Malinka Pila Universität Konstanz (Univerza v Konstanci) malinka.pila@uni-konstanz.de Slavistična revija 71/1 (2023): 61–78 UDK 811.163.6'282(450.365):81'367.625 DOI 10.57589/srl.v71i1.4060 Tip 1.01 Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian The present article deals with the category of verbal aspect in Resian, a Slovene-based linguistic variety spoken close to the border with Slovenia in Val Resia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Italy. After giving a brief description of its aspectual derivational mechanism (pre- fixation, suffixation, and suppletion), I focus on the formation of aspectual units, going far beyond the traditional concept of aspect pair by including triplets and quadruplets. The aim of the article is to illustrate the functions of secondary imperfectives according to the aspect unit they belong to. Keywords: aspect lexemes, Resian, secondary imperfectives, verbal aspect Vidski leksemi in sekundarni imperfektivi v rezijanščini Prispevek obravnava kategorijo glagolskega vida v rezijanščini, slovenski manjšinski jezikovni zvrsti, ki se govori v dolini Rezija, v pokrajini Furlanija - Julijska krajina, v Italiji na meji s Slovenijo. Po kratkem opisu vidskega morfemskega nabora (prefiksacija, sufiksacija in supletivizem) se osredotočam na tvorbo aspektnih enot, ki daleč presegajo tradicionalni aspektni par ter vključujejo vidske trojčke in četverčke. Namen prispevka je prikazati funkcije sekundarnih imperfektivov glede na vidsko enoto, ki ji pripadajo. Ključne besede: vidske leksikalne enote, glagolski vid, rezijanščina, sekundarni imperfektivi 1 Introduction Resian is a Slovene-based variety of Slavic, which has been attracting the attention of scholars since the end of the 18 th century. 1 Nevertheless, the category of verbal aspect in Resian has been addressed only recently and there is still no study dedicated specifically to aspect lexemes (aspectual units) or the functions of secondary imperfectives. 2 I will focus on both of these questions. The ancestors of today’s Resians settled in Val Resia (in the former Province of Udine, in the Italian Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia) around the 10 th century, at the latest, most likely coming down from Carinthia. Resian has been in a situation of linguistic contact with Romance languages for centuries. Moreover, in its early history and in the first half of the 19 th century, Resian was influenced by South-German varieties. In contrast, contact with northern Slovene dialects has been rather weak since the 15 th century, when the connection with the Carinthian Slovene varieties was lost. Some contact remained, however, with the neighbouring Slovenian varieties, though not with standard Slovene. Despite the contact with Romance languages, 1 In the linguistic literature, Resian is usually referred to as a Slovene dialect (slovensko narečje); see, for instance, Ramovš (1935) and, more specifically, Бенаккьо (2019), on the grammaticalization of the aspect category in Resian. Duličenko, however, defines Resian as literary micro-language (Дуличенко 1981). 2 In the last few years several contributions have appeared concerning aspect morphology, for example Бенаккьо (2015), and the functions of perfective and imperfective aspect, for example Pila (2018). Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 62 where the aspect opposition is limited to indicative past tenses, and with German varieties, where it is entirely absent, the aspect category in Resian is well preserved. However, aspect units often go beyond the aspect pair by involving more than two verbs, including secondary imperfectives. The aim of this paper is to determine their role in the Resian aspect system. Resian consists of four major varieties, spoken in the villages of Bila (Bila/San Giorgio), Njiva (Njïwa/Gniva), Osojane (Osoanë/Oseacco), and Solbica (Solbica/Stolvizza), but with respect to verbal aspect no significant differ- ences have been noticed between these varieties. The material I rely on for the present research mainly consists of the interviews collected during my own field work, which cover all the above-mentioned Resian major varieties although most of the examples given in this paper come from Warkota (Bila). Nevertheless, I also consider material provided in the studies by Steenwijk (Steenwijk 1992, 2005). Moreover, to give some diachronic perspective, I include the first document written in Resian, a collection of two catechisms from the 18 th century (Baudouin de Courtenay 1894). 3 2 The Resian aspect system Like all other Slavic languages, Resian is endowed with the grammatical category of aspect , expressing an opposition of perfectivity mainly by means of aspect pairs, that is, two lexically “identical” verbs with different aspects (ipfv : pfv ); see §3. The perfective member is used to convey a completed action, while the imperfective member can express either a state or an ongoing or repeated action. As for the formation of aspect pairs, Resian has already been shown to share the same derivational mechanisms as the other Slavic languages (Benacchio, Steenwijk 2017; Бенаккьо 2018b). These are prefixation, e.g. prät.ipfv ⇒ oprät.pfv ‘to wash (clothes)’; “primary” suffixation, where an imperfective verb is derived from a per- fective simplex, e.g. dät.pfv ⇒ dajat.ipfv ‘to give’; “secondary” suffixation, where an imperfective verb is formed from a prefixed perfective, e.g. zledat.pfv (from gledat ‘to look’) ⇒ zlidüwat.ipfv ‘to count’; and suppletion, e.g. ǵat.ipfv : rićet.pfv ‘to say’. Prefixation is always perfectivizing, whereas suffixation is generally imperfectivizing, with the only exception being the perfectivizing suffix -n(u/e)-. Mostly for actional reasons, Resian has imperfectiva and perfectiva tantum, too, e.g., respectively, tižët ‘to have a certain weight’ and se vismëjat ‘to laugh a lot / to death’. Some verbs, such as čot ‘to hear’ and vïdët ‘to see’, are biaspectual. 