scholarly journals Comparing Tense Systems: the Primacy of the Pres/Past Opposition

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.51 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Borik ◽  
Paz González ◽  
Henk Verkuyl
Keyword(s):  
Binary System ◽  
Ternary System ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Set Up

A way of improving on the description of the English tense system in Reichenbach [1947] is achieved by changing its matrix 3x3 design into a 2x2x2 set up, formed by 3 basic oppositions: <ol> <li>present vs. past</li> <li>synchronous vs. posterior</li> <li>incompleted vs. completed action</li> </ol> The advantages of the binary system over the Reichenbachian ternary system are the following: <ol> <li>the binary system is completely compositional;</li> <li>there is no tripartition between Past, Present and Future, but only the basic opposition between Past and Present remains. As we intend to show later, this is empirically supported by the Russian and Polish data;</li> <li>some concrete problems, for instance, the ambiguity of past perfect with temporal adverbials or more then one configuration for the same tense form [Future Perfect [will have written] or Past Future tense [would write]] do not arise.</li> </ol> The binary system can be naturally extended to apply for the tense systems of different groups of languages. Along with Germanic, we will consider two more groups of languages: Romance [e.g., French and Spanish] and Slavic [e.g., Russian and Polish]. The binary system, we will show, has the potential to be extended in order to capture the Romance data or shrunk to account for the Slavic data. The connection between tense and aspect, especially in Slavic languages is also described in this paper. Both temporal and aspectual differences in Slavic can be essentially captured by the same mechanism provided by the binary system. Some empirical facts, like, for instance, the absence of the present tense interpretation with perfective verb forms, will fall out naturally.

scholarly journals The development of Germanic analytical tenses

2020 ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Andriy Botsman ◽  
Olga Dmytruk ◽  
Tamara Kozlovska
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Germanic Languages

The stages that encompass the future tense development are singled out as discrete phenomena within the process of the Germanic language development. The Gothic verb system can serve as the background for the investigation of the tense transformations in question. The difficulties of tense examination in the Old Germanic languages were connected with some conceptions about the Indo-Iranian and Greek languages that used to dominate in the scientific circles for a long time. Those conceptions were based on Latin and Greek patterns and postulated the use of present, past and future tenses in all Indo-European languages. The above conceptions were ruined when the study of Tokharian and Hittite demonstrated the use of the present tense for the description of future actions. The idea of losing “the protolanguage inheritance” was proved wrong, and it was incorrect to transfer the complex tense system of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin to other Proto-Indo-European languages. The examination of the tense differentiation in Gothic (as the main source of the Old Germanic language) demonstrates that the Gothic infinitive functioned as a no-particular-time unit, while personal verb forms were involved in performing tense functions. The Gothic present tense verbs represented present and future tenses and no-particular-time phenomena. Some periphrastic forms containing preterite-present verbs with the infinitive occurred sporadically. The periphrastic forms correlated with Greek and Latin patterns of the same future tense meaning. The periphrastic future forms in Gothic often contained some modal shades of meaning. The Gothic present tense functioned as a colony-forming archi-unit and a pluripotential (temporal) precursor. The periphrastic Gothic future forms are recognised as a monopotential (temporal) precursor with some modal meaning. The key research method used in the present article is the comparative historical method. The authors viewed it as the most reliable and appropriate for the study of tense forms.

scholarly journals О соотношении двух плюсквамперфектов в псковских говорах в сопоставлении с инославянским материалом

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
М. В. Ермолова ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
The Past ◽  
Present Tense

There are two pluperfect forms in Pskov dialects: “to be (past tense) + vši-form” and “to be (past tense) +l-form”. The first one has a resultative meaning and should be considered in the row of other perfective forms with the verb to be in the present tense, future tense and in the form of subjunctive mood. The second one has a meaning of discontinuous past. Apparently, it is a grammeme of the past tense and it is opposed to the “simple” past tense by the meaning of the irrelevance of the action to the present. There are similar systems with two pluperfect forms in other Slavic and non-Slavic languages.

scholarly journals On the relation between present and future tense in Lithuanian: Preliminary considerations in the domain of non-deictic tense use

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 387-415
Author(s):  
Björn Wiemer
Keyword(s):  
Reference Intervals ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
The Future ◽  
Present Tense

The article examines non-deictic uses of present and future tense in Lithuanian. Narrative use, in which reference intervals match with singular events, is distinguished from suspended propositions characterized by lack of such reference intervals (habitual, dispositional and circumstantial modal, and conditional meanings). Present tense is frequently involved in both usage domains, while the future is rare in narrative use, but overlaps with present tense in certain types of suspended propositions. Moreover, its temporal-deictic use is inherently associated with suspended propositions and “linked” to them via epistemic implicatures. This, in contrast to the present, makes the future more likely to be employed in predictions which entail an observer.The analysis is supplemented by a brief comparison with non-deictic tense use in the nonpast-domain of Slavic languages, yielding a grid of criteria that should be used in crosslinguistic studies on tense-aspect systems based on stem derivation and the feature [±bounded].

