DOCSLIB.ORG

Time and Language: Roughly, We Have So Does It Work? Or XKCD Eg We Can Construct

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Time and Language: Roughly, We Have So Does It Work? Or XKCD Eg We Can Construct A digression before we start: how do A famous wrong example: Inuit have 56 Time and Language: we describe what goes on? words for snow Roughly, we have How we talk about time The Sapir Whorf hypothesis. (they actually have one!). ! However skiers have at least 10: • Physical Time Peter Watson (powder, crud, hard-pack, ice, crusty, • Psychological Time Are they the same? slush, spring, corn, sugar, fresh, wet, Biological Time piste, corduroy....). • (Very loosely). Or are they different" Sociological Time Time is an Illusion: • The strong form: you cannot discuss a concept Most of these distinctions are • aspects of the same thing? lunch-time doubly so ! unless you have the language to describe it. meaningless to non-skiers, but they • Astronomical Time Hitchhiker's Guide The weak form: your views of the universe are allow a concepts to be transferred in modified and restricted by language. compact form. • Historical Time • Geological Time 1 2 3 4 Peter Watson So does it work? • I picked the car up yesterday, so that, if you go to the supermarket now, I •I picked the car up yesterday, so that, if you go to the will have time to drive to Montreal." • Better: language represents a “window into supermarket now, I will have time to drive to the mind” (Pinker) Montreal." • J'ai pris la voiture hier, de sorte que, si vous aller au supermarché •I picked the car up yesterday, so maintenant, j'ai le temps pour conduire à Montréal." • We think in “mentalese” and translate it into that, if you go to the supermarket a language J'ai pris la voiture hier, de sorte que, now, I will have time to drive to • •Ich habe das Auto gestern auf, si vous aller au supermarché Montreal. damit, wenn Sie zum Supermarkt maintenant, j'ai le temps pour jetzt gehen können, ich Zeit habe, conduire à Montréal. nach Montreal zu Fahren. 5 An (unspoken) model of time: Note 3 s "now" is confirmed by Our linear model of time is enhanced in several ways: Past is immutable, future is fluid, but depends on the psychology Absolute time (rather than relative) past: note this is assumed not just in philosophy and • I picked the car up yesterday, so that, if you go to the supermarket now, I physics, but poetry as well will have time to drive to Montreal." • The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit • J'ai pris la voiture hier, de sorte que, si vous aller au supermarché Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, maintenant, j'ai le temps pour conduire à Montréal." Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. • Multiple Frames of reference. Note we agree on common events, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam tr. by Edward FitzGerald • Ich habe das Auto gestern auf, damit, wenn Sie zum Supermarkt jetzt gehen past and future Time past and time future können, ich Zeit habe, nach Montreal zu Fahren." • However we tie down past and future with events. • Allow but a little consciousness. To be conscious is not to be in time •Ayer recogí el coche, asi que, si • T. S. Eliot Burnt Norton puedes ir al supermercado ahora, • And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down tendré suficiente tiempo para We are captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look behind from where we came conducir a Montreal • We’ll call this the linear model And go round and round and round in the circle game Joni Mitchell The Circle Game • Past is immutable, future is fluid 10 11 12 or XKCD E.g. We can construct E.g. We can construct “impossible” sentences “impossible” sentences • I might stop for a coffee on the way to • I accidentally ran over an old lady on the way Montreal to the garage • I might stop for a coffee on my way to the • I will accidentally run over an old lady on the garage yesterday way to Montreal 13 14 Text 15 Text 16 Time in English Time in English Tenses but not just words: grammar. In Latin we learned 6 tenses: • We have a vast array of words linked to time: e.g. Change: rapid, slow, languorous, flow, dragging,...... The past, present and I love, you (s) love, Present Amo, Amas, amat Measurement of time: hour, minute, second, year, Many more that imply time: paleolithic, oscillatory, he she or it loves epoch, age, period, watch (two meanings) , clock,..... periodic, ancestor, descendant, son, speed, acceleration, future walked into a breakfast, teatime, Past amavi I loved Passage of time: brief, momentary, lengthy, overlong, bar. Note (very important for later) we already have the idea that things change with time ; e.g. Future amabo I will love Temporal ordering, or relative time: before, after, future, past, history, late, early, first, second, causal, distance d I used to love/I was prediction ..... speed = = Imperfect amabam time t The situation was tense loving Absolute time (usually in phrase) : 9/11, last Pluperfect amaveram I had loved Tuesday, Death of Caesar .... Future perfect amavero I will have loved 17 18 20 Tenses Note many subtleties: e.g prediction In Latin we learned 6 tenses: claim in English that we have 10: We will overcome (Negro Spiritual) • Note that this is grossly simplified: these are Indicative active tenses Present Simple I speak Implies ability to do something in the present vs volition Also note that not all of these translate into even other Indo- We shall overcome (Peter Seeger's adaptation) European languages e.g • We also have Subjunctive active (amem ⇔ May I love) Present continuous I am speaking ! "I speak" & "I am speaking" ⇒ "je parle" ! • Indicative passive (amor I am loved) "I speak" & "I am speaking" ⇒ "Ich spreche" ⇔ Present perfect I have spoken No particular time implied Note that although we always use the same English construction for prediction, we don’t mean the same thing: but "I speak" ⇒ "Sto parlando" & "I am speaking" ⇒ "Parlo" • Subjunctive passive (amer ⇔ May I be loved) e.g. Imperfect I used to speak I used to love/I was loving This does not imply that those languages are incomplete The sun will rise tomorrow Implies temporal ordering ("I had spoken Pluperfect I had spoken • Imperative (ama ⇔ Love! (or else)) before leaving" The Sens will win the Stanley Cup Preterite/Aorist I spoke • These are "moods", but we are really only interested in the temporal aspects Conditional I would speak Can refer to past as well as the future (!) Past Continuous I was speaking Future I will speak Can imply prediction or intention I will have Future perfect Implies series of action in future spoken • Stolen and adapted from Wikipedia 21 22 23 24 Also note that other languages have other tenses (again from Wikipedia) Causality: a meta-rule in science Causality and Language • But note we have constructions that violate ◦ Near future tense: in the near future, soon causality ◦ Hodiernal future tense: sometime today • i.e. all effects have a cause, which precedes it in time. • Handled by standard constructions ◦ Post-hodiernal future tense: sometime after today • I went to the supermarket yesterday because Wind is caused by trees waving their branches (Ogden ◦ Remote future tense: in the more distant future • Nash, see also G. K. Chesterton) • The cat died so I flushed it down the toilet! I have to go to the dentist tomorrow! ◦ Predictive future tense: a future tense which expresses a prediction rather than an intention, i.e., "I predict he will lose the Because the cat was dead, I flushed it down Will need a more precise way to define election, although I want him to win". As such, it is really more of a Note this is not a matter of science (!): could a religion deal • • mood than a tense. (Its tenseness rather than modality lies in with an acausal universe? the toilet! causality the fact that you can predict the future, but not the past.) ◦ Nonfuture tense: refers to either the present or the past, but does Can we even contemplate a universe where a large number • Note implied sequence of events not clearly specify which. Contrasts with future. of events occur without cause? ◦ Nonpast tense: refers to either the present or the future, but does not clearly specify which. Contrasts with past. ◦ Not-yet tense: has not happened in present or past (nonfuture), but often with the implication that it is expected to happen in the future. (As such, is both a tense and a modality). In English, it is expressed with "not yet", hence its name. 25 26 27 28 Are there any temporal concepts that we Free-will/Determinism cannot express in English? Do we need all these tenses? Damon Runyon: in the Sapir-Whorf context, English is biased Note that we •“More than Somewhat” (two stories make up the • musical “Guys and Dolls”) in favour of free-will: e.g. can easily understand •“Furthermore” • “I decided to go to the movie tomorrow” temporal • “Take It Easy” • “I decided not to go to the movie tomorrow” concepts we have never • collected in “Runyon on Broadway” • Both sound sensible, but discussed before. E.g. Red “It is predetermined that I will go to the • Dwarf movie tomorrow” sounds stupid 29 30 31 32 Dancing Dan's Christmas ! Does it translate? Do we need all these tenses? NOW one time it comes on Christmas, and in fact it is the evening before Non-European Languages Christmas, and I am in Good Time Charley Bernstein's little speakeasy in West Forty- Dancing Dan's Noël de Dan Dansant seventh Street, wishing Charley a Merry Christmas and having a few hot Tom and MAINTENANT une fois il vient sur Noël, et Damon Runyon: Jerrys with him.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • English for Practical Purposes 9