2.1 Prefixation and suffixation with -n(u/e)- As mentioned above, in the derivational chain, perfective verbs are derived from imperfectives mostly by means of prefixation. According to Benacchio and Steenwijk (2017: 26-32), Resian has the following prefixes: z-/s-, w-, po-/pu-, za-, na-, pri-, par-, (w)o-/(w)ob-/u-/ub-/w-, riz-/riž-, vi-, (w)od-, pod-/pud-/put-, pro-, do-/du-. 3 In the examples below, I use the original spelling in quotations. Elsewhere the orthographical systems developed by Steenwijk (1994) are used, according to the variety in question. Infinitives used as base forms are usually given in standard Resian orthography. 63 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian From a diachronic point of view, the prefix wz- has to be added to this list, which is represented in only a few but very commonly used Resian verbs, especially in wzdïgnut.pfv ‘to lift’ and wzet.pfv ‘to take’, going back to the Slavic prefix *vŭz- (= *vъz-) ‘upwards’ (Vaillant 1966: 469). As shown by the given examples, contrary to the normal procedure, the prefix wz- is attached here to originally perfective verbs, respectively, *dvignǫti ‘to move, to lift’ and *jęti ‘to take’, and it somehow (redundant- ly) emphasizes their lexical meaning, without any effects on its aspectual properties (i.e. the verb remains perfective). 4 In earlier times, the prefix niz- (with its variant niž-) was also used. It occurs, in fact, in the oldest Resian written text, the so-called Resian Catechism (Baudouin de Courtenay 1894). This prefix probably goes back to the Slavic preverb of adverbial origin *nizŭ- (= *nizъ-) ‘downwards’; according to Vaillant (1966: 470), this is rarely attested in Old Slavonic, which clearly prefers the prefix sŭ- (= sъ(n)-), with the same lexical meaning. A verb containing the prefix niz- is presented in example (1). It is a secondary imperfective, expressing a habitual state of affairs: (1) Je Spúvet, ka nan ni žbrišúje hríhe. (Baudouin de Courtenay 1894: 49) 5 ‘There is the Confession, that erases (down) our sins.’ Few Resian verbs have two prefixes. The prefixal combinations are po+po, z+do, s+po: (2) gledat.ipfv ‘to look’ ⇒ po-po-ledat.pfv ‘to look (a little bit)’ vëdët.ipfv ‘to know (something)’ ⇒ z-do-vëdët.pfv ‘to get to know’ znät.ipfv ‘to know (someone)’ ⇒ s-po-znet.pfv ‘to get to know’ 6 Nevertheless, out of these three verbs only zdovëdët is accepted by all natives. As mentioned above, perfective verbs can be derived also with the help of the only perfectivizing suffix, -n(u/e)-, as in the following examples, where the derived verb has semelfactive meaning: (3) pjüwat.ipfv ‘to spit’ ⇒ pjüwnut.pfv stopat.ipfv ‘to step ’ ⇒ stopnut.pfv 4 No Resian verb corresponding to *dvignǫti is synchronically attested. The Resian outcome of *jęti is jet. 5 The infinitive of the inflected form nižbrišúje ‘erases’ is not attested. Nevertheless, a reconstructed *nižbrišüwat.ipfv can be assumed to be the “lacking” infinitive. In fact, we are dealing here with two archa- isms, the first being the prefix niz- and the second the alternation -üwa- < -ova- (probably influenced by the present stem) vs. -uje- between the infinitive and the present. The secondary imperfective *nižbrišüwat.ipfv ‘to erase’, in which niz- has lost its originally spatial meaning, was probably derived as follows: brïsat.ipfv ‘to wipe, to clear’ => *nižbrïsat.pfv => *nižbrišüwat.ipfv ‘to erase’. The reconstructed verbs *nižbrïsat.pfv and *nižbrišüwat.ipfv ‘to erase’ formed an aspect pair. 6 The verb popoledat has been attested only in Warkota (Bila). The verb spoznet has been recorded only in Solbica, the village nearest to the border with Slovenia, where the more widespread perfective verb poznet (poznät in standard Resian) was also recorded, with the same lexical meaning as spoznet. In other words: Both verbs are used interchangeably as inceptive correlates to znet ‘to know’ (znät in standard Resian). The use of spoznet in Solbica could be an archaism or, less probably, a Slovenism (see spoznati.pfv ‘to get to know’). Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 64 Sometimes the semelfactive meaning of the suffix -n(u/e)- seems to fade in favour of the simple perfectivizing meaning, as in tezat.ipfv ⇒ tegnut.pfv ‘to pull’. 