Quote Originally Posted by grafrich View Post
The information I had about use of perfective/imperfective with negated verbs goes like this:-

'Aspects in the negative
Using the negative with perfective verbs indicates the person failed to do that action. Using the imperfective will normally simply mean that it didn’t happen
Я не позвонила - I failed to phone (perfective) (but I was expected to)
Я не звонила - I didn’t phone. (imperfective)'

Which seems a bit obscure to me.
Well... since the idea of "to be expected to do" is not a direct part of the grammatical meaning of the Russian aspect, there can be some patterns, but no strict rules.

As far as I can see, there is nothing special about negated "expected" actions. The same patterns can be applied to affirmative and interrogative sentences too.

So, both aspects can be used in the following examples:
Ты звонила/позвонила ему?
Ты говорила/поговорила с ним?
Ты ходила/сходила к нему?

But the perfective should be preferred here:
Ты приготовила ужин?
Ты убрала комнату?
Ты выкинула мусор?
Ты прочитала книгу?
Ты договорилась с ним о встрече?

Why?
I guess, the key difference is that the latter sentences are more direct. They directly indicate an action and the action's result. If a person приготовила ужин, the dinner is here and we can eat it. The dinner is either perfectively приготовлен or not, so the aspect makes the difference. Even if we know that she готовила ужин, we still can have nothing to eat.
So... we use perfective when we talk about a specific result of a specific single action. No news, it is just how perfective normally works.

At the same time, Ты звонила/позвонила ему? tells nothing about the expected result. Expected results are just implied:
Ты звонила ему? (и конечно договорилась с ним о встрече?)
Ты ходила в магазин? (и конечно купила всё необходимое?)
Ты говорила с заказчиком? (и конечно вы решили все спорные вопросы?)
We talk about some action or process, and we expecting some result. But the result is not connected directly to the action mentioned. So nothing prevents us from using an imperfective verb.