    ENGLISH FOR PRACTICAL PURPOSES 9 CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction of English Grammar Chapter 2: Sentence Chapter 3: Noun Chapter 4: Verb Chapter 5: Pronoun Chapter 6: Adjective Chapter 7: Adverb Chapter 8: Preposition Chapter 9: Conjunction Chapter 10: Punctuation Chapter 11: Tenses Chapter 12: Voice Chapter 1 Introduction to English grammar English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. There are historical, social, and regional variations of English. Divergences from the grammardescribed here occur in some dialects of English. This article describes a generalized present-dayStandard English, the form of speech found in types of public discourse including broadcasting,education, entertainment, government, and news reporting, including both formal and informal speech. There are certain differences in grammar between the standard forms of British English, American English and Australian English, although these are inconspicuous compared with the lexical andpronunciation differences. Word classes and phrases There are eight word classes, or parts of speech, that are distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. (Determiners, traditionally classified along with adjectives, have not always been regarded as a separate part of speech.) Interjections are another word class, but these are not described here as they do not form part of theclause and sentence structure of the language. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs form open classes – word classes that readily accept new members, such as the nouncelebutante (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles), similar relatively new words. The others are regarded as closed classes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Perfective Imperative in Japanese a Further Analysis
    The perfective imperative in Japanese A further analysis Axel Svahn [email protected] Master Thesis Lund University Japanese Centre for Languages and Literature, Japanese Studies Fall Term 2009 Supervisor: Lars Larm ABSTRACT The present thesis is concerned with a descriptive analysis of a phenomenon in the Japanese language, the use as an imperative of two suffixes of tense and aspect, -ta and -tari. The use of the past tense form (or ta-form) as an imperative in modern Japanese has been touched upon by various scholars, but a detailed account of the construction, its diachrony, and its place in a cross-linguistic context has not previously been performed. These aspects of the constructions are described in detail, and a contrastive analysis determines how imperative -ta differs from other imperatives in modern Japanese. The relation between aspect and imperative utterances manifested in imperative -ta is discussed, focusing on the connection between imperative -ta and perfective aspect. The discussion also focuses on the occurrence of past tense and perfective imperatives cross-linguistically. These phenomena are connected through the concept of deictic projection (Lyons 1977, Tavangar and Amouzadeh 2006). Keywords: Aspect, deictic projection, imperative, Japanese, past tense, perfective aspect, -ta, -tari ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper could not have been written without the help of a number of people. Without the information and ideas provided by them, the task of expanding a sketch of a peripheral phenomenon in Japanese into a larger paper surveying a variety of languages would have been impossible. The author wishes to express his gratitude to Ehsan Bouhendi, Östen Dahl, Bjarke Frellesvig, Thomas Gross, Szymon Grzelak, Lars-Åke Henningsson, Arthur Holmer, Lars Larm, Marita Ljungqvist, Sawako Murao, Johan Muskala, Mattias Nowak, Sven Osterkamp, Rumiko Shinzato, Kazuyo Suzumura-Lundström, Axel Theorin, Dorota Tubielewicz Mattsson, Janick Wrona, and Xiaoyan Zhang, to whom the thesis is dedicated.
