Irregularities in Imperfective Derivation

In recent years the presentation of Russian conjugation in terms of the one-stem system has received a growing amount of attention due in large measure to the work of Alexander Lipson and Charles Townsend.1 A chief advantage of this system is the high degree of predictability for deriving the imperfective aspect of semantically prefixed perfective verbs. The essentials of the systems of imperfective derivation (= ID) as set forth by Lipson and Townsend do not substantially differ, but in neither source do we find a unified and complete statement of the irregularities.2 Townsend notes most of the major irregularities; however, some are scattered throughout his verb inventory, less common ones have been omitted, and only the more anomalous irregularities are gathered together in one place at the end of his treatment of ID. The purpose of this article is to attempt a more unified and complete presentation of these irregularities. Since Townsend's system is more widely known, I will follow his classification scheme for designating verb types. The essentials of the system of ID in both Lipson and Townsend are as follows. There are three suffixes which extend the base form of a

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