THE ROLE OF VERBAL ASPECT IN EXPRESSING VALUES IN RUSSIAN PROVERBS

Abstract

The article examines how the Russian grammatical category of verbal aspect participates in the value organization of proverbial speech. The material is a manually selected micro-corpus of Russian proverbs from V. I. Dahl's collection, with additional control examples from common Russian paremiological usage. The analysis does not treat perfective and imperfective forms only as temporal or formal markers. It asks what type of moral knowledge each aspect helps to frame: stable norm, repeated habit, completed deed, irreversible result, warning, or permitted rest after work. The study shows that imperfective forms usually support axiological generalization, while perfective forms often compress consequence and accountability. Mixed constructions create a small but productive value scenario: first complete the necessary action, then judge, rest, or accept the result. The findings are relevant for Russian grammar, paremiology, linguoculturology, and teaching Russian as a foreign language