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Re: THEORY: Temporal Auxiliaries, Aspectual Auxiliaries, Modal Auxiliaries

From:# 1 <salut_vous_autre@...>
Date:Friday, July 8, 2005, 19:37
I will stop talking about this subject and simply recognize my ignorance of
the subject, I'll simply post this for a last question


Ray Brown wrote:
>>>Trask defines 'conditional' thus: >>>"A conventional name for certain verb forms occurring in some languages, >>>notably Romance languages, which typically express some notion of >>>remoteness, supposition, approximation or implied condition. >>>Semantically, >>>the conditional is really a mood, but formally it behaves more like part >>>of the tense system...." >>> >> >>I thought that time could only be past-present-future with some exceptions > >What exceptions? Tense in its strict meaning can refer only to past, >present and future. Many languages, including English, distinguish formally >only between past and non-past. >
I thought of aorist... that I never really understood, but re-reading about this have I understood if I say that it is in fact a tense mixed with a particular aspect.... But there are no language that distinct more than those? like distincting "far past" from "near past" or having a "past" and a "past-that-is-too-far-for-anyone-being-able-to-remember-it-precisely" that they would use in stories, genesis histories, dreams, childhood memories of the oldest members of the group...?

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Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>