The category of aspectuality (based on the Orok language material)

The specific feature of the structure of the simple (non-derived) verb stem in the Manchu-Tungus languages is its two-aspect character, since it represents simultaneously both terminativity and non-terminativity of action, i. e. the verb stem functions as a two-aspect one, as a stem of both perfective and imper-fective aspect expressing the verbal aspectual meanings in the Manchu-Tungus languages are expressed not so much by the temporal characteristics of verbs as by the context and by the semantic word-formative verb classes which are based on the formally expressed modifications or semantic transformations of meanings from the point of view of temporal, quantitative and specific resultative characteristics. The means of coding the aspectual characteristics of an action– aktionsarts – are not analogous to the system of mutually opposed aspect category forms; they function as the means of supplementing the grammatical system and making it possible, even out context, to mark one or another form as a particular aspect form, thereby narrowing the lexical mean-ing.

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