Жениться / пожениться
Comments on the use of aspect. Ruslan 2, 3rd edition, page 13

To date, despite several discussions with native speakers, I have been unable to find
a satisfactory explanation of the use of жениться / пожениться in the past tense.
It seems that common usage is as follows:

When you say that a couple got married, you use пожениться:
они поженились - "they got married"
This is clearly a perfective form of the verb.

When you say that a man got married, you use жениться:
он женился - "he got married"
I am told that, for this purpose, this is considered to be a perfective form of the verb.

I would be grateful if anyone can shed more light on this.
John Langran
March 2007

PS of course there is no problem with the feminine version
"она вышла замуж" is clearly perfective.

30/03/07
I have had a suggestion that when you are talking about a couple who are
married, they are normally still married, so the action is complete.
You therefore use the perfective form: они поженились
However, when you are talking about a man, you do not know that he is
still married, so there is no idea of completion, so you use the imperfective
он женился

NB THIS IS A HIGHLY ADVANCED TOPIC, NOT REALLY RUSLAN 2!