Grammatical Forms with Future Semantics in Russian and German

In this article the authors compare indicative grammatical forms to express future semantics in Russian and German. Thus, the main method of research is comparative analysis. Both languages have two specialized forms, with future as their primary meaning, and two forms for which this meaning is syntagmatic (secondary). The authors reveal, describe and explain similarities and differences in semantics, structure and functioning of these forms in the Russian and German direct speech, used in fictional texts. German has differentiation in specialized forms with ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ use, while Russian has no such differentiation. In Russian, specialized tense forms with future meaning are opposed in terms of their aspect in imperfective aspect Future and perfective aspect Future, whereas in German it is only possible to talk about tendencies in use of Future forms with terminative verbs. In German, non-specialized forms with a secondary future meaning are more frequently used than specialized future forms. In Russian the reverse is true.