Verbal aspect in Old Church Slavonic

Kamphuis, J. (2016)

Doctoral Thesis

This study treats the verbal aspect system in Old Church Slavonic. A proper analysis of the aspect system in Old Church Slavonic can contribute to a better understanding of verbal aspect in the modern Slavic languages and the development of aspect in Slavic.
In this study, it is demonstrated that the verbal aspect system in Old Church Slavonic can best be described if one categorizes the verbs into three main categories: perfective, imperfective and anaspectual. This differs from the traditional division into perfective and imperfective verbs only. To support this categorization, the study contains over 300 examples. The semantic analysis of these examples shows, amongst others, that within the typology of Slavic aspect, verbal aspect in Old Church Slavonic functions more like verbal aspect in the Western group of Slavic languages (e.g. Czech) than like that in the Eastern group (e.g. Russian). The Eastern group can therefore be regarded as the more innovative group, while the Western group is the more conservative.
The study also discusses the role the imperfect tense possibly plays in the development of derived imperfective verbs and, through that, in the development of the perfective-imperfective aspect opposition in Slavic.

• Verbal aspect
• Old Church Slavonic
• Anaspectual
• Morphology
• Imperfective
• Perfective
• Imperfect

• All authors: Kamphuis, J.
• Supervisor: Schaeken, J.
• Co-supervisor: Fortuin, E.L.J.
• Committee: Dickey, S.M.; Janda, L.A.; Barentsen, A.A.; Lubotsky, A.M.; Verhagen, A.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2016-12-07