Aspectual Opposition and Aspectual Correlation in Slovak

This investigation of the scope and types of aspectual pairs in Slovak is motivated by the lack of a thorough monograph on aspect in Slovak linguistics, by the lack of a uniform approach to the essential questions of aspect in existing Czech and Slovak studies, and by the differing treatments of aspectual correlations in major dictionaries.

In the introduction we discuss the nature of aspect as a categorial (word-class) component in the meaning of verbs. Aspect is the grammaticalization of the subcategorial semantic feature “manner of flow of an action in time” and is closely connected with a second subcategorial semantic feature - “manner of distribution of an action in space” which finds its expression in the lexico-grammatical category of intention.

In the first part of this study we present a concise overview of opinions concerning the nature of the category of aspect in regard to the formal means of its expression: the universal dimension of aspect is represented by aspectual opposition covering all verbs, and the paradigmatic dimension of aspect is represented by aspectual correlation, i.e., aspect pairs.

Here we touch on the problem of the consideration of aspect as a lexico-grammatical category or a purely morphological category and the problem of the place of prefixation in aspect formation (the acceptance or rejection of prefixation as a means of forming aspectual pairs).

In the second part of the study we focus attention on the analysis of criteria for dividing aspectual pairs, whereby these criteria generate five approaches: A. a formal criterion: imperfectivizing suffixation; B. categorial-semantic criteria (in conceptualizations that also allow prefixal aspect formation): 1) gradual transition (opraviť/opravovať [to repair perfective/imperfective], krotiť/skrotiť [to restrain imperfective/perfective]) as the core of the aspectual correlation, 2) + acceptance of causative semelfactives (bodať/bodnúť to pierce imperfective/perfective, kopať/kopnúť to kick imperfective/perfective) as a type of momentaneous transition, 3) + acceptance of quantitative discursives expressing an intrinsic portion of an atelic process (kašľať/zakašľať to cough imperfective/perfective, zvoniť/ zazvoniť to ring imperfective/perfective, triasť/zatriasť to shake imperfective/perfective), and 4) aspectual correlation as part of a system of several aspectually relevant oppositions, or derivationally perceived aspectual clusters.

The final part of the article is devoted to the question of the formal presentation of aspectual pairs. Here we analyze the problem of considering an aspectual pair as two forms of a single lexeme (the result of form modification, aspect formation) in contrast to considering the members of an aspectual pair as independent lexemes (the result of derivation).