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This paper presents a cross-linguistic typology of performatives, especially with respect to their relationship with tense and aspect, in the languages of the world. I explore the relationship between performatives and particular tenses and aspects, and touch on the mechanisms underlying such a relationship. The paper finds that there is not one relation between performatives and a particular tense and aspect and there are no languages which have a special (dedicated) performative tense or aspect marker. Instead, performatives are compatible with various tense and aspect markers, even though the use of a present tense seems to be the most common. What counts as the most optimal tense and aspect for performatives depends on the division of labor within the linguistic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on a two aspectual morphemes in Moksha Mordvin (

This article is concerned with some features of the tempo-aspectual system of Shumcho, a small West Himalayish (Tibeto-Burman) language spoken in a few villages in the district Kinnaur (State of Himachal Pradesh) in the Indian Himalayas, and provides a descriptive account of the language's strategies to express progressive or habitual action and the effects of the respective markers with various types of predicates. I also consider the semantic (evidential) properties of the copulas and their interaction with the aspect/tense system, and offer some thoughts on the historical development of imperfective and perfective constructions as met in the present-day language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our knowledge about tense, aspect and modality (TMA) in the Oceanic languages of Melanesia has so far been severely limited by the lack of available data. Habituality in particular, as one of the less described TMA categories, has not yet been widely discussed for this group of languages. Based on corpus data and elicitations, we give a detailed overview of four languages, identifying common trends and addressing specific questions of general concern. These include the relation of habituality to (im)perfectivity and the relation between habituality and irrealis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this introduction article is to give a general overview of how habituality has been investigated in the literature as a grammatical category. In doing so, we first elaborate on the question of how habituality can be characterized and what difficulties one encounters in determining its properties, which include non-contingent modal event recurrence. A brief discussion of these issues is given in Section 2. Section 3 outlines selected (conceptual and formal) connections between habituality and other grammatical categories. What our observations essentially indicate is that habituality, on the one hand, closely interacts with several TAM categories, most prominently imperfective aspect and its derivatives (progressive, continuative), and also interacts in special ways with modal categories, such as the evidential or the future, on the other hand, we also observe – as has been done previously – that habituality is often not encoded overtly and can be expressed by several forms within one and the same language, and if overtly marked by a dedicated form, diachronically, it is not always stable. Finally, Section 4 summarizes the most relevant findings of the articles collected in the present special issue and highlights their importance for the general discussion about habituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of suppletion phenomena in Zapotec. As established by previous cross-linguistic studies of suppletion, most suppletion phenomena in Zapotec occur in the verb system. Nominal suppletion is attested in the possessed forms of selected nouns, such as tortilla, clothing, house, and pueblo, and the numeral system includes suppletive forms of the numeral first. Verbal suppletion types include suppletion based on aspect, mood, person/number of the subject, person of the oblique object, and valence. Each category of nominal and verbal suppletion is represented by a small number of strongly suppletive forms that appear to be etymologically distinct and a larger number of weakly suppletive forms that appear to derive from morphological processes that have ceased to be productive. By documenting suppletion phenomena across the Zapotec family, the present study aims to contribute both to the comparative Zapotec linguistics and to the empirical basis of the typological and theoretical investigation of suppletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of pluractionality is less common in Bantu languages than in other language families, such as Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) and various Nilo-Saharan languages. Yet many Bantu languages reveal patterns of habituals, combinations of verbal extensions and reduplication patterns that can function in pluractional-like ways in order to mark 'plurality or multiplicity of the verb's action' (Nurse 2008, Tense and aspect in Bantu. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 314). Bunia Swahili, an un(der)documented variety of Swahili spoken in Eastern DR Congo, has undergone contact-induced change that can be traced back to Central Sudanic languages, and has developed fluid registers of socially motivated realization. It contains different habitual markers expressing deviating semantic concepts, while habitual markers can also be combined in order to express evidentiality. Reduplication patterns as markers for pluractionality and their co-occurrence with habituals as gradual semantic continua are both taken into account in this preliminary overview. It is therefore proposed that 'semantic aspect' plays a predominant role in pluractional constructions in Bunia Swahili. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: This short note argues that the noted difficulties in Neh 8,8a can be resolved by accepting a previously suggested emendation to MT and a renewed examination of a much discussed word solely against the background of two legal episodes that employ the same verbal stem. It is suggested that one could render Neh 8,8a as »They read from the scroll of the tôrāh of God that was (already) declared«. Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag vertritt die These, dass die in Neh 8,8a feststellbaren Schwierigkeiten durch eine Emendation am MT und durch die erneute Betrachtung eines viel diskutierten Wortes behoben werden können. Dies geschieht vor dem Hintergrund von zwei Gesetzestexten, die denselben Verbalstamm verwenden. Es wird vorgeschlagen, man könne Neh 8,8a »Sie lasen aus der Schriftrolle der Tora Gottes, die war (schon) erklärt« lesen. Résumé: Cette note montre que les difficultés remarquées en Ne 8,8a peuvent être résolues, en acceptant un amendement du TM déjà proposé antérieurement ainsi qu'en examinant à nouveau, sur l'arrière-fond de deux épisodes juridiques qui utilisent la même racine, un mot souvent discuté. Il est ainsi possible de rendre Ne 8,8a par »ils lisaient dans le rouleau de la torah de Dieu, qui avait été (déjà) proclamée«. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes TAM marking in the nominal domain in Chorote (Mataguayo or Matacoan; Argentina and Paraguay). In this language, some of the verbal TAM markers also occur in the nominal domain, and at least three of them can have scope over only the nominal but not over the predicate of the clause: the distant past pe(j), the irrealis -a and the conjectural (epistemic or evidential) -t'ey. The phenomenon is analogous to nominal TAM as described for many languages by but the difference is that Chorote markers are clitics or independent words and not nominal inflectional morphemes. Regarding the distant past marker, we argue that it codifies tense and not aspect or any other category; however, it is syntactically a modifier of the verb or the noun and not a functional category Tense like the one found in the verbal domain of European languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Finisterre-Huon Papuan language Nungon, like related languages, shows fusion of tense marking with number marking. Nungon is remarkable among Finisterre-Huon languages for an aspectual distinction conflated with evidentiality, and for the development of a formally marked realis Remote Future tense inflection with a formally unmarked irrealis counterpart. This paper presents the entire Nungon verbal inflectional system, including tense, aspect, status, subject and object indexing, referent tracking, and evidentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntactic correlates of the diachronic process of subjectification within grammatical constructions, unlike that of discourse markers and connectives, do not include a cancellation of syntax. This can make the identification of subjectification within some grammaticalization processes difficult to identify. Pairs of purportedly synonymous constructions, such as continuative aspectual markers in Spanish, offer an ideal site to explore how certain linguistic contexts, through frequency, can come to be associated with more or less subjectivity. Six forms are included in this study: the phasal adverbs aún 'still' and todavía 'still' and the 'phasal periphrastic' (Laca 2000) constructions including (semi-)auxiliaries: seguir 'follow' + V ndo and continuar 'continue' for positive polarity, and the corresponding seguir