За двувидовите глаголи в българския език
About biaspectual verbs in Bulgarian

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses two groups of verbs in the Bulgarian language (primary imperfectives and denominal derivatives in -iram/-iziram, -uvam/-ovam), morphologically uncharacterized w.r.t. aspect and without suffixal aspectual correlates. In classical theories of aspect they are traditionally interpreted as biaspectual – i.e. verbs which, depending on their nominal and adverbial environment, function in certain conditions as imperfectives, in others – as perfectives. We have chosen, as a theoretical starting point to the analysis of such verbs, the theory of aspect of St. Karolak, where aspect is interpreted as a conceptual (universal) category, the aspectual component being an inherent constituent of the lexical meaning of the verb – that is to say, a specific aspectual concept cannot be subjected to transformation and elimination. Such an approach makes it possible to demonstrate that the concept of “biaspectual verb” in the above-defined sense is untenable and has no heuristic value. The analysis of the verbs from the two differentiated groups proves that, independently of their formal similarity, the verbs belonging to them relate to different aspectual classes and are the markers of aspectual structures, which are non-identical in character and in degree of complexity. It is necessary to point out that the aspectual oppositions in such verbs are achieved within their stems (present, imperfect vs aorist; present vs present), where it is possible to observe a semantic derivation and increase in complexity of the aspectual structure along with a change in the hierarchy between components, without this taking place in the manner typical of the Slavonic languages – by means of aspectual suffixes. Precisely this is the reason why such verbs are treated as “biaspectual”.

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