scholarly journals TEMPORALITAS PADA VERBA DALAM BAHASA DANI BARAT

LITERA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Supardi Supardi
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
The Future ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Plural Subjects ◽  
Remote Past

This study aims to describe the temporality aspect of verbs in the Western Dani Language (WDL) in Papua. The data were from Morfologi Bahasa Dani Barat, a researchreport by Purba, et al. (1994). The temporality was proved by the distributional methodsupplemented by permutation and deletion techniques. The findings show that WDLhas nine verb forms. Those are ones with: 1) a singular subject for the present tense, 2) asingular subject for the recent past tense, 3) a singular subject for the remote past tense, 4)a singular subject for the future tense, 5) a plural subject for the present tense, 6) a pluralsubject for the recent past tense, 7) a plural subject for the remote past tense, 8) a pluralsubject for the future tense, and 9) the habitual present tense. Temporality verb forms areclassified into two groups: eight verbs based on the time an event occurs and one verb ofa habitual event. The nine verbs showing time are distinguished on the basis of singularand plural subjects.

scholarly journals The Quantitative Grammar and Poetics of Finite Verb Forms in the Guslʹ Dobroglasnaia by Simeon Polotsky

Slovene ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-169
Author(s):  
Fedor N. Dviniatin
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Total Percentage ◽  
Semantic Difference ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
The Third Person

The paper offers data on the quantity and structure of finite verbal forms in Simeon Polotsky’s collection Guslʹ Dobroglasnaia. The results are compared to data from twenty epinician odes by Mikhail Lomonosov and ten odes by Gavriil Derzhavin. We find 851 personal forms in Simeon’s collection, of which 214 belong to past tenses (73 to imperfect, 92 to aorist, 49 to past tense with l morpheme); 363 belong to present tense; 99 to future tense; 51 to imperative mood; 6 to conjunctive mood; and 118 to the forms with the da particle. The total percentage of past tenses in Simeon’s texts (25.1%) is close to the parameters appearing in Lomonosov’s and Derzhavin’s texts (21.4% and 23.5%, respectively), and the same is true for the percentages of non-indicative moods (20.5% vs. 19.1% and 20.5%). Simeon Polotsky’s texts contain fewer present tense forms than those written by the 18th-century poets (42.8% vs. 50.6% and 49.5%), but they contain more future tense forms (11.6% vs. 8.9% and 6.5%). Past tense forms in Simeon’s texts with l suffix include 29 forms of the third person with the auxiliary iestʹ verb, usually given in a rhyme position. In the aorist, the proportion of imperfective and perfective forms to the forms of the byti verb is 9:72:11; in imperfect, this proportion is 52:6:15; and in past tenses with l suffix, it is 8:38:3. We find 99 forms of the future tense, broken down as follows: 69 are forms of simple future; 12 are accompanied by imatʹ and similar forms; and 18 are accompanied by budet and similar forms (there is no semantic difference between these two last cases). Of the forms containing the da particle, 65 belong to present tense, 37 belong to future tense, and 16 are accompanied by byti forms.

Present, past, and future *

2020 ◽  
pp. 215-232
Author(s):  
Gerjan van Schaaik
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Temporal Reference ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Present Tense

Turkish has a multifaceted verbal system which can be understood only if studied from within: it has two past- and three present-tense forms and one future tense. Although the notion of tense is used here, it should be taken with a grain of salt, for many verb forms are opposed along the lines of future versus non-future, completed versus ongoing action, or with or without temporal reference. Thus, Present-1 is typical for a non-completed action, Future for actions not yet begun, Past-1 denotes completed actions not witnessed by the speaker, whereas using Past-2 makes the speaker witness. Present-2 is a non-tense, since it does not relate to any moment in time, and Present-3 is used in formal speech. The place of the infinitive among tense forms is discussed and the final section goes into matters of meaning and interpretation.

scholarly journals PERNYATAAN KALA DAN ASPEK DALAM BAHASA ARAB: ANALISIS SEMANTIK VERBA

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Tajudin Nur
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Auxiliary Verb

This research was a qualitative research using structural linguistic method. The findings showed that the conjugation of the perfect verbs (ma>dhi) into imperfect verbs (mudha>ri’) can reveal the concept of semantic time and aspect. It was found that the conjugation of verb from perfect (ma>dhi) to imperfect (mudha>ri’) expresses semantical concept of tense and aspect. Perfect verb expresses past tense, present tense, future tense, and perfective aspect, while imperfect verb expresses present tense, future tense, and imperfective aspect. The other constituents which had a role in expressing tense and aspect were auxiliary verb of kana, the particles of qad, sawfa, lan, and sa- prefix. The auxiliary verb of kana had a role to express past tense in the case of equational sentence or if it precedes imperfect verb, while if it precedes  perfect verb, it expresses perfective aspect. The particle of qad expresses perfective aspect if it precedes perfect verb (ma>dhi), while the particle of sawfa, lan, and sa- prefix express future tense. In addition, to clarify the tense in Arabic adverb of time standing beside the verb also was used.

