What Kind of Present Tense in the Utterance Še pogleda me ne?

Abstract

The paper discusses the meaning of the perfective present in the Slovene utterance Še pogleda me ne. Although it is well known that the meaning and usage of aspectual forms in Slavic languages are by no means uniform, it seems that, in Stephen Dickey’s words, »when answering ‘Miklosich’s famous question’ – What are you doing right now? – all Slavs will use the present tense of an impv, and not a pv verb.« The paper argues that in Še pogleda me ne the perfective present has a modal meaning and does not express the actual present. According to some Slovene grammars, the perfective present often means ‘to be prepared, to be able, to intend … to do something’. Even the use of the perfective present in performative utterances like obljubim can be described as containing a modal component – ‘I am prepared/willing to promise’. Thus Še pogleda me ne can be interpreted as ‘Še pogledati me noče’ (‘He/she doesn’t even want to look at me’). A similar meaning was found by A. Zaliznjak in Novgorod birch-bark letters (prezens naprasnogo ožidanija).