REORGANISATION OF THE SYSTEM OF ASPECT PARADIGMS IN RUSSIAN
The development of the system of aspect paradigms in Russian is investigated in the framework of the theory of natural grammar. It is claimed that the grammatical changes in morphological systems of natural languages are determined by a limited number of markedness principles (or naturalness principles, or preference principles). These typologically relevant principles explain the attested diachrony of grammatical changes in the system of aspect paradigms of Russian and predict the general direction in its development.