Grammatical tense
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In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference.[1][2] Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
The main tenses found in many languages include the
Tenses generally express time relative to the
Expressions of tense are often closely connected with expressions of the category of aspect; sometimes what are traditionally called tenses (in languages such as Latin) may in modern analysis be regarded as combinations of tense with aspect. Verbs are also often conjugated for mood, and since in many cases the three categories are not manifested separately, some languages may be described in terms of a combined tense–aspect–mood (TAM) system.
Etymology
The English noun tense comes from Old French tens "time" (spelled temps in modern French through deliberate archaization), from Latin tempus, "time".[6] It is not related to the adjective tense, which comes from Latin tensus, the perfect passive participle of tendere, "stretch".[7]
Uses of the term
In modern linguistic theory, tense is understood as a category that expresses (grammaticalizes) time reference; namely one which, using grammatical means, places a state or action in time.[1][2] Nonetheless, in many descriptions of languages, particularly in traditional European grammar, the term "tense" is applied to verb forms or constructions that express not merely position in time, but also additional properties of the state or action – particularly aspectual or modal properties.
The category of
The category of
The term tense, then, particularly in less formal contexts, is sometimes used to denote any combination of tense proper, aspect, and mood. As regards
Particular tense forms need not always carry their basic time-referential meaning in every case. For instance, the historical present is a use of the present tense to refer to past events. The phenomenon of fake tense is common crosslinguistically as a means of marking counterfactuality in conditionals and wishes.[8][9]
Possible tenses
Not all languages have tense:
Tenses that refer specifically to "today" are called
Another tense found in some languages, including Luganda, is the persistive tense, used to indicate that a state or ongoing action is still the case (or, in the negative, is no longer the case). Luganda also has tenses meaning "so far" and "not yet".[dubious ]
Some languages have special tense forms that are used to express
Some languages have cyclic tense systems. This is a form of temporal marking where tense is given relative to a reference point or reference span. In Burarra, for example, events that occurred earlier on the day of speaking are marked with the same verb forms as events that happened in the far past, while events that happened yesterday (compared to the moment of speech) are marked with the same forms as events in the present. This can be thought of as a system where events are marked as prior or contemporaneous to points of reference on a time line.[18]
Tense marking
Morphology of tense
Tense is normally indicated by the use of a particular verb form – either an
As has already been mentioned, indications of tense are often bound up with indications of other verbal categories, such as
Languages that do not have grammatical tense, such as most
Nominal Tense
A few languages have been shown to mark tense information (as well as aspect and mood) on nouns. This may be called nominal tense, or more broadly nominal TAM which includes nominal marking of aspect and mood as well.[19]
Syntax of tense
The syntactic properties of tense have figured prominently in formal analyses of how tense-marking interacts with word order. Some languages (such as French) allow an adverb (Adv) to intervene between a tense-marked verb (V) and its direct object (O); in other words, they permit [Verb-Adverb-Object] ordering. In contrast, other languages (such as English) do not allow the adverb to intervene between the verb and its direct object, and require [Adverb-Verb-Object] ordering.
Tense in syntax is represented by the category label T, which is the head of a TP (tense phrase).
Tenseless language
In linguistics, a tenseless language is a language that does not have a grammatical category of tense. Tenseless languages can and do refer to
In particular languages
The study of modern languages has been greatly influenced by the grammar of the Classical languages, since early grammarians, often monks, had no other reference point to describe their language. Latin terminology is often used to describe modern languages, sometimes with a change of meaning, as with the application of "perfect" to forms in English that do not necessarily have perfective meaning, or the words Imperfekt and Perfekt to German past tense forms that mostly lack any relationship to the aspects implied by those terms.
Latin
Latin is traditionally described as having six verb paradigms for tense (the Latin for "tense" being tempus, plural tempora):
- Present (praesēns)
- Imperfect (praeteritum imperfectum)
- Perfect (praesēns perfectum)
- Future (futūrum)
- Pluperfect (plūs quam perfectum, praeteritum perfectum)
- Future perfect (futūrum perfectum)
Latin has two past paradigms: imperfect and perfect. Imperfect verbs represent a past process combined with so called
Latin verbs are inflected for tense and aspect together with
Ancient Greek
The paradigms for
English
English has only two
In some contexts, particularly in
Other Indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European verbs had present, perfect (stative), imperfect and aorist forms – these can be considered as representing two tenses (present and past) with different aspects. Most languages in the Indo-European family have developed systems either with two morphological tenses (present or "non-past", and past) or with three (present, past and future). The tenses often form part of entangled tense–aspect–mood conjugation systems. Additional tenses, tense–aspect combinations, etc. can be provided by compound constructions containing auxiliary verbs.
The Germanic languages (which include English) have present (non-past) and past tenses formed morphologically, with future and other additional forms made using auxiliaries. In standard German, the compound past (Perfekt) has replaced the simple morphological past in most contexts.
The Romance languages (descendants of Latin) have past, present and future morphological tenses, with additional aspectual distinction in the past. French is an example of a language where, as in German, the simple morphological perfective past (passé simple) has mostly given way to a compound form (passé composé).