    [Show full text]
  • The Greek Perfect and the Categorization of Tense and Aspect: Toward a Descriptive Apparatus for Operators in Role and Reference Grammar
    THE GREEK PERFECT AND THE CATEGORIZATION OF TENSE AND ASPECT: TOWARD A DESCRIPTIVE APPARATUS FOR OPERATORS IN ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR by Michael G. Aubrey A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Linguistics and Exegesis We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Sean Allison, Ph.D.; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Steven Runge, D.Litt.; Second Reader ................................................................................ Dr. Michael Boutin, Ph.D.; Third Reader TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY August 2014 © Michael G. Aubrey Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Role and Reference Grammar ............................................................................ 5 2.1 Overview of Role and Reference Grammar ............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Tense in English: Its Structure and Use in Discourse
    2006. B. Aarts and A. McMahon, (eds.), The Handbook of English Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. Time and Tense Laura A. Michaelis University of Colorado at Boulder 1. Introduction Humans conceive of time in terms of space, as shown by the language that we use to talk about temporal relations: we habitually speak of stretching out or compressing an activity, heading toward the future, returning to the past and so on (Whorf 1956, Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Binnick 1991:Chapter 1). When describing the meanings of the tenses, linguists have relied on a specific instance of the space-time analogy: the TIMELINE. The timeline is a line (or, equivalently, an ordered set of points) that is unbounded at both ends and segmented into three parts: the past, the present and the future. The points on the timeline may be times by themselves or times paired with events. While we can describe various relations among points on the timeline, only one type of relation counts as a tense relation: that which includes the time at which the linguistic act is occurring. As Lyons states (1977:682), “the crucial fact about tense […] is that it is a deictic category. A tensed proposition, therefore, will not merely be time- bound, […] it will contain a reference to some point or period of time which cannot be identified except in terms of the zero-point of the utterance”. The relationship between utterance time and the time of the situation described may be direct, as in the case of ABSOLUTE TENSES like the past tense, or indirect, as in the case of RELATIVE TENSES like the future perfect (e.g., I will have left [by the time you read this letter]), in which the leaving event is represented as in the past relative to a point that is in the future relative to utterance time (the point at which the letter is read).
    [Show full text]
  • Tense & Aspect Markers in African American English by Candice L. Scott a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Th
    Tense & Aspect Markers in African American English by Candice L. Scott A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics) in The University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Professor Marlyse Baptista, Chair Professor Lisa Green, University of Massachusetts Professor Acrisio M. Pires Associate Professor Teresa L. Satterfield Professor Sarah G. Thomason Associate Professor Suzanne E. Wagner, Michigan State University Table of Contents List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. v Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 6 2.1. Camouflaging ....................................................................................................................... 7 2.2. Methodological limitations ................................................................................................ 10 2.3. Approach used for this dissertation.................................................................................... 12 2.3.1. What is grammaticalization?....................................................................................... 12 2.3.2. Grammaticalization frameworks ................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Second Edition Volume
    This page intentionally left blank Language Typology and Syntactic Description Second edition Volume III: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon This unique three-volume survey brings together a team of leading scholars to explore the syntactic and morphological structures of the world’s languages. Clearly organized and broad-ranging, it covers topics such as parts of speech, passives, complementation, relative clauses, adverbial clauses, inflectional morphology, tense, aspect mood, and deixis. The contributors look at the major ways that these notions are realized, and provide informative sketches of them at work in a range of languages. Each volume is accessibly written and clearly explains each new concept introduced. Although the volumes can be read independently, together they provide an indispensable reference work for all linguists and field workers interested in cross-linguistic generaliza- tions. Most of the chapters in the second edition are substantially revised or completely new – some on topics not covered by the first edition. Volume iii covers typological distinctions in word formation; lexical typologies; inflec- tional morphology; gender and noun classes; aspect, tense, mood; and lexical nominalization. Timothy Shopen (1936–2005) was Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the Australian National University. He had over forty years’ experience of teach- ing and researching a variety of the world’s languages, and also held posts at Indiana University and the Center for Applied Linguistics in Arlington, Virginia. In addition to Language
    [Show full text]
  • PERFECTIVE and PERFORMATIVE a Reconstruction of Aspectual Universals
    PERFECTIVE AND PERFORMATIVE A reconstruction of aspectual universals John Hewson and Vit Bubenik Memorial University of Newfoundland 1. Scientific mentalism Major investigations of the linguistic activity of the mind took place seventy years ago in mid- 20th century. At a time when the anti-mentalism of Bloomfield (1926, 1933) and Chomsky (who assures his readers that his work is “not a model for a speaker or a hearer” 1965:9) was the norm, George Miller published his 1956 article on measuring the Working Memory, thereby making the mind unambiguously accessible to modern science. Three years later, Wilder Penfield, a renowned Montreal neurosurgeon, published, with his colleague Lamar Roberts, Speech and Brain Mechanisms, a book which reported the discovery of language centres in the brain, in the course of investigations made during invasive brain surgery. This book, which has recently been reprinted, is of fundamental importance to the discipline of linguistics. Antimentalism was thus shown, by the disciplines of Psychology and Medicine, to be an unacceptable positivist prejudice. Without a speaker, in fact, there can be no human language. The speaker-writer consequently can not be left out of the scientific investigation of language: the first of the three Canons of Science requires “...the adequate treatment of all the relevant material” (Robins 1964:7). 2. European structuralism In Tense and Aspect in Indo-European Languages (Hewson and Bubenik 1997, hence TA in IE) the existence of two major completive aspects, called here Perfective and Performative, and two major incompletive forms, traditionally called Imperfective and Progressive was traced through all twelve families of the Indo-European linguistic phylum.
    [Show full text]
  • Meta-Modeling of Tense and Aspect in a Cross-Linguistic Grammar Engineering Platform
    Meta-modeling of Tense and Aspect in a Cross-linguistic Grammar Engineering Platform Laurie Poulson Abstract This work describes the implementation of a meta-modeling approach to morpho- logically marked tense and aspect within the LinGO Grammar Matrix customization system. The Matrix customization system creates a small hpsg grammar for a language based on answers to questions about particular linguistic phenomena. In the original system, these answers indicated a choice of pre-determined analyses of the various phe- nomena. The complexity of tense and aspect systems, the cross-linguistic variation in those systems, as well as the variation in linguists' analyses of tense and aspect and their underlying assumptions, make tense and aspect difficult to implement in this way. Meta-modeling is proposed as an answer to the question of how tense and aspect can be implemented in the customization system while imposing a minimal amount of analysis on the linguist-user. The meta-modeling approach supports the linguist-user in developing their own analytical model of tense and aspect for a particular language. Within the framework of hpsg, as implemented in the LinGO Grammar Matrix, the meta-modeling of tense and aspect provides flexibility for the linguist-user with regards to the definition of types, hierarchies and features. In addition, this approach allows the user to determine how tense and aspect features relate to specific morphemes as well as how the features contribute to the definition of grammatical constraints. Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 The Grammar Matrix 4 3 Tense and Aspect 6 3.1 Tense . 7 3.1.1 Dimensions of variation .
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen
    PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/105825 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-05 and may be subject to change. !"#$ % &&'''$ $ () "* % * +,-%./0!.1!.!/!. %2 ( 3'% * $53 ) $ 62(5 ) 7 * 8 9P ;( Q Tense, Aspect, Modality, and Evidentiality Marking in South American Indigenous Languages Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. mr. S.C.J.J. Kortmann, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 26 maart om 10.30 uur precies door Neele Janna Müller geboren op 28 mei 1982 te Leer Promotor: Prof. drdrdr.dr . Pieter Muysken CopromotoreCopromotoren:n:n:n: Dr. Rik van Gijn (((Universität(Universität ZürichZürich)))) Dr. Mily Crevels Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. drdrdr.dr . HHHeHeeelenlenlenlen de Hoop Prof. drdrdr.dr . Kees HeHeHenHe nnngeveldgeveld (Universiteit vanvanvan Amsterdam) Prof. drdrdr.dr . Pier Marco Bertinetto (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) För Mama un Papa. Für Axel. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vvviviii ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS viviviivi iiiii 1.1.1. INTRODUCTION 111 2.2.2. TERMINOLOGY, FRAMEWORK, AND TOOLS 333 2.12.12.1 INTRODUCTION 333 2.22.22.2 TERMINOLOGY 333 2.2.1 Marking 3 2.2.2 Cumulative morphemes 5 2.2.3 Ambiguity 6 2.32.32.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 777 2.3.1 Prototype theory and the canonical approch 7 2.3.2 The dominance parameter 8 2.3.3 Grammaticalization 9 2.3.4 Obligatoriness 10 2.3.5 Systematicity 11 2.42.42.4 THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THIS STUDY 111111 2.52.52.5 TOOLS 151515 2.5.1 The language sample 15 2.5.2 The questionnaire 22 3.3.3.
