On the temporal values of situation-participant NP referents mapped from Bulgarian perfects with aorist and imperfect participles
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29038/eejpl.2023.10.1.kabKeywords:
Bulgarian perfect, aorist and imperfect participles, temporal values of situation-participant NPs, speakers' unawareness of NP temporal valuesAbstract
This paper deals with Bulgarian съм+-л (‘be’+past active participle) perfect verb forms with aorist and imperfect participles, the distinction between these two participles being a phenomenon found only in Bulgarian among the Slavic languages and generally absent in other languages too. According to the majority of Bulgarianists today, imperfect participles are not used in perfect verb forms. However, this thesis is considered here a fully defective one for several reasons, among which: no argumentation has ever been provided to explain the thesis in essence – for example, in its possible connection to the aspectual values encoded in aorist and imperfect participles, or to the general characteristics of съм+-л forms. These forms can effectuate many TAM meanings – not only of “a standard perfect” but also modal ones such as inferentiality, renarration, dubitativity. Following the author’s definition of aspect as an all-pervading and perpetual process of mapping temporal features between verbal and nominal referents, specific uses of imperfect and aorist participles in sentences with perfect verb forms are analyzed, and the impact the relevant participle (imperfect or aorist) exerts on the temporal values of situation-participant NP-referents is analyzed and identified. The major generalization is that the never-ending process of mapping temporal features from verbs to nominals (NPs) that occurs in verbal-aspect languages (Slavic, Greek, Georgian), and vice versa, from nominals (NPs) to verbs that occur in compositional-aspect languages (Dutch, English, Finnish) is a crucial psychophysiological mechanism ingrained in peoples’ heads and conditioning the development of grammatical structures of languages. Intriguingly, this process is linguistically fully identifiable at the speaker-hearer interaction level but remains entirely beyond the awareness of the ordinary native speaker.
Author: Krasimir Kabakčiev
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References
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Bulatović, V. (2022) Aspect semantics and ESL article use. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 60(2), 491-521. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2019-0016
Bybee, J., Perkins, R., Pagliuca, W. (1994). The evolution of grammar. Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. University of Chicago Press.
Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge University Press.
Dahl, Ö. (1985). Tense and aspect systems. Blackwell.
Dimitrova, D. (2021). Aspect coercion in Greek aorist and perfect verb forms. In D. Papadopoulou et al. (Eds.) Studies in Greek Linguistics, (Vol. 41). (pp. 45-53). Institute of Modern Greek Studies.
Dimitrova, D., Kabakčiev, K. (2021). Compositional and verbal aspect in Greek, the aorist-imperfect distinction and the article-aspect interplay. Athens Journal of Philology, 8(3), 181-206. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajp.8-3-2
Higginbotham, J. (2009). Tense, aspect, and indexicality. Oxford University Press
Jakobson, R. (1957). Shifters, verbal categories, and the Russian verb. Harvard University Press.
Kabakčiev, K. (2000). Aspect in English: a “common-sense” view of the interplay between verbal and nominal referents. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9355-7
Kabakčiev, K. (2019). On the history of compositional aspect: vicissitudes, issues, prospects. Athens Journal of Philology, 6(3), 201-224. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajp.6-3-4
Kabakčiev, K. (2020). On the raison d’être of the present perfect, with special reference to the English grammeme. Athens Journal of Philology, 7(2), 125-146. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajp.7-2-4
Kabakčiev, K. (2022) Concerning imperfect participles in the formation of the Bulgarian present perfect and the non-witnessing of its third-person forms. Proglas, 31(1), 32-41. https://doi.org/10.54664/SHBU5087
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Kaku-Macdonald, K., Liceras, J. M., Kazanina, N. (2020). Acquisition of aspect in L2: The computation of event completion by Japanese learners of English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(1), 185-214. https://doi.org/10.1017/S014271641900047X
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Verkuyl, H. (1993). A theory of aspectuality. The interaction between temporal and atemporal structure. Cambridge University Press.
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