When three is company: The relation between aspect and metaphor in Russian aspectual triplets

Abstract The focus of the present study is relation between metaphor and aspect: are certain grammatical forms more prone to be used metaphorically? We approach this issue through a puzzling case Russian aspectual triplets. based on distributions unprefixed imperfective verb gruzit’ (IPFV1) ‘load’, its perfective counterparts (PFVs) prefixed secondary imperfectives (IPFV2s) with prefixes na- , za- po- . data collected from National Corpus offers support for Telicity Hypothesis according which IPFV2s become “oriented towards result” due presence prefix. show that, although characterized by similar semantics, all verbs in triplet have different among constructions metaphorical patterns. difference particularly noticeable contexts, where higher frequency uses. prefix seems play crucial role than aspect as patterns attested counterparts. Based study, we can assume that resultative state often serves source conventional verbal metaphors process itself, results being metaphorically IPFV1.