In the
Other languages
Finnish and Hungarian, both members of the Uralic language family, have morphological present (non-past) and past tenses. The Hungarian verb van ("to be") also has a future form.
Turkish verbs conjugate for past, present and future, with a variety of aspects and moods.
Arabic verbs have past and non-past; future can be indicated by a prefix.
For examples of languages with a greater variety of tenses, see the section on possible tenses, above. Fuller information on tense formation and usage in particular languages can be found in the articles on those languages and their grammars.
Austronesian languages
Rapa
Rapa is the French Polynesian language of the island of Rapa Iti.[29] Verbs in the indigenous Old Rapa occur with a marker known as TAM which stands for tense, aspect, or mood which can be followed by directional particles or deictic particles. Of the markers there are three tense markers called: Imperfective, Progressive, and Perfective. Which simply mean, Before, Currently, and After.[29] However, specific TAM markers and the type of deictic or directional particle that follows determine and denote different types of meanings in terms of tenses.
Imperfective: denotes actions that have not occurred yet but will occur and expressed by TAM e.[29]
e
IPFV
naku
come
mai
DIR
te
INDEF
'āikete
teacher
anana'i
tomorrow
'The teacher is coming tomorrow.'
e
IPFV
mānea
pretty
tō
DEF
pē'ā
woman
ra
DEIC
'That woman is beautiful.'
Progressive: Also expressed by TAM e and denotes actions that are currently happening when used with deictic na, and denotes actions that was just witnessed but still currently happening when used with deictic ra.[29]
e
IPFV
'āikete
learn
na
DEIC
'ōna
3S
i
ACC
te
INDEF
tamariki
child/children
'He is teaching some children.'
e
IPFV
kai
eat
na
DEIC
ou
1S
i
ACC
kota'i
one
kororio
small
eika
fish
'I am eating a small fish.'
e
IPFV
tunu
cook
na
DEIC
ou
1S
i
ACC
te
INDEF
mīkaka
taro
tonga
all
te
INDEF
pōpongi
morning
'I cook taro every morning.'
e
IPFV
kaikai
eat.continuously
ra
DEIC
te
INDEF
kurī
dog
i
ACC
te
INDEF
moa
chicken
'The dog is eating a chicken.'
e
IPFV
mate
die
atu
DIR
ra
DEIC
'ōna
3S
'She has just died.'
Perfective: denotes actions that have already occurred or have finished and is marked by TAM ka.[29]
ka
PFV
ngurunguru
growl
te
INDEF
kurī
dog
'A dog growled.'
ka
PFV
tākave
kill
tō
DEF
tangata
man
i
ACC
te
INDEF
mango
shark
'The man killed the shark.'
ka
PFV
tunu
cook
na
DEIC
ou
1S
i
ACC
te
INDEF
mīkaka
taro
tonga
all
te
INDEF
pōpongi
morning
'I used to cook taro every morning'
In Old Rapa there are also other types of tense markers known as Past, Imperative, and Subjunctive.
Past
TAM i marks past action. It is rarely used as a matrix TAM and is more frequently observed in past embedded clauses[29]
i
PST
komo
sleep
mātou
1PL.EXCL
'We slept.'
e
IPFV
a'a
what
koe
2S
i
PST
'aka-ineine
CAUS-ready
'What did you prepare?'
Imperative
The imperative is marked in Old Rapa by TAM a. A second person subject is implied by the direct command of the imperative.[29]
a
IMP
naku
come
mai
DIR
'Come here.'
a
IMP
kai
eat
tā-koe
INDEF.PossA-2S
eika
fish
'Eat your fish.'
For a more polite form rather than a straightforward command imperative TAM a is used with adverbial kānei. Kānei is only shown to be used in imperative structures and was translated by the french as "please".
a
IMP
rave
take
mai
DIR
kānei
PREC
tō
DEF
mea
thing
'Please take the thing.'
a
IMP
omono
dress
kānei
PREC
koe
2S
tō
DEF
ka'u
clothing
ra
DEIC
'Please dress yourself in those clothes.'
It is also used in a more impersonal form. For example, how you would speak toward a pesky neighbor.
a
IMP
naku
go
kānei
PREC
'Please leave now!'
Subjunctive
The subjunctive in Old Rapa is marked by kia and can also be used in expressions of desire[29]
kia
SBJV
naku
come
ou
1S
i
PREP
te
INDEF
'are
house
e
IPFV
kaikai
eat.continuously
ou
1S
'When I get to the house, I will eat.'
kia
SBJV
rekareka
happy
kōrua
2DU
'May you two be happy.'
Tokelau
The Tokelauan language is a tenseless language. The language uses the same words for all three tenses; the phrase E liliu mai au i te Aho Tōnai literally translates to Come back / me / on Saturday, but the translation becomes 'I am coming back on Saturday'.[30]
Wuvulu-Aua
Wuvulu-Aua does not have an explicit tense, but rather tense is conveyed by mood, aspect markers, and time phrases. Wuvulu speakers use a realis mood to convey past tense as speakers can be certain about events that have occurred.[31] : 89 In some cases, realis mood is used to convey present tense — often to indicate a state of being. Wuvulu speakers use an irrealis mood to convey future tense.[31]: 90 Tense in Wuvulu-Aua may also be implied by using time adverbials and aspectual markings. Wuvulu contains three verbal markers to indicate sequence of events. The preverbal adverbial loʔo 'first' indicates the verb occurs before any other. The postverbal morpheme liai and linia are the respective intransitive and transitive suffixes indicating a repeated action. The postverbal morpheme li and liria are the respective intransitive and transitive suffixes indicating a completed action.[31]: 91
Mortlockese
See also
References
- ^ a b Fabricius-Hansen, Catherine (2006). "Tense". In Brown, E.K.; Anderson, A. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed.). Boston: Elsevier. pp. 566–573.
- ^ ISBN 978-0521290456.
the semantic concept of time reference (absolute or relative), ... may be grammaticalized in a language, i.e. a language may have a grammatical category that expresses time reference, in which case we say that the language has tenses. Some languages lack tense, i.e. do not have grammatical time reference, though probably all languages can lexicalize time reference, i.e. have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time.
- ^ Huang, Nick (2015). "On syntactic tense in Mandarin Chinese". In Tao, Hongyin (ed.). Proceedings of the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (PDF). Vol. 2. Los Angeles: UCLA. pp. 406–423. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
- ^ ISBN 9781405190404.
- ISSN 2333-9683.
- Perseus Project.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "tense". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- (PDF) from the original on 2018-07-24.
- ^ von Fintel, Kai; Iatridou, Sabine (2020). Prolegomena to a Theory of X-Marking Archived 2020-07-15 at the Wayback Machine. Manuscript.
- ISBN 0-521-28138-5.
- ISBN 979-8769812316.
- ISBN 979-8769826191.
- ^ Nedialkov, Vladimir P.; Otaina, G. A.; Geniushene, E. S.; Gruzdeva, Ekaterina (2013). Syntax of the Nivkh language: The Amur dialect. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Company.
- ^ Morse, Nancy L.; Maxwell, Michael B. (1999). "Cubeo grammar". Studies in the languages of Colombia 5. Arlington, TX: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington. p. 45.
- ^ Bybee, Joan; Perkins, Revere; Pagliuca, William (1994). The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 101.
- ^ Nettle, Daniel (January 1, 1998). The Fyem language of northern Nigeria (Languages of the world). LINCOM Europa.
- ^ Stevick, Earl W. (1971). Adapting and writing language lessons (PDF). Washington, DC: U.S. Foreign Service Institute. p. 302. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-07-17. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- hdl:1885/109283. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ Nordlinger, Rachel; Sadler, Louisa (2000). "Tense as a Nominal Category". In Butt, Miriam; King, Tracy Holloway (eds.). Proceedings of the LFG 00 Conference University of California, Berkeley (PDF). Berkeley: CSLI Publications. pp. 196–214. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-16. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-9040-4.
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- ^ Daniel Couto-Vale, 'Report and Taxis in Herodotus’s Histories: a systemic- functional approach to the description of Ancient Ionic Greek', Nuntius Antiquus, v. 11, n. 1, p. 33-62, 2015
- ISBN 978-0-521-43146-0. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
- Lay summary in: Peter W. Culicover. "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language" (PDF). Ohio State University (Review). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-01-01.
- ^ Penston, Tony (2005). A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers. TP Publications. p. 17.
- S2CID 161530848.
- ^ Qian, Nairong (錢乃榮) (2010). 《從〈滬語便商〉所見的老上海話時態》 (Tenses and Aspects? Old Shanghainese as Found in the Book Huyu Bian Shang). Shanghai: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Walworth, Mary E. (2015). The Language of Rapa Iti: Description of a Language In Change. Diss (PDF). Honolulu: U of Hawaii at Manoa. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-08-25. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ "Tau Gana Tokelau" (PDF). www.learntokelau.co.nz (1st ed.). New Zealand: Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs. 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-03-03.
- ^ a b c Hafford, James A (2014). Wuvulu Grammar and Vocabulary (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-11. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ Odango, Emerson Lopez (May 2015). Afféú Fangani 'Join Together': A Morphophonemic Analysis of Possessive Suffix Paradigms and A Discourse-Based Ethnography of the Elicitation Session in Pakin Lukunosh Mortlockese (PDF). University of Hawaii at Manoa Dissertation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-08-25.
Further reading
- "What Are Verb Tenses?". Oxford Living Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on October 23, 2016. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
- Guillaume, Gustave (1929). Temps et Verbe : théorie des aspects, des modes et des temps. Paris: H. Champion.
- Hopper, Paul J., ed. (1982). Tense–Aspect: Between Semantics and Pragmatics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. ISBN 9789027228659.
- Smith, Carlota S. (1997). The Parameter of Aspect. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy. Vol. 43. Dordrecht: Kluwer. ISBN 978-0-7923-4659-3.
- Tedeschi, Philip; Zaenen, Anne, eds. (1981). Tense and Aspect. Syntax and Semantics 14. New York: Academic Press. OCLC 7709091.