40 лет Санкт-Петербургской типологической школе

(23a) Travaje/bila pokošena (*seljakom)

grass is/was cut.PF.PPP.SG.F (peasant.INSTR)

«The grass has been cut».

(23b) Trava je košena jutros (*seljakom)

grass is cutlMPF.PPP.SG.F morning (peasant.INSTR)

«The grass is cut in the morning (by the peasants)».

(24a) Kuća je gradena dva mjeseca (*ljudimi)

house is build.IMPF.PPP.SG.F two months

«The building of the house lasted two months».

(24b) Kuća je/bila sagradena za dva mjeseca (*ljudimi)

house is/was build.PF.PPP.SG.F for two months

«The house was built in two months».

3. Reflexive constructions

In Russian, the constructions with — n/-t are strongly related to aspect. As rightly stated by Poupynin [1990: 11], the periphrastic passive with an imperfective participle bears very specific aspectual meanings («aspectual particular meaning», [ibid: 131]), due to very specific conditions of syntactic order, lexicon and context. Being unable to convey the notion of process, which is specific to the passive reflexive, an utterance such as (25a) combines two semantic values according to the author [ibid.: 11—2]: that of experience («experiential action») and that of resultant state («resultant state»).

But the use of the reflexive perfective passive such as (25b), which is infrequent and often deemed familiar, is due to «its ability to express the so-called potential contextual meaning» of the perfective which is interpreted as a quality of the subject [Poupynin 1990: 11–12' 1996: 131]:

(25a) Koni byli kovarty tol'ko na perednie nogi

horses were shoe.IMPF.PPP.PL only on of.front legs'

The horses had shoes only on their front legs', (lit. the horses were only shod on their front legs) (A. N. Tolstoj).

(25b) Vaša kniga pročitaet-sja s

your.NOM book.NOM read.IMPF.PRES-REFL with

udovol'sviem

pleasure-INSTR

«Your book can be read with pleasure».

The meaning of passive process, i. e. one which occurs simultaneously with the speech act, may be conveyed by the reflexive passive. However, this meaning always appears in a marked context and usually has a generic interpretation:

Bulgarian

(26) Mašinite se remontirat v momenta

machines.the REFL repair.IMPF.PRES.3PL in momentthe

«The machines are being repaired right now».

While both passive constructions may be used with the same verb root, their aspectual meaning is different. Thus, in Bulgarian, for example, the construction with the perfective participle expresses a resultative state ((27a), (28a)) and stands in sharp contrast with the notion of event conveyed by the reflexive aorist passive ((27b), (28b)); whatever the lexical meaning of the verb, the aorist does not imply a resultative state.

Bulgarian

(27a) Vinoto beše izpito (ot tvoite prijateli)

wine.the was drink.PF.PPP.SG.NEUTER (by your.the friends)

«The wine was drunk by your friends».

(27b) Vinoto se izpi (ot tvoite prijateli)

wine.the REFL drmk.PF.AOR.3SG (byyour.the fnends)

«The wine was drunk by your friends».

(28a) Xljabăt beše izjaden s udovolsvie

bread.the was eat.PF.PPP.SG.M with pleasure

«The bread got eaten up with pleasure».

(28b) Xljabăt se izjade s udovolsvie

bread.the REFL eat.PF.A0R.3SG with pleasure

«The bread got eaten up with pleasure».

Those oppositions must be kept, as illustrated by such verbs as svarja «cook, boil». (29a) is more appropriately analysed as a construction in which the resultative participle functions as a predicate; (29b) in turn shows that the reflexive aorist denotes a completed process, i. e. an event: