A New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-431
Author(s):  
Lidia Napiórkowska
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
General Linguistics ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function

Abstract This article presents a new perspective on the meaning and function of the Syriac construction hwayt qāṭēl used with a non-past reference. Beginning with the traditional method of cross-linguistic comparison, the author contextualizes the construction in question within a pragmatic- cognitive framework of general linguistics, an approach that has so far been largely overlooked in Syriac studies. The language used here for comparison is the literary Christian of Urmi, a modern dialect of Aramaic, whose verbal system presents itself as a valid typological parallel for Syriac. Thus, through analysing the renditions of hwayt qāṭēl in Christian Urmi Neo-Aramaic within the corpus of the New Testament, the semantics and function of the Syriac hwayt qāṭēl receive precise characteristics, followed by an attempt to explain the use of the past tense form hwayt (perfect) for the present-future reference. An additional brief treatment of other command-related forms in Syriac, such as the imperative and imperative-derived constructions, contributes further, more detailed observations on the Syriac verbal system.

scholarly journals Lexical Aspect and the Use of Simple Past Tense by Thai Learners of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Suriya Sriphrom ◽  
Theeraporn Ratitamkul
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Aspect Hypothesis ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Cloze Test

This cross-sectional study investigated the use of the simple past tense form by twenty Thai learners of English at two levels of proficiency. A cloze test developed by Ayoun and Salaberry (2008) was adopted. The findings showed that the learners in the high proficiency group used the past tense form more accurately than the learners in the low proficiency group. When verbs were categorized according to lexical aspect, both groups of learners were found to use the simple past tense form most often with telic events as well as with states. This did not correspond to the prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis, which asserts that low-level learners tend to use the simple past tense form with telic events first. The distributional bias in the input could account for the pattern found in this study.

The Referentiality of Tenses

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 209-228
Author(s):  
Theo Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Old Irish ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Context Of Situation

Abstract. This article assumes that tenses in English and Dutch are non-time-based. A verb in the present tense form signals 'verb-in-this-context-of-situation', whereas a verb in the past tense form signals 'verb-in-that-context-of-situation'. It is argued here that the non-time-based analysis of tenses is particularly relevant in cases in which two tense forms should indicate the same time, but have to be interpreted as indicating different times. This discrepancy may occur in the relative use of tenses in various languages (e.g. Classical Greek, Old Irish, Ngiti, and Russian).

Vowel dominance in overregularizations

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Paul Stemberger
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Several Variables ◽  
Base Form

ABSTRACTWhen children produce regularizations likecomed, not all verbs are equally likely to be regularized. Several variables (e.g. lexical frequency) have been shown to be relevant, but not all the variability between verbs is understood. It is argued here that one predictor is which vowels are present in the base form vs. the past tense form. Using a notion of recessive vs. dominant vowel (where recessive vowels are more likely to be replaced by dominant vowels than vice versa) based on adult phonological processing, it is predicted that regularizations should be likely when the base vowel is dominant and unlikely when the past tense vowel is dominant. Data from 17 children reported in the literature, aged 1;6–5;6, show that this prediction is correct. Implications for the role of phonological variables in the processing of irregular past tense forms are discussed.

scholarly journals QUOTATIVE USE ACROSS LANGUAGES: THE CASE OF NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH AND GERMAN

2019 ◽  
pp. 041
Author(s):  
Agnes Terraschke
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Sound Effects ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Variable Content ◽  
German Data

Quotatives, the representation of speech, thought, sound effects or embodiments in spoken language, are a common feature of interpersonal communication. Linguistic descriptions of quotatives have predominantly focused on their use within an individual language or language variety. Little is known about how quotative use differs across languages with regard to their forms, variable content and linguistic features. Based on two datasets of informal dyadic interactions, the present research compares how quotatives are used in New Zealand English (NZE) and Standard German by describing the features of quotative use both overall and in relation to the three most commonly used forms in each dataset. The results highlight marked differences in the way quotatives are used in the two languages. Thus, in the German data, quotatives were mostly used for first person singular speakers in the past tense form to convey internal dialogue, while NZE speakers favoured the use of quotatives for direct speech in the past without clear subject preferences.

scholarly journals The Dutch evidential NCI

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Colleman ◽  
Dirk Noël
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
English Equivalent

Present-day Dutch has two entrenched “grammatical” hearsay evidentials: a construction with zou (originally the past tense form of the verb zullen, cognate with German sollen) and a construction with schijnen (literally, ‘seem’). The closest English equivalent of both constructions is the “evidential nominative and infinitive” (NCI), which pairs an evidential meaning with the morphosyntactic pattern [SBJ be Xed to Inf]. This is a highly productive construction in English, the most typical instantiation of which is be said to. Present-day Dutch has an NCI construction as well, but the lexical possibilities of this construction are limited to a handful of cognition verbs, which — in their NCI use — encode deontic rather than evidential meanings. On the basis of historical corpus data, this paper shows that the Dutch equivalent of English be said to, i.e. gezegd worden te, looked ready at one time to become entrenched as a substantive hearsay construction as well. This paper traces its evolution and explores the questions of why the pattern disappeared and why Dutch, unlike English, did not develop a schematic evidential NCI construction.

Comparing generativist and constructivist accounts of the use of the past tense form in early child Japanese

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1365-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMOKO TATSUMI ◽  
JULIAN M. PINE
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Japanese Children ◽  
Early Child ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Distributional Patterns ◽  
Early Use ◽  
General Preference

AbstractThe present study investigated children's early use of verb inflection in Japanese by comparing a generativist account, which predicts that the past tense will have a special default-like status for the child during the early stages, with a constructivist input-driven account, which assumes that children's acquisition and use of inflectional forms reflects verb-specific distributional patterns in their input. Analysis of naturalistic data from four Japanese children aged 1;5 to 2;10 showed that there was substantial by-verb variation in the use of inflectional forms from the earliest stages of verb use, and no general preference for past tense forms. Correlational and partial correlational analyses showed that it was possible to predict the proportional frequency with which the child produced verbs in past tense versus other inflectional forms on the basis of differences in the proportional frequency with which the verb occurred in past tense form in the child's input, even after controlling for differences in the rate at which verbs occurred in past tense form in input averaged across the caregivers of the other children in the sample. When taken together, these results count against the idea that the past tense has a special default-like status in early child Japanese, and in favour of a constructivist input-driven account of children's early use of verb inflection.

Nasr’s development as a writer in his second language

1986 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marietta Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Past ◽  
School Year ◽  
Pause Length ◽  
Most Significant Change ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Way

Abstract During the first 6 months of the school year of 1985, at Brunswick Language Centre, I observed Nasr as he was learning to write in his second language. The most significant change which occurred is that Nasr gained an appreciation of the way in which English written anguage is different from spoken language. That is, rather than merely recording his spoken language, Nasr became a writer in English. The changes manifested themselves not only in the product, namely the texts themselves, but also in the processes by which they were produced. These processes can be both directly observed, as recorded on videotape or in the observational diary, which was kept once weekly, or inferred from the product. The major ways in which the last piece is more “developed” is that Nasr has chosen a more “advanced” genre, and the piece conforms more strictly to one genre, rather than also containing elements of other genres. Nevertheless, the earlier pieces mark important, transitional stages and I have therefore chosen to call these intermediate forms “intertext”. Nasr gains mastery over linking mechanisms more characteristic of written than of spoken language he moves from co-ordination to subordination, and through the use of reference and ellipsis, he gradually eliminates the various forms of redundancy. Acquisition of form and function of the past tense Is regarded as essential for the production of sustained narrative and, as such, can also be viewed as a form of cohesion. In Nasr’s case the changes in the writing behaviour include an increase in pause length and a reduction in the number of pauses, changes in the number and type of revisions made, and differences in the way in which input from the teacher is generated.

A Canonical History of the Old Testament Apocrypha

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-51
Author(s):  
Lee Martin McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Sacred Scripture ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Use ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function

From ancient times, those Jewish religious writings now regularly identified as “Apocrypha” have had a varied history of meaning and function in the churches and in their scope and presence in Bibles. The term itself has ranges in meaning from hidden and sacred to spurious and rejected. McDonald focuses on history of the recognition of the emergence and change of the meaning of the Apocrypha as well as how these religious texts functioned in the communities that welcomed them as Scripture, or as valued and readable texts for church (“ecclesiastical”) use, but not as sacred Scripture. Their history of use and rejection is best reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, Josephus, the Early Church Fathers, ancient canon lists, major manuscripts, translations, and church council decisions.

scholarly journals An elusive experiental tense construction in Latvian

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 109-153
Author(s):  
Axel Holvoet ◽  
Anna Daugavet
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Precise Location ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regional Dialects ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Modern Standard

The article is a contribution to the study of experiential and indefinite past-tense forms. It offers an analysis of the Latvian past-tense construction tikt + PPA, which is now a feature of the Latvian standard language though it was originally restricted to Eastern Latvia (probably mainly the High Latvian dialects). It can be characterised as an experiential but has a wider scope than the prototypical experiential, which refers to event types in the past without precise location in time. The Latvian construction with tikt can also refer to events that are more precisely anchored in time and then develops into a non-resultative and non-narrative past-tense form reminiscent of the factual imperfective in Russian. The question is also raised whether differences can be found between the use of the construction tikt + PPA in texts reflecting its distribution in the regional dialects where it used to be indigenous and in the modern standard language.

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