Polish Tense and Aspect in Narrative Context: An Analysis of Written Text

Abstract

The traditional view of Slavic aspect describes it as a binary perfective-imperfective opposition, and previous models of the role aspect plays in narrative function have reflected this simple division. Unfortunately, such a binary division cannot account for the functions of certain perfective verbs in past-tense narrative and fails to adequately describe narrative function in present-time. Using excerpts from written text, we show how a tripartite system better accounts for the connection between aspect and narrative function.