No escape from the future
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Valentina Vapnarsky
Abstract
This article deals with debated questions on the semantics and cognition of temporality: the existence of tenseless languages, the cultural variability of the representation of the future and the plurality of temporal frames and its contextdependency. It explores the hypothesis that even in tenseless languages, inferences relative to temporal location may ultimately become conventionalized and encoded by grammatical markers. While futurity is generally taken as the least tensy of tenses, this hypothesis is proposed for a future marker in Yucatec Maya (bíin). Features of factuality, remoteness and dissociation from the contemporal domain are further analysed, and lead to a characterization of bíin as triggering a non-actualized temporal frame of reference, associated with the domain of predetermined events outside human control.
Abstract
This article deals with debated questions on the semantics and cognition of temporality: the existence of tenseless languages, the cultural variability of the representation of the future and the plurality of temporal frames and its contextdependency. It explores the hypothesis that even in tenseless languages, inferences relative to temporal location may ultimately become conventionalized and encoded by grammatical markers. While futurity is generally taken as the least tensy of tenses, this hypothesis is proposed for a future marker in Yucatec Maya (bíin). Features of factuality, remoteness and dissociation from the contemporal domain are further analysed, and lead to a characterization of bíin as triggering a non-actualized temporal frame of reference, associated with the domain of predetermined events outside human control.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Theoretical issues
- A cognitive and conceptual approach to tense and aspect markers 27
-
Part II. Grammatical encoding of aspectual and temporal distinctions
- Tense, aspect and mood in Nêlêmwa (New Caledonia) 63
- On the tense-aspect system of standard Thai* 109
- Dravidian conceptual basis for the Badaga “tenses” 131
- Tense and aspect in the verbal system of Wolof* 171
- Tense and aspect in Langi* 231
- Aspect in Sikuani 265
-
Part III. Grammatical aspect and Aktionsarten
- Aspect-tense relations in East Greenlandic 297
- On interaction between external and internal markers in expressing aspect in Arabic dialect varieties 325
-
Part IV. Indo-European Aorist and Hamito-Semitic Aorist
- The aorist and the perfect in Albanian* 357
- The aorist in Modern Armenian 375
- The verbal form V-ā in Hindi/Urdu 413
- The aorist in Berber 447
- The Aorist in Zenaga Berber and the Imperfective in two Arabic dialects 465
-
Part V. Perfects and resultatives
- Modern Greek -tos (τος) and -menos (μενος) 505
- Resultative Interpretation of Predicates in Korean* 525
- On two types of result 563
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Part VI. The Future and future reference
- Future and prospective in the Mongolic languages 599
- The future tenses in the Tibetic languages 625
- No escape from the future 643
- The Bulgarian future in light of the temporal frames of reference 679
-
Part VII. Grammatical change
- Aspect as the source of diathesis in NorthEastern Neo-Aramaic and beyond with remarks on transitivity, accusativity, ergativity and case 705
- Language Index 727
- Author Index 729
- Subject Index 735
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Theoretical issues
- A cognitive and conceptual approach to tense and aspect markers 27
-
Part II. Grammatical encoding of aspectual and temporal distinctions
- Tense, aspect and mood in Nêlêmwa (New Caledonia) 63
- On the tense-aspect system of standard Thai* 109
- Dravidian conceptual basis for the Badaga “tenses” 131
- Tense and aspect in the verbal system of Wolof* 171
- Tense and aspect in Langi* 231
- Aspect in Sikuani 265
-
Part III. Grammatical aspect and Aktionsarten
- Aspect-tense relations in East Greenlandic 297
- On interaction between external and internal markers in expressing aspect in Arabic dialect varieties 325
-
Part IV. Indo-European Aorist and Hamito-Semitic Aorist
- The aorist and the perfect in Albanian* 357
- The aorist in Modern Armenian 375
- The verbal form V-ā in Hindi/Urdu 413
- The aorist in Berber 447
- The Aorist in Zenaga Berber and the Imperfective in two Arabic dialects 465
-
Part V. Perfects and resultatives
- Modern Greek -tos (τος) and -menos (μενος) 505
- Resultative Interpretation of Predicates in Korean* 525
- On two types of result 563
-
Part VI. The Future and future reference
- Future and prospective in the Mongolic languages 599
- The future tenses in the Tibetic languages 625
- No escape from the future 643
- The Bulgarian future in light of the temporal frames of reference 679
-
Part VII. Grammatical change
- Aspect as the source of diathesis in NorthEastern Neo-Aramaic and beyond with remarks on transitivity, accusativity, ergativity and case 705
- Language Index 727
- Author Index 729
- Subject Index 735