Adverbal aspectual-modal markers in Russian

It is customary to believe that the aspectual characteristics of a sentence in Russian-like languages mostly rely on the use of specific aspectual verb forms with their lexical features playing a role, while other extra-verbal grammatical aspectual markers are non-existent in such languages in principle. That said, we should point out that the experiential potential of verb lexemes in Russian can be instantiated not only through private aspectual meanings but also by means of adverbal grammatical aspect markers such as the particle bylo or the complex chut’ (bylo) ne. In other words, we suggest that both the particle bylo and the complex chut’(bylo) ne should be classified as adverbal aspectual markers similar to those normally used in isolating languages, adjusted for the modal constituent with its positive connotation in the case of bylo and a negative connotation in the case of chut’(bylo) ne. In bylo constructions, the particle denotes a state of affairs where a situation both desired and expected by the Agent and expressed by a past tense verb fails to materialize in the end in spite of the various steps taken. In its turn, the chut’ (bylo) ne complex in chut’ (bylo) ne constructions denotes a state of affairs where a potentially realizable past-tense verb situation, mostly undesirable and unexpected for the Agent/Experiencer, nevertheless fails to materialize despite the eventual presence of certain signals in its favor. Therefore, both the particle bylo and the complex chut’(bylo) ne are used to denote different versions of non-realization of the verbal situation they occur in.