7 Moreover, the perfective verb can accept a lexical prefix, acquiring in this way a different meaning, e.g. vitegnut.pfv ‘to pull out’, nategnut.pfv ‘to stretch’, and the prefixed verb can be further imperfectivized by means of suffixation. Thus secondary imperfectives arise, which form aspect pairs with the verb from which they originated and which are pro- vided with the full range of aspectual meanings of the imperfective aspect. (4) (tezat.ipfv ‘to pull’) ⇒ nategnut.pfv ⇒ natignüwat.ipfv ‘to stretch’ 2.2 Suffixation Suffixation can apply both to perfective simplicia and to perfective verbs obtained by prefixation of an imperfective simplex, resulting, respectively, in primary and sec- ondary imperfectivization. According to Benacchio (2022: 5-6), who approaches the problem from a diachronic perspective, both primary and secondary imperfectivization are realized in Resian with the help of the suffix a (often preceded by -w- or -j- to avoid hiatus). Note that the specific forms go back to a complex system of morphophonemic rules in Resian, resulting in several types of vowel alternation. Benacchio states that the suffix -üwa- (< -ova-) can also occur (again provoking phonetic transformations). Nevertheless, from a synchronic point of view four suffixes may be clearly distin- guished: -a-, -wa-, -awa-, and -üwa-. Here are some examples of primary imperfectives: (5) dät.pfv ⇒ dajat.ipfv ‘to give’ se gnjet.pfv ⇒ se gnjïwat.ipfv ‘to rot’ 8 obaćät.pfv ⇒ obaćawat.ipfv ‘to promise’ skučet.pfv ⇒ skučüwat.ipfv ‘to jump’ The same suffixes are used for secondary imperfectivization: (6) (stat.ipfv ‘to stand, stay’ ⇒) ostät.pfv ⇒ ostajat.ipvf ‘to stay, to remain’ (grët.ipfv ‘to heat’ ⇒) wgrët.pfv ⇒ wgriwat.ipfv ‘to heat, to warm up’ 9 (rivät.pfv ‘to finish’ ⇒) durivät.pfv ⇒ durivawat.ipfv ‘to manage’ 10 (bet.ipfv ‘to be’ ⇒) zabit.pfv ⇒ zabjüwat.ipfv ‘to forget’ In terms of frequency, the suffix -üwa- is rarely used in primary imperfectivization in the Slavic lexicon (Benacchio 2022: 4-5). In contrast, the suffix -a- appears only 7 On the suffix -n(u/e)- in Resian, see Бенаккьо (2020). 8 The root of gnjet is gnjï-; therefore the suffix here is only -wa-. 9 The root of wgrët is wgrë-; therefore the suffix here is only -wa-. 10 In this case the derivational chain starts from rivät.pfv ‘to finish’, a telic loan verb of Romance origin; cf. Fr. rivâ, It. arrivare ‘to arrive’. Despite being perfective, the verb was prefixed and then imperfectivized; therefore I consider it as a secondary imperfective. 65 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian in the Slavic lexicon and is no longer productive, whereas -awa- is typical for primary imperfectives of Romance origin ending in -are (see below). 2.3 Suppletion Just as in the other Slavic languages, (full or partial) suppletion is not widespread as a mechanism in the derivational aspect system. From a synchronic point of view, it can affect both primary imperfectives, e.g. rićet.pfv : ǵat.ipfv ‘to say’, and (more often) secondary imperfectives, such as the motion verbs shown in (7), which are at least partially suppletive, in the sense that the historically common root is synchronically no longer clearly perceived as such. Some of these motion verbs, e.g. vilëst, nalëst, have lost the simplex from which they originally derived. 11 (7) tet.i /pfv ‘to go’ ⇒ prït.pfv : parhajat.ipfv ‘to come’ ⇒ prijtet.ipfv : prihajat.ipfv ‘to go through’ (*lěsti.ipfv ) ‘to slither’ ⇒ vilëst.pfv : vilažat.ipfv ‘to go out’ ⇒ nalëst.pfv : nalažat.ipfv ‘to find’ 3 Functions of secondary imperfectives in different aspect units Before focusing on the functions of secondary imperfectives, I will briefly describe how Resian uses the above-mentioned morphological means to create aspectual “corre- lations”. I deliberately avoid here the term “pairs”, because I will deal in the following not only with aspect pairs, but also with triplets, quadruplets and even more complex aspect units, which I will refer to as aspectual “bundles”. Sometimes it is difficult to prove that the verbs involved in aspectual bundles share exactly the same lexical meaning, but this is a problem in standard Slovene, too. Therefore, Krvina (2018: 71-7), referring to Slovene proper, suggests expanding the concept of aspect pair into that of “aspect correlation”, because, he argues, the requirement for full semantic identity between the members of the pair is never fully realized in practice. In an “aspect correlation” the semantic difference between the aspect correlates is not zero, but tends to it in at least one word meaning common to both members of the aspect unit. Lack of semantic identity affects mainly correlations built by means of prefixation of an imperfective simplex; nevertheless, the problem is encountered even with correlations obtained by means of primary and secondary 11 For more details on full and partial suppletion (in Russian), see Isačenko (1962: 378-81). Note that the verb tet ‘to go’ is biaspectual, as is its Slovenian counterpart iti. Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 66 suffixation, less used in Slovene (Krvina 2018: 237). 12 In the following I will describe the situation in Resian, based on the data currently available. I am fully aware that further research, including frequency data, is needed. 3.1 Aspect pairs Only some of the previously mentioned prefixes are able to form aspect partners for imperfective simplex verbs (“natural perfectives” 13 ). These are, especially, z-/s-, w-, which behave like “empty” (or rather “lexically redundant”) prefixes. Some examples: (8) mutit.ipfv : zmutit.pfv ‘to confuse’ cipit.ipfv : scipit.pfv ‘to chop’ grabit.ipfv : pograbit.pfv ‘to rake’ In this case, secondary imperfectivization of the perfective verb seems unnecessary due to the lexical identity of the partner verbs, but it nevertheless sometimes occurs: Contrary to the general rule, napïsat, the natural perfective partner of pïsat ‘to write’, allows for secondary imperfectivization. The resulting imperfective verb napišüwat seems to have only iterative (excluding habitual) meaning, whereas the simplex expresses the full range of imperfective meanings. In Resian, such examples are extremely rare and even obsolete (or ungrammatical) for some speakers. (9) Ko dilaš? - Pïšën (*napišüwan) no letiro. (process) ‘What are you doing? - I’m writing a letter.’ (10) An jë poeta, viš? An pïšë (*napišüwa). (habitual) ‘He’s a poet, do you know? He writes.’ (11) Wsaki din ja pïšën (~napišüwan) no letiro. (iterative) ‘Every day I write a letter.’ Moreover, it seems that the verb pïsat can express also typical perfective meanings, for example a concluded action in a sequence of events, as shown in (12). 12 For an alternative solution based on the concept of “grammatically induced homonymy”, claiming that the individual readings of a simplex may be grouped to distinct aspect pairs together with different perfective partners showing exactly the meaning in question, see Breu (1984). In this case there is no need for a single complex meaning of a given simplex, corresponding to all the lexical meanings of the prefixed verbs, but instead it is split up into several simplexes forming their own pairs; for example, in Russian, bit’ 1 ipfv : pobit’ pfv ‘to hit’ but bit’ 2 ipfv : probit’ pfv ‘to ring, strike (clock)’. 13 I refer here to the theory of Janda et al., who distinguish in Russian “natural perfectives”, that is, verbs “where the lexical meaning matches that of the imperfective simplex verb”, for example na-pisat’ ‘to write’, from “specialized perfectives”, that is, verbs “where the lexical meaning of the verb is different from that of the corresponding simplex verb”, as in pere-pisat’ ‘to rewrite’ (Janda et al. 2013: 3-4). Natural perfectives correspond in other terminologies to perfectives with “empty” prefixes, a concept refused by these authors. They state that prefixes are never “empty”; rather, they overlap with the meaning of the simplex verb (Janda et al. 2013: 9). 67 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian (12) Ë došol, ë pïsal no letero anö ë šol wkrej. ‘He came, wrote a letter and went away.’ In other words, pïsat is (or tends to be) biaspectual. We are here dealing with a “special” triplet pïsat.i /pfv : napïsat.pfv : napišüwat.ipfv , in which the secondary im- perfective has limited (only iterative) aspectual meanings, as in older stages was also the case for Russian napisyvat’ ‘to write’, nowadays dismissed in the standard language. Most of the Resian prefixes create “specialized perfectives”, which usually undergo secondary imperfectivization to form an aspect correlate, e.g. pïsat.i /pfv ‘to write’ ⇒ zapïsat.pfv : zapišüwat.ipfv ‘to write down, to register’. In such cases, the newly formed imperfective verb has habitual, iterative and processual meaning (if the verb belongs to an actional class allowing for an ongoing action). See the following examples: (13) Ko dilaš? - Zapišüwan me dulge! (process) ‘What are you doing? - I’m writing down my debts!’ (14) Avokät an zapišüwa dulge. (habitual) ‘A lawyer registers debts.’ (15) An rüdi zapišüwa jtö, ki an ma dëlat! (iterative) ‘He always writes down what he has to do!’ A special case is represented by the secondary imperfective parhajat.ipfv ‘to come’. (16) Le, parhaja (~gre) oćä! ‘Look, the father is coming!’ Example (16) is particularly interesting for two reasons. The first is that tet means not only ‘to go’, but also ‘to come’. If we split the two meanings of tet into two homo- nymic verbs tet 1 ‘to go’ and tet 2 ‘to come’, we can easily argue that tet 2 .i /pfv : prït.pfv : parhajat.ipfv ‘to come’ form an aspectual triplet, not a pair. The second reason is to be found in the aspectual meanings of the verb parhajat.ipfv and, consequently, in the actional status of the triplet. As shown in (16), the verb in question can express a process, like its Slovenian counterpart prihajati but in contrast to its Russian equivalent prichodit’. 14 Thus the Resian triplet belongs to the actional 14 For more details on the actional status of the Slovenian verb prihajati, see Derganc (2003: 70, footnote 2). Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 68 class of accomplishments and, contrary to the Russian, not to that of achievements, according to Vendler’s terminology (Vendler 1957). 15 Interestingly, a few aspect pairs in today’s Resian derive from “historical” tri- plets with a simplex and a secondary derived imperfective verb, e.g. (*kryti.ipfv ) : skret.pfv : skrïwat.ipfv ‘to hide, to conceal’, and, from the same simplex, pukret.pfv : pukrïwat.ipfv ‘to cover’. In these triplets the simplex has been abandoned in favour of the secondary imperfective, inheriting all the prototypical aspectual functions of the imperfective aspect (habituality, iteration and process). A similar mechanism affected the pair späst.pfv : spadüwat.ipfv ‘to fall’ and wzdïgnut.pfv : wzdigüwat.ipfv ‘to lift, to raise’, which originated from the perfectives *pasti and *dvignǫti. Unfortunately, examples with *kryti, *pasti or *dvignǫti are not attested. As a consequence, nothing can be said about their (previous) functional distribution. Prefixation is not only a means to create natural or specialized perfectives, but