Whenever you try to write a linguistic rule in just a few words, you end up compressing a lot of meaning into those words. By "point of discourse" the rule has in mind "from the point of view of the time of the narrative." So in an example like «Папа позавтракает и пойдёт на работу», the event позавтракает is completed before the action of пойдёт.Originally Posted by chaika
The perfective/imperfective distinctions are among the trickiest for non-native speakers, particularly the общефактическое значение несовершенного вида. Trying to come up with words that will make sense to English-speaking students is quite difficult. I really appreciate what the authors of the "three conditions" rule have done, but the rule does take some explaining to say what they have in mind.
Oh, one other thing. There is no such thing as "perfective present" in Russian. There is perfective past tense. There is perfective future tense. The imperfective vs. perfective system is asymmetical in the present tense, having only an imperfective.
All the best, Don.



LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks




Reply With Quote
