In the present investigation we have tried to gain an insight into the nature and the functioning of the category of
Aktionsart (AA) in Russian by applying a semantic model of the predicated (actional model). Making use of existing knowledge of the
AA in a language in which no formally characterized AAs occur, namely German, and taking into account what has been said in
earlier investigations (Isačenko, Lehmann, and others) about the semantic side of AA in Russian, we have added to the above-mentioned
model of the predicated a system of seven semantic AAs. These AAs indicated the predicate as a whole or only part of it: causing
event, caused event, one of the caused events phases, etc. The semantic AA has a maximum degree of universality and is as
much as possible dissociated from the realization of the actional system in individual languages. The semantic AAs are the
terminative AA, the conative AA, the aterminative AA, the iterative AA, the AA of the single process, the inchoative AA, and
the ingressive AA.
The semantic AAs function in clusters: a predicated contains one of the three AAs, terminative, conative and aterminative;
in addition to this a predicate is ingressive or non-ingressive, iterative or non-iterative, inchoative or non-inchoative.
In principle every predicate belongs to such a cluster of semantic AAs.
Since almost every predicated in Russian is realized in either of the two aspects, the embodiment of the semantic AAs in Russian
predicated forms results in a confrontation with aspect, i.e. with the aspectual meanings ‘wholeness’ and ‘non-wholeness’
and through them with a vast system of aspectual forms. Thus in a Russian predicated form the meanings of AA and aspect coalesce.
However, whereas aspect is morphologically expressed in almost every predicated form, AA is characterized formally in only
part of the predicates.
The semantic AAs are not related to the Russian aspects in a one-to-one correspondence. For they are realized in both aspects,
although as a rule one of the aspects is dominant. This relationshiop of dominance accounts to a great extent for the aspectual
usage. The uni-aspectual groups of verbs, regarded as AAs by Isačenko, among others, are here considered variants of a semantic
AA. Examples of such variants are the delimitative verbs, the semelfactive verbs, etc.
An advantage of the procedure adopted here is that the enormous number of predicates can be distributed over a limited number
of semantic types (AAs) and moreover that all predicateds are involved in the AA-System. No doubt the degree of universality
of the semantic model of the AA-system can be enhanced by contrastive analyses of more languages.