can also give rise to Aktionsarten (sposoby glagol’nogo dejstvija). In Resian they are not as widespread as, for example, in Russian, but there are some delimitatives (with po-), e.g. popravit ‘to talk a while’ (⇐ pravit ‘to talk’); “elativics” (with the prefix vi-), e.g. se vismëjat.pfv ‘to laugh a lot / to death’ (⇐ se smëjat.ipfv ‘to laugh’) 16 ; and saturatives (with both the prefix na- and the reflexive particle se), e.g. se napet.pfv ‘to drink enough/ too much’ (⇐ pet.ipfv ‘to drink’). As in Russian, Aktionsarten usually do not accept secondary imperfectivization. There are some exceptions concerning saturatives, e.g. se napet.pfv ⇒ se napïwat.ipfv ‘to drink enough/too much’. However, such secondary imperfectives seem to have only iterative or habitual meaning, as shown in the following examples: (17) Ko dilaš? - Pïjën! (*se napïwan). (process) ‘What are you doing? - I’m drinking! (*I’m drinking enough!)’ (18) Pijancar, to dän ki pïjë (~se napïwa). (habitual) ‘A drunkard is one who drinks (~drinks too much).’ (19) An se rüdi napïwa! (iterative) ‘He always drinks enough / too much!’ In this respect, secondary imperfectives derived from Aktionsarten differ from the ones obtained from natural perfectives, lacking the habitual reading. The impossibility 15 In the ILA (interaction lexicon-aspect) theory, the actional class of accomplishments (a complex one, containing both a processual and a terminative component) is called GTER (gradually terminative). The class of achievements, never describing an ongoing process, corresponds in the ILA model to TTER verbs (totally terminative). For a description of these and other actional classes, missing in Vendler (1957), see Breu (2021: 441-2), where an updated overview of this theory is offered. On homonymic verbs like, in the present case, tet 1 ‘to go’, tet 2 ‘to come’, see again Breu (1984). 16 “Elativic” means “doing something till the very end of one’s possibilities”. 69 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian of expressing a process could be due to the lexical meaning of the saturatives, which focuses on the culmination of the event and its conclusion. To summarize, secondary imperfectives in aspect pairs only show all the typical aspectual functions of the imperfective aspect (habituality, iteration and process) if they derive from specialized perfectives or when they are members of a pair derived from a “historical” triplet, which lost the simplex. The derivation of a secondary imperfective from a natural perfective or from an Aktionsart is rare; where it does occur, the func- tions of the derived imperfective seem to be reduced to the iterative and/or habitual. 3.2 Aspectual triplets In modern Resian, there are also triplets consisting of an imperfective simplex and two concurring natural perfective verbs, e.g. sjat.ipfv ‘to sow’ : wsjat.pfv ~ posjat.pfv ; see (20). (20) Wčera si wsjala / posjala strok. ‘Yesterday I sowed (the) garlic.’ As with aspect pairs, the derived (natural) perfectives do not create a secondary imperfective in these triplets. In addition, Resian has also kept some triplets with a (natural) perfective and two imperfective verbs (a simplex and a secondary), but they are extremely rare and not always accepted by native speakers. One of these triplets is slät.ipfv : naslät.pfv : naslüwat.ipfv ‘to spread dry leaves’. Despite its rarity, the secondary imperfective of this triplet seems to share all the meanings of the simplex, and it is even given prefer- ence to the simplex in iterative contexts. See (21–22): (21) An rüdi släl (~ naslüwal), pa ći to lïlö. (process) ‘He continued to spread dry leaves, although it was raining.’ (lit. “he always spread”) (22) An rüdi naslüwal (?släl) za pukryt strok. (iterative) ‘He always spread dry leaves for covering garlic.’ Another triplet of this kind, accepted by all native speakers, involves the verbs vëdët.ipfv ‘to know’ and zdovëdët.pfv . The aspectual relationship between these two verbs is of the same type as in Russian aspect pairs like videt’.ipfv : uvidet’.pfv ‘to see : to perceive’ or znat’.ipfv : uznat’.pfv ‘to know : to get to know’ (provided that the latter is accepted as a pair, or rather a triple znat’.ipfv : uznat’.pfv : uznavat’.ipfv – see below). In these pairs, the imperfective form expresses the state resulting from the event conveyed by the perfective verb. 17 17 Зализняк, Шмелев (2000: 57) refer to these pairs with the label perfektnye vidovye pary, corresponding to the ISTA class in the ILA model, i.e. to the class of inceptively static verbs (Breu 2021: 441). Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 70 Despite forming an aspect pair with the verb vëdët ‘to know’, the verb zdovëdët undergoes secondary imperfectivization. As a result we have the aspectual triplet vëdët.ipfv : zdovëdët.pfv : zduvidüwat.ipfv , with two concurring imperfective forms, which seem to have a different functional distribution. In example (23) zduvidüwat appears with habitual meaning. (23) Po vasy ti zduvidüwaš wse mišëtarje! (habitual) ‘In the village you (can) get to know all the news!’ What is repeated here is not the state of affairs resulting from the becoming acquainted with a piece of news, but the becoming acquainted itself, which is not expressed by the imperfective simplex. Thus, the secondary imperfective fills a gap by becoming complementary to the simplex and not really concurring with it, as in the Russian uznavat’.ipfv ‘to get to know (repeatedly)’ in comparison to znat’.ipfv ‘to know’. From a theoretical point of view the triplet can be split into two pairs: on the one hand the pair vëdët.ipfv : zdovëdët 1 .pfv ‘to know’, belonging to the ISTA class, and on the other hand the pair zdovëdët 2 .pfv : zduvidüwat.ipfv ‘to get to know’, belonging to Vendler’s class of achievements (TTER in ILA terminology). 18 All in all, ISTA lexemes are generally rare in Resian, and they tend to be biaspec- tual, e.g. čot ‘to hear’ and vïdët ‘to see / to catch sight of’. Those forming a pair, e.g. manćat.ipfv : zmanćat.pfv ‘to be missing / to die’, usually have no secondary imperfective. 3.3 Aspectual quadruplets In Resian there are also aspectual bundles of four verbs. In some cases an im- perfective simplex has three natural perfectives (at least according to some native speakers), that do not accept secondary suffixation, for example lumet.ipfv ‘to break, to smash’ : wlumet.pfv ~ zlumet.pfv ~ pulumet.pfv or rëzat.ipfv ‘to cut’ : wrëzat.pfv ~ zrëzat.pfv ~ porëzat.pfv ; see example (24): (24) Män wrëzat ~ zrëzat ~ porëzat kroh. 19 ‘I must cut (the) bread.’ On the other hand, there is also at least one quadruplet in which three imperfective verbs are involved (one simplex and two secondary imperfectives): brät.ipfv ~ wbirat.ipfv ~ wbirüwat.ipfv : wbrät.pfv ‘to gather (grass, salad, leaves)’. 18 The same holds true for Russian znat’.ipfv : uznat’ 1 .pfv ‘to know’ (ISTA) and uznat’ 2 .pfv : uznavat’.ipfv ‘to get to know’ (TTER). Actually, the situation in Russian is still more complicated, as the pair uznat.pfv : uznavat’.ipfv has the additional meaning ‘to inquire’, which belongs to the GTER class, with the imperfective expressing an agentive process leading to the result of knowing (Breu 1998: 65). 19 Some (older) informants claim that porëzat has a distributive connotation. 71 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian (25) Ko dilaš? - Birën (~ wbirüwan) vije! Wbiran tin kozän! (process) ‘What are you doing? I’m gathering leaves! I’m gathering for the goats.’ (26) Pa vije sa wbira (~sa birë, ?sa wbirüwa), tö zëlënë za koze! (habitual) ‘Also leaves are (usually) gathered, the green ones for the goats.’ (27) Pujütrë wbiran (birën) vije kozän! Tami vije wbirüwan pa trawo. (iterative) ‘In the morning I gather leaves for the goats. Together with leaves I gather also grass.’ As shown by the examples (25-27), it seems that all these imperfective forms are interchangeable. Only sa wbirüwa in (26) would be doubtful. There is still another type of quadruplets, which combines two perfective and two imperfective verbs, sharing, according to my informants, the same lexical meaning: (28) barat.pfv : barjüwat.ipfv : pobarat.pfv : pobarjüwat.ipfv ‘to ask’ branit.pfv : branjüwat.ipfv : wbranit.pfv : wbranjüwat.ipfv ‘to protect’ püstit.pfv : pušćüwat.ipfv : spüstit.pfv : spušćüwat.ipfv ‘to leave, to let go’ As for their structure, all these quadruplets are symmetrical: There is a “non-prefixed pair” (e.g. barat.pfv : barjüwat.ipfv ‘to ask’), which is, so to speak, “doubled” by a prefixed one (pobarat.pfv : pobarjüwat.ipfv ‘to ask’). Yet it is difficult to understand not only what derivational path led to the current situation, but also why these seem- ingly redundant forms survive in the language. With respect to the first problem, it is likely that the perfective simplex (e.g. barat ‘to ask’) has undergone independently both suffixation (barjüwat) and prefixation (pobarat), thus forming a triplet with two perfective verbs (a simplex and a prefixed one). Then the prefixed verb pobarat has undergone suffixation, thus giving rise to the secondary imperfective pobarjüwat. 20 As for the aspectual functions of the two imperfectives, the situation is not yet entirely clear. In the case of ‘to ask’, it seems that barjüwat is nowadays used with both processual and iterative meaning, while pobarjüwat seems to have only iterative meaning (with a distributive connotation). 3.4 Problems In this section I would like to consider two problematic cases in the interpretation of aspectual and/or derivational relations between some verbs in Resian. They concern the derivatives of the verbs ǵat.pfv ‘to put’ and jet.pfv ‘to take’. The verb ǵat ‘to put’ is the perfective aspect partner of the verb diwat. Бенаккьо (2018b: 154) claims that they both derived from *děti ‘to put’, by means of suffixation 20 In the case of püstit.pfv ‘to leave, to let go’, additionally, the verbs püšćat.ipfv and spüšćat.ipfv have been attested, but they seem to be archaic. Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 72 with -a- (preceded by -w- or -j-) and according to the phonetic evolution of Resian with *ě > i (and secondary dj > ǵ): (29) *děti ⇒ *děwati > diwat *děti ⇒ *dějati > *dijati > *djati > ǵat 21 In Resian there are several aspect pairs “containing/reflecting/doubling” the couple ǵat.pfv : diwat.ipfv , e.g. zaǵat.pfv : zadiwat.ipfv ‘to close’, parǵat.pfv : pardiwat.ipfv ‘to add’, viǵat.pfv : vidiwat.ipfv ‘to take out’. Benacchio (2022: 7) claims that the verb diwat was used as a formant for the secondary imperfectivization of zaǵat, thus produc- ing an effect of “parallel prefixation”. 