Re: Will

>Date:         Tue, 18 Apr 2000 13:28:54 +0200
>From: BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
>Subject:      Re: Will
>
>At 00:14 18.4.2000 -0700, Gerald Koenig wrote:
>
>>In the Vector tense system of of Nilenga I completely separated time
>>(tense) from intent (modality). They are completely mixed up, blended,
>>in English. So one can say in VTT (vector time tense) , ie,
>
>What does "vector" mean in this context?  Is it essentially different from
>the tense-aspect-mode systems so famous and controversial in creole
>linguistics?
Well I created it without any knowledge whatsoever of creole
linguistics, and I'm still ignorant. I'm currently reading Comrie so
I'll take a look. The essential feature of my vector tense is that it
proceeds from diagrams of tense to verbal tense constructs. Other
systems I know of proceed from the words of a language to possible
descriptions. As far as I know, the VXT diagrams systematically exhaust
the possibilities of tense for at least two predicates. At least I
haven't yet found any natlang expressions that are not represented by
vector tense diagrams and hence verbal expressions. By tense I mean
strictly time relationships. In NGL we have loosly applied the term
vector tense to the whole complex of time and modality. Aspect is
represented as the choice of variables (imperfects) or constants
(perfects) for the heads and tails of the vectors. The vectors of
vector time tense are confined to a timeline and can be thought of as
degenerate vectors, (t,0,0)=(x,y,z); since x and y are always 0 they
are scalars also.  Thanks for your question and I am daily trying to
make the original essays on VTT more accessible on the web. I don't
think the system can be grasped by a short explanation, not because
it's difficult, but rather because of our established thought patterns
which tend to make tense blind.

Jerry



Jerry



>
>
>
>
>/BP
>
> B.Philip Jonsson
>mailto:bpj@netg.se
>mailto:melroch@my-deja.com
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