Query re russian usage

[Anna Rakityanskaya]

>I'm reading Kreutser Sonata with my advanced students.
>Came across sentence:  ...skazal on i dostal papirosochnitsu i stal
>zakurivat'.  The only possible meaning for the last verb in context seems to
>be 'start to smoke'.  But I've always assumed (?? ...if not actually read
>somewhere) that stat' "to begin" and the za- beginning verbs are mutually
>exclusive, i.e., either stal kurit' or zakuril...      Or is this just an
>example of the occasional Tolstoy infelicity...?
>--Jules Levin
>
>
>---
>University of California
>Riverside, CA  92521

Jules,

It is normal to use IMPERFECTIVE "za"-verbs with verbs like "stat'" and
"nachat'". However use of a PERFECTIVE "za-"-verb with verbs meaning "to
begin" is absolutely excluded.

Best,

Anna Rakityanskaya
University of Texas, Austin
Internet: RAKITYA at MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU