Imperfect(ive) variation: The case of Bulgarian

This paper explores the connection between morphological and semantic imperfectivity in Bulgarian from a comparative perspective set against the framework of situation semantics. Stressing the characteristics of Bulgarian, we juxtapose the uniquely complex Tense-Aspect-Modality-Evidentiality (TAME) system of this language with those in other Slavic languages and in Romance with regards to variation in (un)availability of a large variety of readings of imperfectives, including habitual, ongoing, intentional, and factual types. Bulgarian is interesting as it lacks some imperfective readings characteristic of Russian and Polish, such as the factual type specialized for complete events, and displays intentional imperfectives, which are commonly found in Romance but restricted or absent elsewhere in Slavic. We adopt the idea that imperfectives share a modal architecture where an imperfective operator IMPF with an intrinsic semantic core is subject to different restrictions on its domain of quantification based on specific grammaticalization patterns across languages. From this perspective, we also examine the interaction between IMPF and an evidential operator encoded by the so-called Renarrated Mood in Bulgarian, proposing that the latter scopes over IMPF adding an evidential flavor to available imperfective readings; we establish contrasts with so-called Narrative Imperfects in Romance, which also serve a reportative function.