Note sur le passé imperfectif factuel en polonais et ses correspondants français

Abstract

In Polish, some usages of the Past imperfective tense have factual meaning. It appears when an imperfective verb denotes neither an action in progress nor a repeated action. According to specialists in Slavic languages, in such a usage the imperfective verb can theoretically be replaced with its perfective counterpart, as it refers to a completed action. The author criticizes such an approach because of its reference-based character. Instead, an alternative interpretation is proposed, according to which the discussed usage simply omits the information on whether the action conveyed by the verb is realized completely or not. The unspecified character of the factual usage persists when the verb is not stressed in the text or when its indefiniteness is supplemented with pragmatic data that contribute to a resultative interpretation.