THE PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE IN RUSSIAN - A REVIEW OF PARTICIPIAL PASSIVE AND ASPECT IN RUSSIAN, BY SCHOORLEMMER,MAAIKE

The book contains a mixture of descriptive and generative methodology; this review article deals only with the descriptive parts. Schoorlemm er presents an explanation of why the participial passive in Russian i s restricted to perfective verbs only, not imperfective. The explanati on given is that the participial passive has a perfect-like meaning of resultant state, which requires telic aspectuality, i.e. the presence of an end-point. Perfective verbs, but not imperfective verbs, are te lic. I welcome this account, which is close to and in some respects re fines my own analysis, presented in Beedham (1982), as discussed by Sc hoorlemmer. However, unfortunately Schoorlemmer adopts the active-pass ive relationship alongside her perfect observations, and fails to see that a perfect-style analysis of the passive explains the patient role of the subject, thus rendering the active-passive relationship otiose .