Feature GB521: Can tense be marked by a non-inflecting word ("auxiliary particle")?

Patrons: Hedvig Skirgård

Description ⇫

Summary

This feature covers all tenses (present, past and future) and aims to capture phonologically free elements that do no inflect (i.e. do not change form depending on person, number and other categories of the core arguments). These markers are often described as ‘particles’ in the literature, but are also analyzed under other labels. We are interested in grammatical marking, i.e. dedicated, productive and obligatory marking. This means that words such as ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’ do not qualify as productively marking future and hesternal past.

There are instances where TAM can be expressed by a combination of an affix and auxiliary or particle. For example, some grammarians state that tense is expressed by a certain form on the verbal root and an auxiliary. If this is a productive and obligatory way of expressing mood then such a construction triggers 1 for both this feature (GB521) and the features on bound mood marking (GB082/GB083/GB084). If not all parts of the discontinuous marking are necessary for expressing a tense, then only consider the marking that is obligatory.

Procedure

  1. Look up the sections on tense marking in the grammatical description.
  2. Consider all marking of tense, e.g. not only past.
  3. If you do not find any non-inflecting phonologically free tense markers, code as 0.
  4. If there is a non-inflecting phonologically free marker that clearly marks tense, code the language as 1.
  5. If it is not clear whether the marker marks tense, code the language as ?.

Examples

Samoan (ISO 639-3: smo, Glottolog: samo1305)

Samoan has particles for tense and aspect. They distinguish present, past and future tense, as well as different aspects. Samoan is coded as 1 for this feature. The examples below are taken from Mosel & So'o (1997: 21).

Sā   siva   le   teine
PST  dance  DEF  girl
‘The girl danced.’ (Mosel & So'o 1997: 21)

'Ole'ā siva  le  teine
INCH   dance DEF girl
‘The girl is going to dance.’ (Mosel & So'o 1997: 21)

'Olo'o  siva   le   teine
PROG    dance  DEF  girl
‘The girl is dancing.’ (Mosel & So'o 1997: 21)

'Ua   alu  le   teine
PRF   go   DEF  girl
‘The girl has gone.’ (Mosel & So'o 1997: 21)

Further reading

Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & Pagliuca, William. 1994. The evolution of grammar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Comrie, Bernard. 1985. Tense. Cambridge University Press.

Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Blackwell.

References

Mosel, Ulrike & So'o, Ainslie. 1997. Say it in Samoan. (Pacific Linguistics: Series D, 88.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.


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0 absent 1282
1 present 414
? Not known 229
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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment