Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being the aspect that expresses the action denoted by the verb without regard to its beginning or completion.
- noun The imperfective aspect.
- noun An imperfective verb form.
- noun A verb having an imperfective form.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Imperfect.
- Serving to express action not completed (either continuous or repeated at various times): applied to a form or ‘aspect’ of the Slavic verb.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective of or relating to the
imperfective aspect - noun the imperfective aspect, or a
verb having this aspect
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun aspect without regard to the beginning or completion of the action of the verb
Etymologies
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Examples
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The "imperfective" is where nothing definitely happens but only goes on indefinitely
Tales of the Wilderness Boris Pilniak 1915
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But never has this "imperfective" been so exclusively paramount as now.
Tales of the Wilderness Boris Pilniak 1915
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Very "imperfective" and hardly a "story," it is nevertheless done with sober and conscientious craftsmanship, very much like Bunin and very unlike the usual idea we have of Pilniak.
Tales of the Wilderness Boris Pilniak 1915
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In some cases a ques - possible the fi rst form given will be in the in - tion mark is inserted after the equal sign (=?), de fi nite (or "imperfective") aspect, which usually indicating that the word-by-word translation is lacks an in fl ection for aspect.
Recently Uploaded Slideshows juliemcintosh 2009
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There is a distinction between perfective and imperfective verbs but I found that not too mind-bending (or at least easier than the nouns and adjectives).
I'm not revealing the answer I got... dalmeny 2008
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In its verbal structure, English, like the Romance and Slavic languages, divides motion and being into and imperfective aspects.
The Metamorphosis, in The Penal Colony,and Other Stories Franz Kafka 2000
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Thus, a piece of fiction usually begins with an imperfective verb by way of introduction (“I was sleeping”); then, shifting into a perfective verb, the narrative launches into the plot (“I woke”).
The Metamorphosis, in The Penal Colony,and Other Stories Franz Kafka 2000
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In an English narrative, the action, the bare bones of the plot, are rendered with the perfective tenses, while the background is filled in with imperfective tenses.
The Metamorphosis, in The Penal Colony,and Other Stories Franz Kafka 2000
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This category is the origin of root aorists and imperfective past in Core IE while becoming the mi-class preterite in Anatolian.
New thought: A 2D matrix of eventive/non-eventive and subjective/objective 2009
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I can account for how the system evolves from a transitive-intransitive one to an imperfective-perfective one.
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