Thematic non-uniformity of Russian vocalic verbal suffixes

Abstract

I will argue that contrary to the view generally adopted in Russian traditional grammars and much literature on Slavic, thematic suffixes do not form a uniform group either semantically or morphologically. I will demonstrate that even those thematic suffixes that seem to have no semantic import do not behave in a unified way expected from theme vowels and cannot have the same position in the verb structure.