A propos de la notion d’aoriste

The aorist structure in modern Russian is studied on the basis of its different characteristic morpho-syntactic manifestations. In the ideal case aorist (perfective) structure is defined as the only one to characterize the narrative type of text (cf. H. Weinreich’s work on grammar tenses). As a notion pertaining to text syntax, this form lends itself to morpho-syntactic con125 figurations which belong to the complex sentence: agreement, subordination by means of conjunctions or adverbial participles. The consequences of the obligatory co-existence between the perfective and imperfective forms in a real, non-ideal text are discussed as well.