Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site osu-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!cbosgd!apr!osu-eddie!allen From: allen@osu-eddie.UUCP (John Allen) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Slavic aspects (Russian Motion Verbs) Message-ID: <444@osu-eddie.UUCP> Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 16:24:29 EDT Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.444 Posted: Wed Jul 10 16:24:29 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 04:01:14 EDT References: <10394@rochester.UUCP> Organization: Ohio State Univ., CIS Dept., Cols, Oh. Lines: 76 > I believe some of the less common Slavic > aspects show up much more often in Russian. (There are entire > dictionaries devoted to nothing but Russian verbs of motion, because > they are so irregular!) > Stu Friedberg {seismo, allegra}!rochester!stuart stuart@rochester The Russian verbs of motion are not at all irregular (well not very anyhow). They are completely consistent within this group of verbs and are very similar to the other verbs of Russian. They only look irregular because they often have stems that end in consonants and because they require a distinction which is meaningless for other verbs. All Russian verbs have a perfective/imperfective pair. The perfective has only a past and a future which are formed similarly to the Czech verbs; the imperfective has a past, present, and future which, again, are formed similarly to those in Czech. The verbs of motion differ in that the imperfective can be expressed with either of two verbs which are often labelled determinate/indeterminate. So, each verb of motion has three different verbs associated with it. For example. IMPERFECTIVE PERFECTIVE INDETERMINATE DETERMINATE khodit' idti pojti `walk, go' plavat' plyt' poplyt' `swim' nosit' nesti ponesti `carry by hand' vozit' vezti povezti `carry by vehicle' . . . [I'm not positive about all of the forms, but the general idea is there] The difference between the use of the determinate and the indeterminate is very hard to describe completely. In very simple terms the determinate is used for "uni-directional" motion. That is, motion in one direction towards a specific goal. In practice, the motion doesn't have to be one direction, but does have to be towards a specific goal. Ya shel v magazin. `I was going to the store [ but I stopped at library, the newspaper stand, the high school, etc.]' [ shel is the (masc.) past form of idti] The motion is not in one direction, but is towards the specific goal of reaching the store (eventually). The indeterminate is used for "multi-directional". This can be split into several different subgroups 1) Repeated action. Kazhdyj den', ya khozhu v universitet. `Every day, I walk to the university.' 2) Habitual action. Ya khozhu v universitet. `[In general] I walk to school.' 3) Round trips. Ya khodil v magazin. `I went to the store[, but now I'm back].' 4) Ability. Moj syn khodet. `My son is walking (can walk). In truth the choice between determinate/indeterminate is much more complicated, but these guidelines are very useful for most practical purposes. I hope this helps. John Allen Ohio State University (UUCP: cbosgd!osu-eddie!allen) (CSNet: allen@ohio-state)