Untangling the functions of aspectual distinctions in the Lithuanian imperative against the background of Slavonic
ENIn general linguistics, the functions of the perfective and the imperfective aspect have been thoroughly investigated in the domain of realis, especially in the past tense. However, there are languages which exhibit this sort of contrast in other domains, for example, in the imperative. The functions of the aspectual grams in the imperative may differ significantly from those documented in the realis. In the present paper, I argue that this is the case in Lithuanian. I build on the studies of the aspectual contrast in the imperative documented for Russian and Slavonic in general. I test whether the functional contrasts found there exist in Lithuanian as well. The results of this pilot study suggest that with regard to the use of the aspectual grams in the imperative, Lithuanian converges to a large extent with the North-Eastern subgroup of Slavonic. Keywords: imperative, aspect, Russian, Slavonic, Lithuanian. [From the publication]
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