John Benjamins Publishing Company
Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area
Abstract
As a result of language contact, Southeast Asian languages belonging to different language families share features, such as phonemic tone and numeral classifiers. Similarities between Southeast Asian languages in the frequency of explicit temporal marking, and the reference to spatial and temporal relations with markers related to motion verbs might be also the result of language contact. Descriptions of markers of Southeast Asian languages that express temporal relations, differ in the literature due to their polysemy and due to the application of seemingly universal categories to the description of language specific concepts. This paper discusses universal categories and polysemy before presenting and comparing those grammatical markers of Burmese, Lao, Thai and Vietnamese that are associated with the marking of the categories past, anteriority, perfect or perfectivity.
Abstract
As a result of language contact, Southeast Asian languages belonging to different language families share features, such as phonemic tone and numeral classifiers. Similarities between Southeast Asian languages in the frequency of explicit temporal marking, and the reference to spatial and temporal relations with markers related to motion verbs might be also the result of language contact. Descriptions of markers of Southeast Asian languages that express temporal relations, differ in the literature due to their polysemy and due to the application of seemingly universal categories to the description of language specific concepts. This paper discusses universal categories and polysemy before presenting and comparing those grammatical markers of Burmese, Lao, Thai and Vietnamese that are associated with the marking of the categories past, anteriority, perfect or perfectivity.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
Timeless concept of Temporality
- Temporal Reference Without the Concept of Time? 3
-
Spatial construal of time extended
- Situating Events in Language 27
- Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning 43
- Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand 67
- Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective 85
- The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information 103
-
Time conceptualizations beyond space
- The cultural cognition of time 125
- When time is not space 151
- Metaphor and thought 187
-
Conceptualizations of temporal categories
- Temporal scenery 207
- Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area 243
-
Distributional sources of time conceptualization
- Reflection of temporal horizon in linguistic performance 273
- Time-discretising adverbials 295
- Author index 317
- Subject index 323
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
Timeless concept of Temporality
- Temporal Reference Without the Concept of Time? 3
-
Spatial construal of time extended
- Situating Events in Language 27
- Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning 43
- Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand 67
- Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective 85
- The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information 103
-
Time conceptualizations beyond space
- The cultural cognition of time 125
- When time is not space 151
- Metaphor and thought 187
-
Conceptualizations of temporal categories
- Temporal scenery 207
- Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area 243
-
Distributional sources of time conceptualization
- Reflection of temporal horizon in linguistic performance 273
- Time-discretising adverbials 295
- Author index 317
- Subject index 323
