The dictionaries I could find did not agree on whether the perfective form of the (imperfective) verb курить
is either: (i) закурить
or (ii) покурить
.
What is the correct perfective partner for курить
? Is it закурить
, покурить
, or neither?
I suspect that the answer might, in some sense, be neither, because both закурить
and покурить
have "imperfectivizations", закуривать
and покуривать
, respectively, both of which are hyponyms of курить
. (Definition of hyponym, a word which I learned today -- по-русски.)
Thus one might expect that both закурить
and покурить
would be hyponyms of a "perfective partner of курить
" if such a verb actually existed (it seems not to).
In particular, perfective verbs formed by adding the prefix по-
sometimes are restricted to the specific meaning of "a little, for a while", while perfective verbs formed by adding the prefix за-
sometimes are restricted to the specific meaning of "to begin to". This appears to be the case for покуривать/покурить
and закуривать/закурить
.
Although I should add as a caveat that I am assuming that покуривать
does correspond in meaning to покурить
, even though Wiktionary does not say this explicitly (it does say explicitly that the corresponding statement is true for закуривать
and закурить
).
Also since покуривать
is apparently colloquial, I may be misleading myself by considering it too much. (I.e. maybe по-
is just a perfectivizing prefix with no specialization in meaning for курить
(definition 1), and those who use the colloquial term покуривать
misunderstand (definition 3) the use of the по-
prefix for курить
, which maybe also explains why покуривать
has not become a formally accepted word.) Wiktionary does say that покуривать has no perfective partner (1)(2).
Note: Here is a related previous question of mine. For смеяться
, the по-
and за-
perfectivizing prefixes seem to have the same meaning as for курить
, yet nevertheless посмеиваться
and засмеиваться
do not correspond in meaning to посмеяться
and засмеяться
according to one of the answerers.