# Imperfective verbs in -ąć (cisnąć)



## Lorenc

I have recently come across the expression _słowa cisną mi się na usta_ (=I really want to say something) and it got me thinking about the verb _cisnąć_. This verb is quite exceptional because in the meaning 'to press' (and in a few related ones, like 'to be too tight' in reference to shoes, clothes etc.) it has imperfective aspect, while normally verbs ending in _-ąć_ have perfective aspect.
Furthermore, _cisnąć _has also a second meaning 'to throw, to fling' and in this meaning it has perfective aspect, its imperfective partner being _ciskać_. A verb whose aspect depends on the meaning, so confusing!
I was wondering if this case is unique or if there are other verbs ending in _-ąć_ with imperfective aspect; the only one I've found so far in the PWN-Oxford English Polish dictionary is _frunąć _'to be flying', which the dictionary says may have imperfective aspect (partner: _pofrunąć_), but also perfective (partner: _fruwać_) without any significant change in meaning (beside the aspectual one).

Going back to _cisnąć _'to press down/against something)' I guess as a perfective near-equivalent one could use _przycisnąć _or perhaps _ucisnąć_, while in the meaning 'to be too tight, to pinch' (=_pić, gnieść, uwierać_) there seems to be no perfective partner possible (constructions like _buty zaczęły mnie cisnąć_ can be used instead).
Any comments?

Lorents


----------



## Ben Jamin

Lorenc said:


> I have recently come across the expression _słowa cisną mi się na usta_ (=I really want to say something) and it got me thinking about the verb _cisnąć_. This verb is quite exceptional because in the meaning 'to press' (and in a few related ones, like 'to be too tight' in reference to shoes, clothes etc.) it has imperfective aspect, while normally verbs ending in _-ąć_ have perfective aspect.
> Furthermore, _cisnąć _has also a second meaning 'to throw, to fling' and in this meaning it has perfective aspect, its imperfective partner being _ciskać_. A verb whose aspect depends on the meaning, so confusing!
> I was wondering if this case is unique or if there are other verbs ending in _-ąć_ with imperfective aspect; the only one I've found so far in the PWN-Oxford English Polish dictionary is _frunąć _'to be flying', which the dictionary says may have imperfective aspect (partner: _pofrunąć_), but also perfective (partner: _fruwać_) without any significant change in meaning (beside the aspectual one).
> 
> Going back to _cisnąć _'to press down/against something)' I guess as a perfective near-equivalent one could use _przycisnąć _or perhaps _ucisnąć_, while in the meaning 'to be too tight, to pinch' (=_pić, gnieść, uwierać_) there seems to be no perfective partner possible (constructions like _buty zaczęły mnie cisnąć_ can be used instead).
> Any comments?
> 
> Lorents


Congratulations, your knowledge of Polish grammar is very deep and impeccably correct! 
There are of course many  other verbs ending in _-ąć_ with imperfective aspect, immediately I can think about:
_giąć, ciąć, brnąć, lgnąć, żąć._


----------



## Thomas1

Similar verbs to "cisnąć": _dokuczać, gnieść, doskwierać, męczyć, ciążyć, leżeć_. They are all imperfective. There seems to be a pattern: when these verbs denote some kind of suffering, they normally don't have perfective counterparts.


----------



## Lorenc

Thank you both very much! So _cisnąć_ is really quite exceptional, as it is at the intersection of several classes of somewhat special verbs:
1) imperfective verbs ending in -_nąć_ (like _brnąć_, _lgnąć_, _ciągnąć_, _płynąć_, _płonąć, tonąć, łaknąć, tchnąć, mknąć, pragnąć, schnąć, słynąć, chudnąć_...). Actually these are not that rare as I originally thought, although I believe that overall it is still true most verbs with this ending are perfective, formed in a semi-regular way from an imperfective base form (simplex) by -ną- suffixation, like eg cofać/cofnąć, pukać/puknąć and many others.

2) verbs with both perfective or imperfective aspect depending on the meaning (I don't know any other example a part from _cisnąć_).

