DOI: 10.18710/ohpupu/xhun3c
title: Ch6data.csv

description: Aspectual Triplets: An aspectual triplet is a set of three verbs, consisting of a simplex verb, a prefixed Natural Perfective, and a secondary imperfective derived via suffixation of the Natural Perfective. All three verbs have the same lexical meaning and the members of a triplet set differ from each other primarily in terms of aspect. An example is the triplet set множиться/množit’sja (simplex imperfective), умножиться/u-množit’sja (prefixed Natural Perfective), умножaться/u-množat’sja (secondary imperfective, with the suffix -a). All three verbs mean ‘multiply’. Triplets, like prefix variation explored in Chapter 5, present a challenge to the “pair” model of Russian aspect. The “pair” model assumes that Russian verbs are organized aspectually into pairs with a single imperfective verb and a single perfective verb. Prefix variation contradicts the “pair” model because many imperfective simplex verbs have two or more perfective partner verbs. Triplets show us that in addition, many perfective verbs have not one, but two imperfective partner verbs. We explore whether triplets are a marginal phenomenon or they are widespread. Methodology of this study: The "Exploring Emptiness” database lists 1,981 prefixed Natural Perfectives for Russian formed from 1,429 simplex imperfectives. This is the most comprehensive list of Natural Perfectives available, aggregated from two authoritative dictionaries and a list (see description). Using the three imperfectivizing suffixes -ыва/-ивa, -вa, and -а/-я, we formed hypothetical secondary imperfectives for all 1,981 Natural Perfectives. We then conducted searches for all of the hypothetical secondary imperfectives in both the Russian National Corpus (RNC) and the Google search engine. Because we know in advance that all of the Natural Perfectives in our database have corresponding simplex imperfectives, every instance where we find a secondary imperfective means that we have evidence of an aspectual triplet. Findings of this study: 753 of our 1,981 hypothetical secondary imperfectives are attested in the Russian National Corpus. Many of these are of low frequency: 230 are found in from two to nine examples, and 122 are found in only one example. In terms of percentages, 38% of the hypothetical secondary imperfectives exist in the Russian National Corpus. 12% of the possible secondary imperfectives are of low frequency, and 6% are attested only once. But 20% (401) of the theoretically possible secondary imperfectives are attested in ten or more examples. Google searches yielded even more aspectual triplets. 1,583 (80%) of the possible secondary perfectives were found. 171 (8%) are of low frequency (two to nine examples), and 92 (5%) turned up only once, but 1,320 (67%) are attested ten or more times. We found many times more aspectual triplets than previous scholars have reported. Indeed, it appears that the aspectual triplet phenomenon has been underestimated by an entire order of magnitude. Aspectual triplets are anything but marginal. Some of them are of low frequency, but there are many that are relatively common. Full list of verbs in this study A full list of triplets analyzed in Chapter 6 is shown here. The table is structured as follows. The first three columns show a simplex verb, a prefixed Natural Perfective, and a secondary imperfective derived via suffixation of the Natural Perfective. The fourth column presents the gloss for the triplet. The next three columns show raw frequencies of a simplex verb, a prefixed Natural Perfective, and a secondary imperfective in the modern subpart (&gt;1950) of the RNC respectively. The last column shows the number of attestations for the secondary imperfective found in Google in year 2010.