Scalar Implicatures of Russian Verbs

In this paper we address the common claim that perfective verbs presuppose the initial phase (or a process part) of events denoted by them, and assert their final phase (or a culmination part), while the meaning of imperfective verbs lacks both these components. Different formulations of this claim have been proposed by Padučeva (1996, 2011) and Romanova (2006) for Russian, and by Dočekal and Kučerová (2009) for Czech, among others. We argue that what is regarded as a matter of presupposition in the semantic structure of Russian perfective verbs is best analyzed in terms of scalar implicature in the negated contexts and entailment in the affirmative sentences. The main evidence for our analysis is based on some recent work in the presupposition projection theories; of particular interest is Chemla’s (2009) experimental study.