfv aspect in these contexts as indicating that the agent either planned but failed to realize the event or initiated it but failed to complete it. We account for this by assuming that negation operates either high (¬TP), as sentential negation, or low (¬vP), over the event domain. In East Slavic, the interaction of the pfv aspect with the past tense prevents high negation and enforces low negation, resulting in inhibited event reading. This reading implies that the event was expected or initiated but ultimately unrealized. We argue that the semantics of the pfv aspect in East Slavic parallels the semantics of specific indefinites in the nominal domain. The aspect head introduces a temporal variable t, which, via a choice function, restricts the domain of existential quantification over t to a singleton set, presupposing the existence of t, which cannot be canceled by high negation. Consequently, in negated pfv past tense contexts in East Slavic, negation scopes over the event domain giving rise to special interpretative constraints in past tense perfective contexts with negation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

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37 pages, 458 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties

by Barbara Stiebels

Languages 2025, 10(4), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040074 - 2 Apr 2025

Viewed by 1350

Abstract

One aspect of clausal embedding that has not received any specific attention in the literature is the question of whether and how derivational morphology may affect clausal selection properties of the respective bases. In this paper, I will focus on the role of German preverbs for clausal embedding. I will show that any parameter of clausal embedding can be affected by a preverb, though sometimes in a non-compositional way. Preverbs may affect presuppositions and entailments of their base verb, their selectional behavior with respect to clause types, their status as control or raising predicate and their potential for restructuring. Furthermore, preverbs may license or block neg-raising. The first part of the paper is dedicated to the demonstration of these effects with no specific preverb in mind. The second part discusses three specific preverb patterns with zu- ‘to’, ein- ‘in’ and er-, showing their specific clausal complementation properties. Preverbs influence clausal complementation by their impact on the argument structure/realization (in the case of control and restructuring) and on the lexical aspect of the base (in the case of certain interrogative complements and neg-raising). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

26 pages, 412 KB

Open AccessArticle

Simplex Perfectives in Russian Verb Formation

by Olav Mueller-Reichau

Languages 2025, 10(4), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10040060 - 26 Mar 2025

Viewed by 1262

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of simplex perfectives in the Russian aspectual system, which are known to display a number of characteristics that seem to escape a proper theoretical treatment. It is proposed that simplex perfective roots (like reš- or bros-) share with internally prefixed base predicates (like napis- or pročit-) a maximal path in their event descriptions. The two classes of predicates differ from each other, however, in that only the latter require their events to realise the path up to its limit. The underspecification of so-called simplex perfectives with respect to event maximality is resolved by the choice of the different theme vowels -a or -i. A theoretical model is developed that derives the actual verb forms in accordance with their aspectual values. It implements two different morphological cycles, with theme vowel insertion demarkating the end of the first one. Early (internal) and late (external) prefixation are defined relative to this. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

17 pages, 337 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Welsh Verbal Noun

by Sabine Asmus

Languages 2025, 10(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10030043 - 27 Feb 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1855

Abstract

The verbal noun in the modern, currently spoken p-Celtic language Welsh is of a different nature than any other word class known in Standard Average European Languages (SAEs), to which the Insular Celtic tongues do not belong. This subject has occasionally attracted attention. Welsh language grammars clearly identify a berfenw ‘verb noun’, which Thomas (1996, p. 28) calls a citation form with no specific person or time allocation. However, non-Welsh descriptions of the verbal noun tend to trigger confusion by allocating varied SAE terms to it, like ‘verb noun infinitives’ (Myhill, 1985), ‘verbal noun infinitives’ (Carnie & Guilfoyle, 2000, p. 10), ‘infinitives’ (Borsley et al., 2007, p. 70), and ‘non-finite verb(al) forms’ (Sackmann, 2022, p. 2), most of them belittling the prominent nominal functions of this word class. Coming from a historical perspective, Scherschel et al. (2018) call the Welsh verbal noun an ‘event noun’, which seems more appropriate, as is shown in this paper, in which a detailed analysis of the major features of this Welsh word class is carried out. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

18 pages, 356 KB

Open AccessArticle

Aspectual Restriction on Sorting in Czech and Slovak

by Mojmír Dočekal, Michaela Hulmanová and Aviv Schoenfeld

Languages 2025, 10(3), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10030040 - 26 Feb 2025

Viewed by 1136

Abstract

This article is about the cross-linguistic universality of the so-called Universal Sorter, where a noun N means ‘kind of N’. We discuss two restrictions in two Slavic languages which are absent from English, pertaining to perfective verbs and numerically modified count nouns. We establish, first with introspective judgments (for Czech) and then experimentally (for Slovak), that both restrictions are present in a way which supports our analysis of the first restriction as stemming from Slavic, unlike English, having perfective verbs which force a completive reading of an incremental theme. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Aspectual Architecture of the Slavic Verb: Analogies in Different Languages and Other Grammatical Domains)

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