Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic
This study examines variation in the use and interpretation of the perfective (<i>pfv</i>) aspect in negated past tense contexts across East Slavic and selected West and Southwest Slavic languages. Unlike West and Southwest Slavic, where the <i>pfv</i> + neg in past tense con...
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2025-04-01
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| author | Dorota Klimek-Jankowska Alberto Frasson Piotr Gulgowski |
| author_facet | Dorota Klimek-Jankowska Alberto Frasson Piotr Gulgowski |
| author_sort | Dorota Klimek-Jankowska |
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| description | This study examines variation in the use and interpretation of the perfective (<i>pfv</i>) aspect in negated past tense contexts across East Slavic and selected West and Southwest Slavic languages. Unlike West and Southwest Slavic, where the <i>pfv</i> + neg in past tense contexts allows for an interpretation denying the existence of the event at any past time, East Slavic uniquely interprets the <i>pfv</i> 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 <i>pfv</i> 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 <i>pfv</i> aspect in East Slavic parallels the semantics of specific indefinites in the nominal domain. The aspect head introduces a temporal variable <i>t</i>, which, via a choice function, restricts the domain of existential quantification over <i>t</i> to a singleton set, presupposing the existence of <i>t,</i> which cannot be canceled by high negation. Consequently, in negated <i>pfv</i> 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. |
| format | Article |
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| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
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| spelling | doaj-art-5eba0f7e3c1c4348bd38e319e4b58eb72025-08-20T02:18:03ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2025-04-011047810.3390/languages10040078Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across SlavicDorota Klimek-Jankowska0Alberto Frasson1Piotr Gulgowski2Center for Corpus and Experimental Research on Slavic Languages ‘Slavicus’, University of Wrocław, 50-137 Wrocław, PolandCenter for Corpus and Experimental Research on Slavic Languages ‘Slavicus’, University of Wrocław, 50-137 Wrocław, PolandInstitute of English Philology, University of Wrocław, 50-137 Wrocław, PolandThis study examines variation in the use and interpretation of the perfective (<i>pfv</i>) aspect in negated past tense contexts across East Slavic and selected West and Southwest Slavic languages. Unlike West and Southwest Slavic, where the <i>pfv</i> + neg in past tense contexts allows for an interpretation denying the existence of the event at any past time, East Slavic uniquely interprets the <i>pfv</i> 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 <i>pfv</i> 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 <i>pfv</i> aspect in East Slavic parallels the semantics of specific indefinites in the nominal domain. The aspect head introduces a temporal variable <i>t</i>, which, via a choice function, restricts the domain of existential quantification over <i>t</i> to a singleton set, presupposing the existence of <i>t,</i> which cannot be canceled by high negation. Consequently, in negated <i>pfv</i> 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.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/4/78negationperfective aspectpast tenseEast SlavicWest SlavicSouthwest Slavic |
| spellingShingle | Dorota Klimek-Jankowska Alberto Frasson Piotr Gulgowski Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic Languages negation perfective aspect past tense East Slavic West Slavic Southwest Slavic |
| title | Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic |
| title_full | Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic |
| title_fullStr | Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic |
| title_short | Aspectual Variation in Negated Past Tense Contexts Across Slavic |
| title_sort | aspectual variation in negated past tense contexts across slavic |
| topic | negation perfective aspect past tense East Slavic West Slavic Southwest Slavic |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/4/78 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dorotaklimekjankowska aspectualvariationinnegatedpasttensecontextsacrossslavic AT albertofrasson aspectualvariationinnegatedpasttensecontextsacrossslavic AT piotrgulgowski aspectualvariationinnegatedpasttensecontextsacrossslavic |