scholarly journals A STUDY OF TENSES USED IN ENGLISH ONLINE NEWS WEBSITE

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 248-258
Author(s):  
Jittra Muta ◽  
Nutprapha Dennis
Keyword(s):  
Online News ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Breaking News ◽  
Research Instrument ◽  
News Website ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Data Collections

The purposes of this study were to analyze and describe English tenses used in an online news website and to examine which types of English tenses are frequently used in an online news website. The material in this study was 20 news in Mini-Lessons from B r e a k I n g N e w s E n g l i s h .c o m. The research instrument was a checklist which determines and categorizes English tenses as past tense, present tense, and future tense. The data collections were analyzed with the frequency and percentage. The research findings of the study showed that all using of English tenses in the 20 news from the Mini-Lessons were 279 sentences; past tense were 155 sentences (56%), present tense were 120 sentences (43%), and future tense were 4 sentences (1%). The most English tenses aspect of the news were past simple tense and present tense; past simple tense, present simple tense, present perfect tense, and present progressive tense, respectively. In contrast, breaking news used the least English tenses aspect of the news was past perfect tense, future simple tense, past progressive tense, present perfect progressive tense, and future perfect tense, while there were no used past perfect progressive tense, future progressive tense, future perfect tense, and future perfect progressive tense in the 20 selected breaking news.

scholarly journals When-questions and tense in Inquisitive Semantics

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Jos Tellings
Keyword(s):  
Present Perfect ◽  
Inquisitive Semantics ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Semantics Of Questions ◽  
Present Tense

Temporal questions with when and their counterparts in other languages display tense restrictions: they are incompatible with the present tense that is interpreted as 'currently ongoing', and English when-questions are incompatible with the present perfect. The existence of tense restrictions is one of the reasons why a theory of the semantics of questions should include an account of tense and aspect. I first propose an explanation of the tense restrictions based on the pragmatics of questions and partial answers. Then, I discuss how tense and aspectual operators can be added to Inquisitive Semantics (Ciardelli, Groenendijk & Roelofsen 2018).

scholarly journals TEMPORAL SYSTEM OF THE OSSETIAN VERB COMPARED WITH OTHER IRANIAN LANGUAGES

Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Э.Б. САТЦАЕВ
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
The Past ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Temporal System ◽  
The Future ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Almost All

Время – грамматическая категория глагола, служит временной состояния, либо события. В различных языках наличествует соответствующее количество временных форм. Индоевропейский глагол в историческом плане имел три временные системы – презенс, аорист и перфект. В Авесте засвидетельствованы формы всех индоевропейских времен, наклонений и залогов. В ней в изъявительном наклонении раз­личаются следующие времена: настоящее время, имперфект, перфект и плюсквамперфект. В презенсе авестийского глагола выделяются два типа основ. Эти основы делятся на классы, количество которых доходит до двадцати двух. Глагольная система, которая наличествует в среднеиранских языках, значительно изменилась по сравнению с древнеиранскими языками. Однако древнеиранская временная система практически во всех иранских языках данного периода сохранилась. В новоперсидском языке насчитывается восемь времен. Идентичное количество временных форм можно наблюдать также в афганском языке, представленном в восточноиранской языковой подгруппе. Среди иранских языков осетинский характеризуется скудостью временных форм. В осетинском языке можно выделить три глагольные основы, от которых образуются формы соответствующих времен. В осетинских глаголах обнаруживаются следы древнеарийских классов настоящего времени. В современных иранских языках основное противоположение лежит между прошлым и не прошлыми временами. В изъявительном наклонении осетинский язык знает три времени: настоящее, прошедшее и будущее. Наиболее интересным явлением в осетинском языке является образование будущего времени, аналогичная с осетинским языком модель образования будущего времени наблюдаются в согдийском и хорезмийском языках, ко­торые считаются наиболее близкими к осетинскому языку. Tense is a grammatical category of a verb that serves as a temporary localization of an event or state. Different languages have a different number of temporary forms. Historically, the Indo-European verb had three temporal systems – present, aorist and perfect. In the Avesta, forms of all Indo-European times, moods and pledges are attested. The following tenses are distinguished in it in the indicative mood: present, imperfect, perfect and pluperfect. There are two types of stems in the presence of the Avestan verb. These basics are divided into classes, the number of which reaches twenty-two. The verb system in the Middle Iranian languages has changed significantly compared to the ancient Iranian, however, the ancient Iranian temporal system in almost all Iranian languages of this period has been preserved. There are eight tenses in the New Persian language. Almost the same number of temporal forms is observed in Afghan, which is part of the Eastern Iranian subgroup. Among the Iranian languages, Ossetian is a scarcity of temporary forms. In the Ossetian language, three verbal stems can be distinguished, from which the forms of the corresponding tenses are formed. In Ossetian verbs, traces of the ancient Aryan classes of the present tense are found. In modern Iranian languages, the main opposition lies between the past and non-past times. In the indicative mood, the Ossetian language knows three tenses: present, past and future. The most interesting phenomenon in the Ossetian language is the formation of the future tense, a model of the formation of the future tense similar to the Ossetian language is observed in the Sogdian and Khorezm languages, which are considered the closest to the Ossetian language.

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