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GB521
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.
- Look up the sections on tense marking in the grammatical description.
- Consider all marking of tense, e.g. not only past.
- If you do not find any non-inflecting phonologically free tense markers, code as 0.
- If there is a non-inflecting phonologically free marker that clearly marks tense, code the language as 1.
- If it is not clear whether the marker marks tense, code the language as ?.
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)
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.
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.
- GB082 Is there overt morphological marking of present tense on verbs?
- GB083 Is there overt morphological marking on the verb dedicated to past tense?
- GB084 Is there overt morphological marking on the verb dedicated to future tense?
- GB086 Is a morphological distinction between perfective and imperfective aspect available on verbs?
- GB110 Is there verb suppletion for tense or aspect?
- GB120 Can aspect be marked by an inflecting word (‘auxiliary verb’)?
- GB121 Can tense be marked by an inflecting word (‘auxiliary verb’)?
- GB309 Are there multiple past or multiple future tenses, distinguishing distance from Time of Reference?
- GB520 Can aspect be marked by a non-inflecting word (‘auxiliary particle’)?
Hedvig Skirgård