sin 'follow without' + INF and continuar sin 'continue without' + INF for negative polarity. In a variationist study of 481 occurrences of these forms from 1760-1860 in Corpus Diacrónico del Español (CORDE) and 2762 occurrences from 1975-1980 from Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA), it is found that the difference between these 'synonyms' is linked, on the one hand, to contextual elements indicative of subjectivity, and on the other, to register. Furthermore, it is suggested that variation due to differing levels of subjectivity and register variation may share some characteristic patterns in the distribution of grammatical features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are numerous studies that analyze the second language (L2) acquisition of aspect (e.g., see overviews and summaries in Ayoun and Salaberry 2005; Bardovi-Harlig 2000; Labeau 2005; Salaberry, 2008; Salaberry and Shirai 2002). The present study focuses on a specific component of tense-aspect: the iteration of eventualities (iterativity and habituality) conveyed with the use of Spanish Preterite and Imperfect respectively. The analysis is based on data from monolingual Spanish speakers and L1 English speakers with near-native competence in the L2 with the use of contextualized grammaticality judgments. The findings of the study show that near-native speakers of L2 Spanish do not distinguish fine-grained representations of aspectual knowledge (iterativity versus habituality), even though they demonstrate native-like judgments with more prototypical uses of aspect. The discussion of the findings points to possible effects of mapping of meaning and form in the L2, as well as possible instructional effects paired with frequency effects prompted by classroom environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents empirical evidence on the development of aspect by English- and German-speaking university learners of French L2 collected from a spoken narrative task and a sentence interpretation task. Contrary to the Aspect Hypothesis's predictions, this study's results suggest that increased use of prototypical pairings goes in hand with increased L2 proficiency. Following a small but growing number of studies, this study questions the route of L2 development proposed by the Aspect Hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard models of aspectual classes focus on event decompositional or featural distinctions. However, such classifications often over- or under-generate, and do not necessarily capture the temporal properties aspectual classifications are based on. I develop a predictive model of aspectual classes based on theories of scalar change, taking two independently motivated properties of scales as key: (a) how specific the predicate is about the theme's final state on the scale and (b) the scale's mereological complexity. The resultant classification accommodates the standard Vendler dynamic classes, plus additional classes that have proved difficult for prior approaches, and makes novel predictions about the relation of aspectual class and argument realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the interplay of aspect and quantity in the Finnish system of object-marking the opposition between the partitive object and the (morphologically heterogeneous) total object plays a central role. The received view holds that the partitive object indicates incompleteness of the event in one way or another: it is used if the event does not take place at all (negation); if the aspect is unbounded; or if the quantity of the object referent is open (unbounded). The total object is used in affirmative sentences that indicate bounded aspect together with a closed quantity affected in full. Recent grammars have crystallized the three conditions of the partitive into a hierarchy of decreasing strength: negation > aspect > quantity: negation triggers the partitive irrespective of both aspect and quantity, and unbounded aspect triggers it irrespective of quantity. The article elaborates the hierarchy and argues that the aspectual function of the partitive is in fact not monolithic but consists of three different sub functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An article comparing the linguistics of Czech to those of Russian is presented in which the author discusses an allegedly unique use of the imperfect aspect case of Czech in the description of events called the Contextually-Conditioned Imperfective Past (CCIP). Information is offered on the author's research in the Czech National Corpus for verb constructions using this particular construction and figures on the frequency of such constructions in literary, technical, and journalistic texts written in Czech.

The article examines the close relationship between the Russian-language prefixes "vy" and "iz." Using radial category profiling, the authors are able to examine the relatively abstract meaning of Church Slavic linguistic elements such as "iz," as opposed to the more concrete meanings of East Slavic elements like "vy." The discussion is further connected to the Russian-language aspectual system with its important differences between perfective and imperfective verbs. The authors are able to conclude that when forming prefixed aspectual partner verbs, the meanings of base verbs and prefixes become connected.

Several languages have verbal tense, aspect and mood (TAM) and nonfiniteness markers that originate from spatial cases and adpositions. However, the evidence for the gradual loss of the original transparent and systematic correspondences is scarce. Due to the lack of analysis of rich and transparent verbal case systems in modern languages, the essence of the relationships between TAM and locative meanings is still a matter of debate, as in case of the progressive and the absentive. The Finnic dialect continuum provides unique data for clarifying the unresolved issues. Finnic parades an elaborate system of nonfinites with the properties of nominals and verbs. The nonfinites combine with a rich case system whose spatial meaning is bleached to different extent in the combinations. I coin a new term for the case phenomenon -- cross-categorial case -- and I analyze the Finnic rich cross-categorial case paradigms to provide evidence about the functioning of a transparent system of spatial forms and TAM meanings. A corpus study of the Estonian inessive nonfinites (the mas-construction) exemplifies how the correspondences in space and time as well as social cognition interact in the progressive and the absentive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two connectionist networks, DISLEX and DevLex-II, were used in this study to model the acquisition of lexical and grammatical aspect. Both models use multi-layered self-organizing feature maps, connected by associative links trained according to the Hebbian learning rule. Previous empirical research has identified a strong association between lexical aspect and grammatical aspect in child language, on the basis of which some researchers argue for innate semantic categories or prelinguistic predispositions. Our simulations indicate that such an association can emerge from dynamic self-organization and Hebbian learning in connectionist networks, without the need of a priori assumptions about the structure of innate knowledge. Our modeling results further attest to the utility of self-organizing neural networks in the study of language acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's early production typically favors prototypical groupings of temporal-aspectual features; children prefer to say telic, perfective, past combinations (e.g., broke) and atelic, imperfective present combinations (e.g., riding). The current experiments examine the extent to which adults also favor these prototypical groups in a comprehension task (Experiment 1) and a sentence comparison task (Experiment 2). The results show that, like children, adults find prototypical combinations easier to understand, particularly in low-information contexts. Moreover, adults judge prototypical combinations as better sentences than nonprototypical sentences. The results are argued to support continuity in aspectual representations. The differences between children and adults is linked to the proposed origin of the prototypes themselves, namely, information processing demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article refers to "Phase Extension Contours of a theory of the role of head movement in phrasal extraction," by Marcel den Dikken, and focuses on the positions of verbs and participles in phrases and clauses. The commentary discusses verb movement and phrases where words begin with the "wh" sound, such as "would" and "which." Examples are given of Object Shift--involving head status in the verbal phrase and the positions of direct or indirect object pronouns--in the Scandinavian Germanic languages of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. An example of blocked Object Shift is also explained. Verb-raising and topicalization are mentioned.

The article presents information about the book "Aspect," by Bernard Comrie. the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series. This book has been quite influential as a standard reference work. The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter is called "some theoretical and methodological preliminaries." Here, Comrie discusses the relation between tense and the general concept of time and the status of notions such as grammaticalization, deixis, basic and secondary meanings and implicature. In the final section of Chapter one, Comrie discusses critically the thesis that tense and aspect categories should be defined primarily in terms of their contextual functions. In the book, Comrie notes that pure relative tense at least in English appears to be a phenomenon pertaining to subordinate verbs. According to the book, Classical Arabic, like many other languages in the world, does not systematically distinguish present and past time reference in imperfective contexts, in particular in those cases when the time reference is made clear in some other way.

This article suggests a spatial topological model for tense, aspect, and mood. The model is first developed for Persian, followed by an initial discussion. The model is then applied to French, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish, showing that the model does allow for the simultaneous mapping of their tense, aspect, and mood systems. In the final part, it is argued that the model may be more than a convenient descriptive device, providing a synoptic view of entire systems, for those familiar with three-dimensional diagrams. It provides a means which allows for the reinterpretation of assumptions about the interrelationship and the differentiations of the categories involved.

Presents an analysis of Verbal Aspect as a cross-linguistic category. Implications on language teaching; Foreground-background theory; Operational definition of Verbal Aspect.

Discusses aspect in past tenses in the English and French languages. Classification of aspectual distinctions; Perfective versus imperfective theories; Possibility of combining the imperfective.

A report is offered from the 21st Convention of Young Slavists in Göttingen, Germany, September 13 to 15, 2012. The author discusses the theories on Slavic linguistics including the use of the Belarusian verb "mec'," instances of adoption of English and jargon into Croatian, and the aspect of Russian verbs.