3) verbs with both perfective or imperfective aspect (biaspectual verbs, same meaning). As far as I know there are very few of these in Polish, like _aresztować  _used with a perfective aspect (=za_aresztować)
_
4) Imperfective verbs with no perfective partner (_dokuczać, gnieść_). There are quite a lot of these.

Thanks for the comments. 

L.


----------



## jasio

Lorenc said:


> A verb whose aspect depends on the meaning, so confusing!


Consider it a rule rather than an exception. 
In Slavic languages the aspect is a lexical rather than grammatical term, ie. it's attached to the *meaning* of the verb rather than to it's form. This also means that if the verb changes it's meaning over time, or gets a new meaning, it may also change the aspect in this particular context. Besides, as far as I am aware, there are no or next to none strict rules binding aspect with the form of the verb, other than some statistical observations. Perhaps except for a fact that verbs containing an infix expressing repetitive aspect (such as -yw-) are also imperfective. 

If it makes you feel better, the aspect-tense system of the Western languages can be probably as confusing for us. Italian - where AFAIK passato prossimo is clearly perfect, while imperfetto is clearly imperfect - is relatively simple with this respect. But I've seen multiple times how people desperately struggled to express imperfective aspect using English continuous tenses (both past and future), just because they were unable to get rid of their perfective-imperfective way of thinking.



Lorenc said:


> Going back to _cisnąć _'to press down/against something)' I guess as a perfective near-equivalent one could use _przycisnąć _or perhaps _ucisnąć_,


Or perhaps _nacisnąć_, _ścisnąć, pocisnąć, docisnąć, odcisnąć_.  I do not think any of these form a true aspectual pair with _"cisnąć",_ as all of them have imperfective equivalents with the stem "_ciskać_".



Lorenc said:


> while in the meaning 'to be too tight, to pinch' (=_pić, gnieść, uwierać_) there seems to be no perfective partner possible (constructions like _buty zaczęły mnie cisnąć_ can be used instead).


Or rather "_przestały mnie cisnąć_". Perfective aspect is more about completing a state or activity, or treating activity as atomic, rather than about commencing it. 
My own experience with tight shoes demonstrates that it's hard to think of it as a one time, completed activity.  Typically you complain that they were tight all the time, or for a longer period of time, don't you? So imperfective aspect seems to be quite natural, and it's even hard to find a right usage for a perfective equivalent.


----------



## jasio

Lorenc said:


> 4) Imperfective verbs with no perfective partner (_dokuczać, gnieść_). There are quite a lot of these.


"_Dokuczyć_", "_zagnieść/ugnieść_", perhaps others (depending on a particular meaning).


----------



## Ben Jamin

There is also "_zgnieść" _which is the most direct pair to "_gn_ie_ść"_ while "_zagnieść" _and _"ugnieść_" have a more specialized meaning.


----------



## Ben Jamin

jasio said:


> Consider it a rule rather than an exception.
> In Slavic languages the aspect is a lexical rather than grammatical term, ie. it's attached to the *meaning* of the verb rather than to it's form.



In Polish there are actually two groups of verbs that differ in this respect. The first group consists of "old" or "pristine" verbs, that are unprefixed and today mainly imperfective, _jeść, pić, spać, widzieć, wiedzieć, mówić_, that have their prefixed counterparts that are perfective. Some of these verbs like _siedzieć _have a perfective counterpart formed through apophony (_siadać_). Here only the lexical approach can work, especially as the prefixed verbs have usually a different meaning, either a more specialized one (ex. pi_ć - dopić, przepić, rozpić, podpić)_, or even completely different (ex. _konać - wykonać_).
The other group, that is considerably newer, consists of prefixed perfective verbs and their imperfective counterparts, formed from the perfective ones, that have exactly the same meaning, and form regular pairs (ex. _wykonać - wykonywać)._
Here the grammatical approach can work, but as the two arrays overlap, and there are verbs that can be classified as having a "subaspect" (ex. _siadywać), _the verb system as a whole is best described as a lexical one.


----------

