C. Beedham, THE PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE IN RUSSIAN - A REVIEW OF PARTICIPIAL PASSIVE AND ASPECT IN RUSSIAN, BY SCHOORLEMMER,MAAIKE, Lingua, 105(1-2), 1998, pp. 79-94
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
.