Sur les systèmes aspecto-temporels du fran{\c c}ais et du bulgare

The comparison between the aspect systems of a Slavic and a Romance language raises a number of theoretical and practical problems. It requires a precise and unified use of terminology, which is unfortunately not always the case, especially in French. The automatic transfer of the terms „perfective/imperfective“ from Bulgarian to French is practically impossible because the aspectual systems of the two languages function in a different way. In Bulgarian aspect is expressed by a pair of perfective and imperfective verbs, while in French it functions through two symmetrical subsystems of simple and complex verb tenses. The aspect implied in the lexical meaning of the verb is strongly influenced by the syntactic context. The article proves the necessity of a rigid distinction between aspect and tense; it discusses the question of precision in naming the verb tenses, the terms do not always reflect the linguistic reality. This is valid for both languages discussed.