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Can aspect be marked by a non-inflecting word (‘auxiliary particle’)?

Summary

This feature covers all grammatical aspects (internal temporal constitution of event/action/state) and aims to capture phonologically free elements that do not inflect (i.e. 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.

There are instances where TAM can be expressed by a combination of an affix and auxiliary or particle. For example, some grammarians state that an aspect 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 (GB520) and the feature on free-standing mood marking (GB086). If not all parts of the discontinuous marking are necessary for expressing the aspect, then only consider the marking that is obligatory.

Procedure

  1. Look up the section on aspect marking in the grammatical description.
  2. Consider all marking of aspect, e.g. not only perfective.
  3. If you do not find any non-inflecting phonologically free aspect markers, code as 0.
  4. If there is a non-inflecting phonologically free marker that clearly marks aspect, code the language as 1.
  5. If it is not clear whether the marker marks aspect, code the language as ?.

Examples

Samoan (ISO 639-3: smo, Glottolog: samo1305)

Samoan has two different particles for past tense that differ in terms of aspect. Sā is the more general marker, and na denotes punctual events. Samoan is coded 1 for this feature. The examples below are taken from Mosel & So’o (1997: 21), with glossing by Skirgård.

a. Sā  nofo le   fafine i  Apia
   PST stay DEF  woman  in Apia
   ‘The woman stayed in Apia.’ (Mosel & So’o 1997: 21)

b. Na       pā      le  pa'u
   PST.PFV  explode DEF tyre
   ‘The tyre exploded.’ (Mosel & So’o 1997: 21)

Further reading

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: Cambridge University Press.

Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Blackwell.

References

Mosel, Ulrike & Ainslie So’o. 1997. Say it in Samoan. (Pacific Linguistics: Series D, 88.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Related Features

Patron

Hedvig Skirgård