HOMEOSTASIS AND COMPENSATION AS LINGUISTIC PHENOMENA (COMPETITION OF ASPECT AND TENSE ON THE EXAMPLE OF SLAVIC LANGUAGES WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO POLISH)

The present paper deals with two universal linguistic phenomena, homeostasis and compensation. The author examines their function in relation to two categories, aspect and tense in the history of the Slavic languages. It is beyond doubt that one of the most important categories of the Slavic verb is aspect the origin of which may lie in the Proto-Indo-European language. The effects of its emergence as a verbal category were far-reaching and can be well traced in the history of the most Slavic languages. Taking a close look to the linguistic data, it seems quite obvious that the category of tense and aspect were closely related and did interact, creating different patterns in modern Slavic languages. A certain competition between the category of aspect and that of tense can already be observed in Old Slavic and also in Old Russian and Old Polish where tenses like the aorist and the imperfect were becoming increasingly obsolete. The perfect, on the contrary, has gained ground, while the pluperfect has almost completely fallen into disuse. In the further development, the aspectual opposition also extended to the future tenses thereby affecting the entire tense system. This scenario took place everywhere in the East and West Slavic languages with some nuanced differences. Consequently, in the aspect-tense system of the modern East and West Slavic languages the tendency of the category of aspect to prevail over the category of tense together with the gradual decline in the number of tenses seems to be quite clear. The South Slavic languages, however, have taken a slightly different path showing perhaps the most complex picture. Although the Serbian and Croatian languages have preserved the old tenses, their use is rather limited. In terms of their aspectual development, these languages are getting closer and closer to the Eastern and Western Slavic language groups. In contrast, in Bulgarian and Macedonian one can see an intricate interplay of the aspectual system and the developed tense system. In the case of the change of the different Slavic languages, the phenomenon of linguistic compensation can be observed in all cases on the example of aspect and tense categories as the main means of striving to maintain linguistic homeostasis. Keywords: linguistic homeostasis, compensation, aspect, tense, Old Slavic, Slavic languages, Polish

Wa/Ga-Subjects in Japanese and Subdivisions of Tense

<p>WA/GA-SUBJECTS IN JAPANESE AND SUBDIVISIONS OF TENSE Shizuka Torii This thesis takes a semantically based tense/aspect approach to the long-standing problem of wa- and ga-markings of 'subjects' in Japanese. It argues for a correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and tense/aspect interpretations of clauses, as illustrated in (1) below, to shed light on a new dimension of the problem. (1) a. John-waki-ta. John come-Past 'John came.' b. John-ga ki-ta. John come-Past 'John has just come/arrived.' <'hot news' perfect> The two types of tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-marked subjects are pinned down in terms of (i) two types of 'evaluation time', which are distinguished as 'original' and 'new' (Enc 1987), (ii) two types of R[eference time] (Reichenbach 1947); one that coincides with S[peech time] but not with E[vent time] (R = S/ inequation E), and the other that coincides with E but not with S (R = E/ inequation S), and (iii) two types of 'viewpoint aspect' (Smith 1991); one that presents 'part' of a situation manifested at a precise temporal point (View part) and the other that presents 'all' of a situation without decomposing it (View all). In order to provide syntactic mechanisms to account for the correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and the two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations, I propose two subdivisions of Tense in line with Chomsky's (1995: 240) suggestion that Tense might have "further subdivisions and implications about event structure and perhaps other properties". I assume that the two subdivisions of Tense are functional categories making up an articulated tense structure (above VP) and contain distinct semantic features responsible for the distinct tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-markings of subjects in Japanese. Being tense categories, they both have T[ense]-features and D[eterminer]-features to be checked by predicates and subject DPs respectively. Due to the distinct semantic content of the two syntactic categories, depending on which T- and D-features predicates and subjects check, we get two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations of predicates and two distinct types of subjects (which are morphologically distinguished by wa- and ga-markings in Japanese). In this analysis, the T- and D-features of a tense category ensure that a subject and a predicate are necessarily of the same semantic type. The tense system I propose to account for the wa/ga-phenomena unifies tense and aspect to the extent that the wa/ga-phenomena relate to the interpretation of both tense and aspect. A notable consequence of my analysis is that the syntax and semantics of stage- and individual-level predicates (cf. Carlson 1977, Kratzer 1989 and Diesing 1992) fall under the syntax and semantics of tense. The analysis also exhibits some interesting parallelisms to Davis' (1998), in which person features of subjects are related to a temporal structure. In addition the proposed two subject positions within the articulated tense structure are demonstrated to be tenable across languages. Furthermore I show that the reanalysis is extendable to subordinate clause case markings and interpretations, with special attention to factors such as factivity and the distinctions among propositions, states of affairs, and situation-types.</p>

Wa/Ga-Subjects in Japanese and Subdivisions of Tense

<p>WA/GA-SUBJECTS IN JAPANESE AND SUBDIVISIONS OF TENSE Shizuka Torii This thesis takes a semantically based tense/aspect approach to the long-standing problem of wa- and ga-markings of 'subjects' in Japanese. It argues for a correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and tense/aspect interpretations of clauses, as illustrated in (1) below, to shed light on a new dimension of the problem. (1) a. John-waki-ta. John come-Past 'John came.' b. John-ga ki-ta. John come-Past 'John has just come/arrived.' <'hot news' perfect> The two types of tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-marked subjects are pinned down in terms of (i) two types of 'evaluation time', which are distinguished as 'original' and 'new' (Enc 1987), (ii) two types of R[eference time] (Reichenbach 1947); one that coincides with S[peech time] but not with E[vent time] (R = S/ inequation E), and the other that coincides with E but not with S (R = E/ inequation S), and (iii) two types of 'viewpoint aspect' (Smith 1991); one that presents 'part' of a situation manifested at a precise temporal point (View part) and the other that presents 'all' of a situation without decomposing it (View all). In order to provide syntactic mechanisms to account for the correlation between wa/ga-markings of 'subjects' and the two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations, I propose two subdivisions of Tense in line with Chomsky's (1995: 240) suggestion that Tense might have "further subdivisions and implications about event structure and perhaps other properties". I assume that the two subdivisions of Tense are functional categories making up an articulated tense structure (above VP) and contain distinct semantic features responsible for the distinct tense/aspect interpretations correlated with wa- and ga-markings of subjects in Japanese. Being tense categories, they both have T[ense]-features and D[eterminer]-features to be checked by predicates and subject DPs respectively. Due to the distinct semantic content of the two syntactic categories, depending on which T- and D-features predicates and subjects check, we get two distinct types of tense/aspect interpretations of predicates and two distinct types of subjects (which are morphologically distinguished by wa- and ga-markings in Japanese). In this analysis, the T- and D-features of a tense category ensure that a subject and a predicate are necessarily of the same semantic type. The tense system I propose to account for the wa/ga-phenomena unifies tense and aspect to the extent that the wa/ga-phenomena relate to the interpretation of both tense and aspect. A notable consequence of my analysis is that the syntax and semantics of stage- and individual-level predicates (cf. Carlson 1977, Kratzer 1989 and Diesing 1992) fall under the syntax and semantics of tense. The analysis also exhibits some interesting parallelisms to Davis' (1998), in which person features of subjects are related to a temporal structure. In addition the proposed two subject positions within the articulated tense structure are demonstrated to be tenable across languages. Furthermore I show that the reanalysis is extendable to subordinate clause case markings and interpretations, with special attention to factors such as factivity and the distinctions among propositions, states of affairs, and situation-types.</p>

Tense and aspect in Xhosa

This dissertation investigates the semantics of each tense and aspect in Xhosa. Since tense and aspect perform important pragmatic functions, the analysis takes into account the correlation between the verb and the wider discourse in which it is embedded. Tense reflects the temporal relation between the time of the utterance (speech time) and an interval the speaker makes the assertion about (reference time). The Remote Past and the Remote Future tenses differ from their Recent/Immediate counterparts in that they denote events which occurred in a significantly different situation than the speech time and/or events in the surrounding discourse. Aspect does not only indicate the relation between the time occupied by the real world event and the reference time chosen by the speaker. The Perfective aspect represents an event as a unique change-of-state that pertains to a single point on the timeline which at the same time functions as the reference time. By contrast, for the Imperfective aspect temporally links the event to a contextually provided reference time, e.g. the utterance time, a time adverbial, a period of time previously introduced in the preceding discourse, or the interlocutors’ shared experience. At the pragmatic level, the Perfective aspect tends to introduce an event’s resulting state into the discourse, whereas the Imperfective aspect tends to rule it out. Like the Imperfective aspect, the Anterior and the Prospective aspects assert an event’s occurrence from a contextually defined reference time. They refer to the consequent and the preparatory states of an event, respectively. On the pragmatic level, the Anterior aspect may also indicate that the truth-conditionality of the event’s resulting state is contradicted in the immediate discourse. This study shows that tense and aspect temporally represent different means of temporally assigning an event to a particular portion of the timeline. I further argue that aspect indicates whether the reference time is provided in the context (Imperfective, Anterior, Prospective) or whether it is introduced by the verb itself (Perfective). Furthermore, this study shows that aspect exhibits a pragmatic function by laying focus on different parts of the event that are relevant in the upcoming discourse.