22 However, the status of such an “effect” seems rather dubious. If we were dealing with a real case of parallel prefixation, in fact, the prefixed verbs containing diwat would all have to be perfective, because prefixation always causes perfectivization. But this is not the case here: Verbs like zadiwat are always imperfective. In accordance with Karcevskij’s (1927) and Isačenko’s (1962: 347-414) claims about the secondary imperfectives in Russian verbs of motion, we could put the following argument. First, the imperfective partner diwat was derived from the perfective verb ǵat ‘to put’ by means of suffixation. In addition, ǵat got prefixed as well, thus acquiring a new meaning ⇒ zaǵat ‘to open’. Then zaǵat underwent secondary imperfectivization (with the help of the formant diwat), thus creating the imperfective aspect partner zadiwat. 23 What is “unusual” here is only the prefixation of a perfective verb, though this is by no means an isolated case. Another interesting case concerns the verb jet.pfv ‘to catch, to take’, which is deri- vationally, semantically and aspectually linked with the verbs jëmat.ipfv , jimüwat.ipfv and, indirectly, wzet.pfv and wzimüwat.ipfv . From a derivational point of view, the following chain may be assumed. On the one hand, the Resian perfective verb jet (< *jęti) formed the imperfective jëmat through suffixation with -a-; the imperfective verb jëmat then underwent an additional suffixation (with the suffix -üwa-), resulting in the verb jimüwat, possibly with iterative meaning, at least at first. On the other hand, the perfective verb jet took the “empty” prefix *vŭz- ‘upwards’, thus forming wzet, which is also perfective. From wzet, the imperfective form *wzimat was derived by secondary imperfectivization with the suffix -a-, which in its turn led to the imperfective wzimüwat 21 Benacchio (2022: 5) refines this hypothesis by claiming that *děwati is clearly imperfective, while *dějati would rather be biaspectual. Moreover, she assumes that the two forms specialized later as, respecti- vely, imperfective and perfective members of the correspondent aspect pair. 22 In a way, this is the same problem as the one treated in §3.3, with the only difference being that here the prefixed pair has a different lexical meaning in comparison to the non-prefixed one. For a definition of “parallel prefixation”, Benacchio refers to Mayo (1985: 57) and Schuyt (1990: 301-3), the latter assuming that “prefixation was not yet as firmly associated with perfectivity as it is in the Slavic languages which are known to us”. 23 The same applies to the pair dät.pfv : dajat.ipfv ‘to give’ and its derivations, e.g. prodät.pfv : prodajat.ipfv ‘to sell’, and even to the loan pair rivät.pfv : rivawat.ipfv ‘to finish’ and durivät.pfv : durivawat.ipfv ‘to manage’. 73 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian by means of suffixation, probably again with iterative meaning. The two derivational chains in question could be connected as presented in the following 24 : ⇒ jëmat.ipfv ⇒ jimüwat.ipfv (originally iterative) (30) jet.pfv ⇒ wzet.pfv ⇒ (*wzimat.ipfv ) ⇒ wzimüwat.ipfv (originally iterative) In modern Resian, the verb *wzimat is not attested, and the other verbs seem to have developed some syntactic/semantic preferences: The verb jëmat can be used in a metaphorical sense, as in to jëmljë düšo ‘it takes away one’s breath’, whereas jet (and jimüwat) are used, for instance, in connection with transports or diseases, as in jet trenö ‘to catch the train’ or jet bul ‘to catch a disease’. The forms wzet and wzimüwat appear in a more literal sense with objects that can be grasped with the hands, as in wzet flajšo ‘to take the/a bottle’, but also in such examples as wzimüwat paštilje ‘to take pills’. Despite the semantic/syntactic split, all the derivational chains start from one and the same form, that is, jet. Interestingly enough, by means of lexical prefixation with za- and by adding the reflexive particle se to the verb wzet, the Resian micro-language created the form se zawzet, from which the aspect pair se zawzet.pfv : se zawzimüwat.ipfv ‘to take something badly/to be offended’ was formed, by copying the model of wzet.pfv : wzimüwat.ipfv . 4 Restrictions for secondary imperfectives All secondary imperfectives (and almost all primary imperfectives) lack the pos- sibility of forming a passive past participle. (31) Njän tve dulge so wse zapïsane (*zapišüwane). ‘Now your debts are all registered.’ This means that with imperfective verbs the passive can only be expressed by the reflexive constructions of the type shown in (32), which, however, only functions as an event passive, thus excluding a stative interpretation, whereas the passive with the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ (especially in the past) can express both. (32) Njän se zapïšüwajo tve dulge. ‘Now your debts are being registered.’ Moreover, secondary imperfectivization is practically excluded from the domain of borrowings. On the one hand, German-based loan verbs form their aspect pairs by means of prefixation. On the other hand, Romance-based loan verbs use primary 24 Another possible explanation for the origin of jimüwat and wzimüwat is that they derived directly from jim- and wzim-, that is, from the present root of jet and wzet, with the addition of the suffix -üwa-. Slavistična revija, letnik 71/2023, št. 1, januar–marec 74 imperfectivization of perfectively borrowed telic verbs. The special class of borrowings with -inat is biaspectual in Resian. 