V poiskakh skhodstv i razlichiǐ mezhdu russkim, pol'skim, cheshkim i serbochorvatskim i︠a︡zykami pri vybore vida v sluchai︠a︡kh ogranichennoǐ kratnosti

The article presents some results of a comparative investigation into past tense cases of "bounded repetition" (with adverbials such as 'twice', 'three times', a couple of times' etc.) in four varieties of Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech and Croatian/Serbian). This investigation is based on over 500 corpus examples with parallel versions for each language. The article shows noticeable differences between the languages with respect to the distribution of the aspects and points out a number of factors influencing aspect choice in these cases. Most prominent among these is the distinction between the two basic modes of use of the past tense - "narrative" vs. "retrospective".