Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Tense naming question

From:Joe <joe@...>
Date:Monday, March 1, 2004, 18:08
James Worlton wrote:

>>>>joe@WANTAGE.COM 03/01/04 11:41AM >>> >>>> >>>> >Matt Trinsic wrote: > > > >>Greetings all, >>I have recently modified the language I am currently working on to >>include two different past tenses. One is for actions that started in >>the past, but are still happening. The other for actions that started in >>the past are are no longer happening. Is there a name for these >>different tenses, and if not, does anyone have any good suggestions >>and/or interesting examples of naturals languages that have the same >>distinction? >> >> > > >Well, something that was started in the past and is still happening is a >present. Something that's no longer happening is a past. >=================================== >Joe's examples are tenses, as in your question. I think what you wanted, your >desired distinctions, would fall under _aspect_. Natlangs do this sort of >thing. For ex. your "started in the past are [and?] are no longer happening" >could be a perfective or an imperfective aspect, based on what you want to >emphasize. If you want to emphasize that the thing is DONE, you could use >perfective, if you wanted to emphasize that it went on for a long time before >completing then imperfective would be more appropriate. I am no expert in >this, but you should be able to find some resources. > >
Regarding aspect - Imperfective: Something, that was/is going on at the time event X took/takes place Perfective: The opposite of imperfective. That's my impression, anyway.