Does the presuppositional imperfective exist in Russian (and Slavic)?

This paper discusses data which are problematic for the hypothesis that the presuppo-sition that an action has taken place directly motivates the use of the imperfective aspect in statements of fact in Russian, and by extension in other Slavic languages. It argues that while imperfective statements of fact occur in presuppositional contexts, such usage is instead moti-vated by particular semantic elements/discourse effects, such as the construal of a situation as an aterminative process or as repeatable, construals which also motivate non-presuppositional imperfective statements of fact. Similarly, it discusses cases of presuppositional perfective usage, which are likewise triggered by semantic elements that have been independently moti-vated for non-presuppositional perfective usage. It is further suggested that presuppositional imperfectives can be explained as cases in which the speaker ignores the original causal chain of an action and mentions the event with some orthogonal purposes in mind. In contrast, the perfective tracks the event in its originally intended causal chain. Lastly, it presents data indicating that presuppositional imperfectives in Czech and Croatian reflect the construal of an action as a process.