How are Russian verb conjugations different from other Slavic languages

Russian verb conjugations differ from other Slavic languages in several key ways:

1. Aspectual System: Russian verbs have a highly developed aspect system with a clear distinction between perfective and imperfective aspects, which affects verb conjugation and meaning. This aspectual distinction is a fundamental feature in Russian and other Slavic languages but is particularly systematized in Russian with many verbs forming pairs specifically to mark aspect differences. ^{1, 2}

2. Verb Prefixation: Russian uses verbal prefixes extensively to change the meaning and aspect of verbs. This prefixation is more prominent in Russian than in some other Slavic languages, allowing for a rich variety of derived verb forms. ^{2, 3}

3. Conjugation Patterns: While Russian shares the two main conjugation types typical of Slavic languages, it also exhibits unique irregularities and variations in verb conjugation that may not appear in other Slavic languages. For instance, some verbs have irregular stems or ablaut patterns that are specific to Russian. ^{4, 5}

4. Use of Imperative and Infinitive: Russian shows particular patterns in the use of imperatives and infinitives, especially in relation to aspect, which might differ somewhat in form and frequency compared to West or South Slavic languages. ^{6, 7}

Overall, while Russian verb conjugations align with the general Slavic linguistic framework, they display unique distinctions in aspect usage, prefixation intensity, and some morphological irregularities, setting Russian apart within the Slavic language family. ^{3, 5, 1}

References

• Semantics of incomplete action in Russian, Ukrainian, and English

• A database of Russian verbal aspect

• Verbal prefixation in Slavic : a cognitive semantics analysis of s-prefixed Russian loan verbs from English and other languages

• “On the History and Function of Ablaut in the Verb from Balto-Slavic to Russian,” University of Chicago Working Papers in Lingu

• Modelling the interaction of regularity and morphological structure: the case of Russian verb inflection

• Aspect use in Slavic infinitives and corresponding da-constructions

• Aspect use in Slavic infinitives and corresponding da-constructions

• The structure of the sight domain in Slavic: Bulgarian, Polish, and Russian verbs of visual perception in a parallel corpus

• Young Scholars Conference“Slavic World: Community and Diversity”. Moscow, 21–22 May 2024. Section “Linguistics”

• Once More on the Etymology of the Russian Word Mazurik ‘Cheater’ (in Light of the Cultural and Linguistic Image of Mazur in Slavic Traditions)

• Production and comprehension of aspectual distinctions in Slavic languages and Greek

• The acquisition of gender and case in Polish and Russian: A study of monolingual and bilingual children

• The importance of interlanguage in language teaching: an analysis of its development in l2 learners

• PECULIARITIES OF THE VERB IN KAZAKH, RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

• Appositive Combinations in the Russian Language: Concept Scope and Syntactic Characteristics

• Nonstandard Use of the “Reflexive” Affix -sʲa in Russian Speech of Bilingual Speakers of Northern Siberia and the Russian Far East

• Verbal prefixes and suffixes in nominalization: Grammatical restrictions and corpus data

• The syntactic complexity of Russian relative clauses

• Theoretical Basics of the Transpositional Grammar of Russian Language

• A big data approach towards sarcasm detection in Russian

• Lexico-Grammatical Principle of Verbal Lexemes Description (on the Material of the Russian Language)

• Mandative verbs and deontic modals in Russian: Between obligatory control and overt embedded subjects

• Processing morphological ambiguity: An experimental investigation of Russian numerical phrases

• Slavic languages – “SVO” languages without SVO qualities?

• Linguistic Analysis of the Simultaneity Conjunctions of the Russian and Persian Languages

• Deverbal nouns in -ie and their variation across the South Slavic area