Translating linguistic time

If Sartre is right and the tense of a text holds the key to its special strangeness (1947), how does this strangeness fare in translation? What can we learn from looking at the translation of grammatical tense and aspect in narrative texts in different languages? It is often simply assumed that translating grammatical cate gories of time in languages - because it has to do with what is considered the hard core of language, i.e. the grammar as opposed to the lexicon of the language - mainly involves mere linguistic constraints. Jakobson ’s famous motto (1987: 433) - “languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they can convey”- would therefore suffice to tell the whole story about the way in which linguistic time is translated. This paper argues, however, that this is not the whole story: it argues that the choice of tense in translation is more than just a grammatical agenda, and may actually reflect a number of different commitments. Section 2 examines some intriguing tense changes in the translation of children ’s literature: it discusses the motivations behind these changes and shows that by changing the ‘how’ of the original story through the tense choice the entire subjective perspective of the text is altered. Section 3 identifies a few patterns in the translation of past distinctions in Modern Hebrew. It suggests that in contrast to the more diversified means of translating aspectual meanings in previous decades, a major trend in the last decade or so has been to reduce all past sphere distinctions essentially to one single form, i.e. the simple past tense. Finally section 4 deals with the classical problem regarding the Biblical Hebrew tenses and their translation; it shows that the translation of the biblical verbs may be strongly determined by the different linguistic ideas (and even systematic theories) the translators adopt regarding the Biblical Hebrew tenses. In all these cases then, we observe that the translation of temporal meanings involves not only a commitment to specific temporal interpretations but also a commitment to more subtle conceptions of subjectivity in translation, of literary conventions and linguistic ideas.

Development of English among Older Chinese Migrants in Australia: A Case of Tense and Aspect

Language barrier among older migrants affects various areas of their life such as physical and mental well-being and participation in the community. However, little is known about their actual language attainment. This study investigates the development of tense and aspect (TA) in English through focused instructions among older Chinese migrants in Australia. TA is expressed through morphological and syntactic means in English, while in Chinese, tense is expressed lexically, and aspect via contextual cues and aspect markers. These typological contrasts create learning difficulties among Chinese learners in acquiring English TA. The Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen & Shirai, 1994) claims that the acquisition of aspect is related to verb semantics and, for instance, acquisition of progressive starts with action verbs then extends to Accomplishment and Achievement (Sugya & Shirai, 2007). From a morphosyntactic viewpoint Processability Theory (PT, Pinemann 1998) hypothesises a universal sequence of second language development where V-ing and V-ed are acquired at the category-procedure stage, followed by verb phrase agreement between auxiliary and lexical verb and finally subject-verb agreement on the verb at sentence procedure stage. We broach whether the older migrant learners would be able to learn TA in English. Seven Chinese migrants aged 60-69 who arrived in Australia at the age of between 35 and 60 participated in this study. They received four-week focused instruction on TA following the stages described in PT, and their speech production data were collected before and after the instruction. Analyses indicated that the participants improved their markings of TA after the instruction, and their PT developmental stage was a crucial factor in acquiring TA. The study emphasises the importance of continuous language training for older migrants to encourage their language development, especially for those learning a typologically different language from their first language. Thus, this paper addresses a research gap in older migrants’ second language learning and highlights the importance of research with adult migrants to gain insight into their bilingualism.

Slovak Verbal Derivatives in Background Taxis Constructions

Slovak Verbal Derivatives in Background Taxis Construction. Taxis semantics expresses simultaneity, precedence andposteriority of events in the time span span. Taxis construction contains two propositions in the sentence. Background taxis usually appears in complex sentence s with circumstantial clause clauses, where taxis semantics plays a sub -dominant role role. A verbal derivative , which inherits tense and aspect semantic components from its original verb form, is able to participate in backgroundtaxis constructionconstructions. Semantic peculiarities of the verb predict its involvement in the taxis constructionconstruction. The objective of this paper is to clarify how verbal derivatives function in background taxis constructions in Slovak Slovak.

(Im)perfectivity and actionality in East Ruvu Bantu

Temporal/aspectual morphology often serves as a diagnostic for actional classes. Bantu languages are known for their highly developed tense, aspect (and mood) systems. The East Ruvu Bantu languages of Tanzania are unusual in that they exhibit a decidedly reduced set of temporal/aspectual morphemes. This paper contributes to the growing body of research on Bantu actionality in showing that despite not being encoded overtly, perfective distinguishes between at least two actional classes. We suggest, however, that imperfective, morphologically encoded by present and non-past tense morphology, does not clearly delineate between the two verb classes. This discussion highlights the complex interaction between tense and aspect.

Linguistic Equivalence is Not Sufficient: Saudi Translation Students’ Linguistic Knowledge Compared to their Sociocultural Knowledge of the English Language

English as a foreign language (EFL) and translation studies have argued that linguistic equivalence is not sufficient to transfer intended cultural meanings of the target language (TL) text. Unlike previous studies, this study investigates and compares the knowledge level of the linguistic and sociocultural competencies of selected Saudi translation students (STSs) at King Saud University. A multiple-choice test questionnaire was developed and used to examine the respondents’ knowledge level of two areas of linguistic competence: grammatical functions and grammatical forms of key elements of English language tense and aspect, and two areas of sociocultural competence: knowledge of native speakers’ culture and the cultural dimension of the TL. The results were compared to determine any statistically significant differences. These results suggest that the respondents’ linguistic competence is more developed than their sociocultural competence, and their knowledge of the forms is more developed than that of the functions of key elements of English language tense and aspect.