The use of the perfective present meaning present time in russian, serbo-croatian and in other slavic languages

Abstract

Whether or not the Slavic perfective present can mean present time is a question to which a number of linguists has attempted to give an answer (especially after F. Miklosich who asserted that the perfective aspect does not go with present time). Most often the answers that were proposed drew forth divergent reactions. The Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish and Czech speaking regions devoted more space to this question than other languages did. However, almost all linguists who touched upon this problem did so without drawing a parallel common to all Slavic languages, although it is obvious. Alongside a critical appraisal of the approaches to this problem up to the present date, the author presents his deliberations substantiated by his own reasearch and observations. Namely, he concludes that the action of the perfective present in the Slavic languages cannot be fixed to the present time plan. The reason the perfective present cannot be used with a present meaning is because the perfective aspect’s meaning of completeness comes in conflict with the contextual enviroment, even though that environment may engage (among other things) the moment of speech, which occurs, for instance, when this verbal form is used in negative questions or in the case of coincidence. Such use of the perfective present is conditioned by a distinct situation, namely by the context and the semantics of the used verbs. In these cases the action of the perfective present is modal and undetermined in respect to time; if the context is such that it can permit the use of this verbal form than we regularly have tension and expressiveness, that is, different modal meanings are expressed.