Constructing Perfectivity in Russian

This work deals with one particular way of deriving§perfective verbs §in Russian, namely, prefixation. §Prefixes are not a uniform morphological class; they§are divided into §lexical and superlexical. The former readily attach§to transitive and §unaccusative verbs, whereas the latter mostly§co-occur with §unergative verbs. However, it is not immediately§clear what factor is §crucial in selecting a type of prefix: the argument§structure or the §aspectual characteristic of an imperfective verb it§attaches to. §Motion verbs, which also come in two varieties, help§to clarify the §mechanism at work. Both types of motion verb are§imperfective. §This split in imperfectivity seems to determine§quantificational §properties of such superlexical prefixes as§accumulative na- and §distributive pere-, discussed and analysed here. The§proposed §analysis can be extended to other superlexicals as well.§§In general, this work is an attempt at creating a§multidimensional §picture of verbal prefixation in Russian, which is§just a language-§specific representation of the universal phenomena on§the syntax-§semantics interface: resultative predication,§argument structure, §directionality and aspect.