25 5 Conclusions All in all, the opposition of perfectivity expressed by aspect pairs has been very well preserved in the Resian micro-language, in spite of its situation of absolute language contact with dominant varieties lacking such an opposition. Biaspectuality is rather rare, even in borrowings, with the exception of verbs ending in -inat. Compared with other Slavic languages there is perhaps a stronger tendency to involve more than two verbs in the expression of aspect functions, with competing affixes forming bundles of three or more verbs of either aspect. In Resian, the aspectual mechanism of forming aspect pairs through secondary imperfectivization is mainly restricted to verbs of Slavic origin and seems to have lost its productivity. In contrast, “primary imperfectivization” of perfective borrowings is very productive; see, for instance, priparät.pfv ⇒ priparawat.ipfv ‘to prepare’ ← It. preparare / Fr. preparâ, оr binidyt.pfv ⇒ binidïwat.ipfv ‘to bless’ ← It. benedire / Fr. benedî. Secondary imperfectives are mainly derived from specialized perfectives and, only occasionally, from Aktionsarten. Secondary imperfectivization of natural perfectives is extremely rare, and the derived imperfectives of this type have only restricted aspec- tual functions (mainly iterative), just as in the case of imperfectivized Aktionsarten. The functions of secondary imperfectives derived from specialized perfectives do not differ from those of simplicia and primary imperfectives: Depending on the actional class of the aspect pair, secondary imperfectives can generally express processuality, habituality and iteration. In the case of “historical” triplets with two imperfective verbs (a simplex and a secondary imperfective), the secondary imperfective tends to assume all the prototypical functions of the imperfective aspect, whereas the simplex tends to be dismissed. Secondary imperfectives (like the primary ones) do not form a passive past participle. a bbreviations Fr. = Friulian ISTA = inceptively static GTER = gradually terminative It. = Italian i/pfv = biaspectual pfv = perfective ipfv = imperfective TTER = totally terminative 25 On the integration of loan verbs in Resian, see, for instance, Бенаккьо (2018a). 75 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian r eferences Jan b audouin de c ourtena y , 1894: Il catechismo resiano. Udine: Tipografia del Patronato. Розанна Бенаккьо, 2015: Морфологическое проявление вида в резьянском диалекте: префиксация и суффиксация. Аспекруальная семантическая зона. Ur. Мицуси Китадзё. Киото: Университет Киото Сангё. 21-6. [Rosanna b enacchio , 2015: Morfologičeskoe projavlenie vida v rez’janskom dialekte: prefiksacija i suffiksacija. Aspektual’naja semantičeskaja zona. Ur. Mitsushi Kitajo. 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A descriptive and historical study. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Han s teenwijk , 1992: The Slovene dialect of Resia. San Giorgio. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Han s teenwijk , 1994: Ortografia resiana. Tö jošt rozajanskë pïsanjë. Padova: CLEUP. Han s teenwijk , 2005: Piccolo dizionario ortografico resiano. Padova: CLEUP. André v ai LLant , 1966: Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tom III. Le verb. Paris: Klincksieck. Zeno v endLer , 1957: Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review 66. 143-60. Анна A. ЗалиЗняк, Алексей D. Шмелев, 2000: Введение в русскую аспектологию. Москва: Языки русской культуры. [Anna A. z a Liznjak , Aleksej D. š Me Lev , 2000: Vvedenie v russkuju aspektologiju. Moskva: Jazyki russkoj kul’tury.] 77 Malinka Pila: Aspect Lexemes and Secondary Imperfectives in Resian p ovzetek Prispevek obravnava glagolski vid v rezijanščini, slovenski manjšinski jezikovni zvrsti, ki se govori v italijanski dolini Rezija na meji s Slovenijo. Članek se osredotoča zlasti na vloge drugotnih nedovršnikov oz. sekundarnih imperfektivov v vidskih leksikalnih enotah (ne le parih, temveč tudi v trojčkih in četverčkih), ki v rezijanskem aspektualnem sistemu nastajajo s tradicionalnimi mehanizmi prefiksacije, sufiksacije in supletivizma. Zdi se, da je sekundarna imperfektivizacija v rezijanščini vidski pojav, ki zadeva le glagole slovanskega izvora in da je drugje izgubil svojo produktivnost. Drugotni nedovršniki oz. sekundarni imperfektivi so večinoma izpeljani iz »specializiranih perfektivov« ( specialized perfectives), npr. (iz nedov./dov. glagola pïsat 'pisati' ⇒) dov. zapïsat 'zapisati' ⇒ sekundarni nedov. zapišüwat, in le občasno iz Aktionsarten, npr. (iz nedov. glagola pet 'piti' ⇒) dov. se napet ⇒ sekundarni nedov. se napïwat 'dovolj/preveč piti'. Sekundarna imperfektivizacija »naravnih perfektivov« ( natural perfectives) je izjemno redka, npr. dov. napïsat 'napisati' ⇒ sekundarni nedov. napišüwat, izpeljani nedovršniki oz. imperfektivi tega tipa pa imajo le omejene vidske vloge (večinoma iterativne), tako kot je to v primeru imperfektiviziranih Aktionsarten. Vloge sekundarnih imperfektivov, izpeljanih iz specializiranih perfektivov, se ne razlikujejo od funkcij simplicia in primarnih imperfektivov: glede na »akcionalni razred« te vidske leksemske enote lahko njihovi sekundarni imperfektivi izražajo zlasti procesualnost, habitualnost in ponavljajoče se dejanje.