Aoristische Reste im modernen Russischen

Thomas Daiber

The use of imperative forms (e. g. случись какое-то дело) and of so-called "abbreviated verbs" (e. g. она хвать его) as finite preterite verb-forms in oral Russian is well known. This article argues again for the need to classify such forms as functional continuations of older aorist forms, which became homophonic with either an imperative, or an infinitive form. Furthermore it is shown, that subjunctive constructions like Приди я на десять минут раньше, ничего бы не случилось are explanable by referring to an underlying aorist meaning, too.

Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XI. JungslavistInnen-Treffen Cambridge 2002. Hg. Björn Hansen. München: Sagner 2004 (= Specimina Philologiae Slavicae 140), 9–30.