    [Show full text]
  • Time and Language: So Does It Work?
    A digression before we start: how do Time and Language: we describe what goes on? How we talk about time The Sapir Whorf hypothesis. Peter Watson (Very loosely). Time is an Illusion: • The strong form: you cannot discuss a concept lunch-time doubly so unless you have the language to describe it. Hitchhiker's Guide The weak form: your views of the universe are modified and restricted by language. 1 2 A famous wrong example: Inuit have 56 words for snow So does it work? (they actually have one!). However skiers have at least 10: • Better: language represents a “window into (powder, crud, hard-pack, ice, crusty, the mind” (Pinker) slush, spring, corn, sugar, fresh, wet, • We think in “mentalese” and translate it into piste, corduroy....). a language Most of these distinctions are meaningless to non-skiers, but they allow a concepts to be transferred in compact form. 3 4 •I picked the car up yesterday, so that, if you go to the supermarket now, I will have time to drive to •I picked the car up yesterday, so Montreal. that, if you go to the supermarket J'ai pris la voiture hier, de sorte que, now, I will have time to drive to • si vous aller au supermarché Montreal. maintenant, j'ai le temps pour conduire à Montréal. • I picked the car up yesterday, so that, if you go to the supermarket now, I will have time to drive to Montreal. • I picked the car up yesterday, so that, if you go to the supermarket now, I will have time to drive to Montreal.
    [Show full text]
  • Nominal Tense in Crosslinguistic Perspective Author(S): Rachel Nordlinger and Louisa Sadler Source: Language, Vol
    Linguistic Society of America Nominal Tense in Crosslinguistic Perspective Author(s): Rachel Nordlinger and Louisa Sadler Source: Language, Vol. 80, No. 4 (Dec., 2004), pp. 776-806 Published by: Linguistic Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4489781 . Accessed: 21/11/2014 13:33 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Linguistic Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Language. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 5.70.164.95 on Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:33:47 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NOMINAL TENSE IN CROSSLINGUISTICPERSPECTIVE RACHELNORDLINGER LOUISASADLER University of Melbourne University of Essex It is a general assumption in linguistic theory that the categories of tense, aspect, and mood (TAM) are inflectional categories of verbal classes only. In a number of languages around the world, however, nominals and other NP constituents are also inflected for these categories. In this article we provide a comprehensive survey of tense/aspect/mood markingon NP constituents across the world's languages. Two distinct types are identified: PROPOSITIONALNOMINAL TAM, wherebythe nominalcarries TAM informationrelevant to the whole proposition,and INDEPENDENT NOMINALTAM, in which the TAM informationencoded on the nominal is relevant only to the NP on which it is marked--independent of the TAM of the clause as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidentiality and Its Interaction with Tense: Evidence from Korean
    Evidentiality and its Interaction with Tense: Evidence from Korean DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jungmee Lee, M.A. Department of Linguistics The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Prof. Judith Tonhauser, Adviser Prof. Craige Roberts Prof. Carl Pollard c Copyright by Jungmee Lee 2011 ABSTRACT Evidentiality is a linguistic category that specifies the source of information conveyed, such as direct observation, inference, or hearsay (Aikhenvald 2004). Through a detailed study of three distinct evidential readings that arise from the Korean evidentials –te and –ney, this dissertation studies the close interaction between evidentiality and other semantic cat- egories, particularly temporality and modality. The goal of the dissertation is to develop a formal analysis which adequately captures the following empirical patterns of the meaning of Korean evidential utterances. First, three distinct evidential readings, i.e. direct vs. inferential vs. reportative, arise from the evidentials –te and –ney, by means of their interactions with tense and mood. Second, Korean evidential sentences behave like epistemically modalized sentences with respect to anchoring patterns, constraints with their subjects, and modal subordination. Third, the meaning contribution of Korean evidentials in discourse has a different status from that of the expressions occurring in the scope of the evidentials: unlike the latter, the former cannot be the main point of utterances. But the two different types of implications exhibit a bi-directional interaction in the course of interpreting a single evidential utterance. I formally analyze the first two empirical findings in Kratzer’s (1977, 1981, 1991) modal theory.
    [Show full text]