Re: Tense naming question

>>> 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.
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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.

James W.

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