Tom Koss (University of Antwerp)\, a visit ing scholar in our department\, will give a research seminar.
(Non-) Present-time reference from a typological perspective
< p>The default function of a present-tense construction would appear to be l ocating situations at the time of speaking. Yet\, in various languages\, th e so-called present tense can only be used to refer to the ongoing present when combined with stative verbs reporting unbounded situations (De Wit 201 7). For dynamic verbs\, denoting bounded events\, different semantic interp retations emerge. English is a case in point: the simple present can be use d to report present-time states (1)\, but not present-time events (2).< p>(1) I have my laptop with me right now.(2) *I play tennis right no w.
If the simple present does combine with dynamic verbs\, the defaul t interpretation is a habitual one (Bybee et al. 1995):
(3) I play te nnis three times per week.
English is by no means an isolated case: i t is well known that in other languages too\, grams used to express present -time reference with stative verbs have a non-present interpretation with d ynamic verbs (De Wit 2017). One can identify three different non-present in terpretations that are commonly assigned to the combination of a so-called ‘present tense’ and dynamic verbs. More precisely\, the construction that i s used as a present tense with stative verbs can be given one of the follow ing interpretations when used on dynamic verbs:
1) a past interpretat ion (‘past pattern’\; e.g.\, Lingala [Bantu\, DR Congo])
2) a future interpretation (‘future pattern’\; e.g.\, Japanese)
3) a general-vali dity (habitual or generic) interpretation (‘habitual pattern’)\, illustrate d here through the English example
A fourth possibility is that the c onstruction that is used as a present tense with stative verbs is ungrammat ical when used on dynamic verbs (‘incompatible pattern’\; e.g. Awa Pit [Bar bacoan\, Colombia]). Other languages (e.g.\, French) have present tenses wh ich can be used to refer to the ongoing present with both stative and dynam ic verbs. I refer to these constructions as ‘transparent present tenses’.
This talk will present the results of an ongoing typological study inv estigating this particular interaction between tense and lexical aspect in a sample of 180 languages. The sample has been geographically and genealogi cally stratified by means of the genus-macroarea method (Miestamo 2009)\, y ielding six macroareas. One crucial finding is that the non-present interpr etation of present tense constructions is by no means a rare phenomenon\, b eing observable in about one third of the languages under
considerati on. Also\, the past pattern is by far the most common\, which offers cross- linguistic corroboration for claims made in Smith & Erbaugh (2005) about th e default (cognitively most plausible) past interpretation of verbs referri ng to bounded situations.
The results presented in this talk are base d on the study of descriptive grammars. The second stage in this project wi ll be to investigate a subsample of 50 languages more closely by means of a translation questionnaire in the tradition of Dahl (1985)\, with the ultim ate aim to create a semantic map on the use of present tense grams across l anguages. My research stay at UBC is meant to develop such a questionnaire\ , and to carry out a pilot study.
References
B ybee\, Joan L.\, Revere Perkins\, and William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense\, aspect\, and modality in the languages of the world. C hicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dahl\, Östen. 1985. Tense and As pect Systems. Oxford: Blackwell.
De Wit\, Astrid. 2017. The Present P erfective Paradox across Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miestamo\, Matti. 2009. Implicational hierarchies and grammatical complexit y. In Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable. Edited by Geoffrey Samps on\, David Gil\, and Peter Trudgill. Oxford: Oxford University Press\, pp. 80-97.
Smith\, Carlota S.\, and Mary S. Erbaugh. 2005. Temporal Inter pretation in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 43: 217-256.
LOCATION:Totem Field Studios GEO:49.260872;-123.113952 URL;VALUE=URI:https://linguistics.ubc.ca/events/event/koss/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20230312T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR