Jones Tense and Aspect in Informal Welsh

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-3-11-022797-0
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 223, 411 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm

Reihe: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]ISSN

The book provides a descriptive account of the semantics of three grammatical areas in informal Welsh: inflections of finite verbs, perfect aspect, and progressive aspect. The analyses distinguish context-independent primary meanings from other meanings which are due to implications and contextual effects.

The inflections convey factuality, tense, (morphological) aspect, and habituality, but the inflections and their meanings are differently distributed over different sorts of verbs. The analysis of factuality outlines different sorts of counterfactual situations, and discusses whether counterfactual meaning can best be accounted for in terms of true statements in imagined possible worlds or in terms of false statements in the actual world. The analysis of tense argues that it conveys evaluation time and not situation time, which can be different to evaluation time, and that tense is not a collection of simple labels like 'past' or 'present' but is a combination of two times, a deictic reference time and a relative evaluation time, which organize the tenses as a system. Morphological aspect is discussed in terms of perfective and imperfective meanings. Habituality is a property of situations which can be described by all inflections but the study shows that 'be' alone has specialized forms to convey habituality.

The discussion of the perfect aspect considers the appropriateness of anterior time, retrospective view, and current relevance to account for its meaning. The author argues that the progressive aspect conveys a durative view and the non-progressive a non-durative view, and shows that the progressive can describe situations which are described by the non-progressive in other languages. The study also considers whether other expressions can be aspect markers.

The book shows that the primary meanings of the three grammatical areas are subject to various constraints.

Zielgruppe

Academics (Undergraduates, Postgraduates, and Researchers)

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jones, Bob Morris

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgements;8
2;Preface;10
3;Contents;14
4;Conventions;19
5;Tables;22
6;Figures;24
7;Chapter 1. The data: Finite verbs and aspect;26
8;Chapter 2. Finite inflections of bod ‘be’;51
9;Chapter 3. Finite inflections of lexical and modal verbs;115
10;Chapter 4. Perfective and imperfective aspect;145
11;Chapter 5. The inflectional system;182
12;Chapter 6. Other semantic analyses of finite verb inflections;206
13;Chapter 7. Perfect aspect;237
14;Chapter 8. Progressive aspect;273
15;Chapter 9. More about aspect;329
16;Chapter 10. Closing remarks;366
17;Appendices;372
18;Notes;374
19;References;393
20;Index;403

Leseproben

6.1 Introduction


The purpose of this chapter is to argue against approaches which claim that the inflections of finite verbs can be given meanings which are additional or alternative to those meanings which we have presented in chapters 2 to 4. We shall look first at other semantic analyses of the tenses. Additional or alternative meanings are especially common in respect of the Future-Forms and Imperfect/Pluperfect-Forms. Such analyses can be found in respect of Welsh in Jones (1970), Ellis (1972), Fife (1990: 81–214), and Thomas (1996: 101–102). Epistemic modality, subject-oriented meanings, speech acts, tentativity, politeness, and pretence are variously put forward as additional or alternative functions of finite verb inflections. We shall then consider other semantic analyses of inflectional aspect, namely, completion, change versus continuation, narration versus scene-setting, and remote past versus accessible past.

Some of these meanings can arise through the direct extension of a basic meaning. But some can also arise through the effects of context. In respect of the latter, in assessing the adequacy of claims for additional meanings, it is relevant to consider a distinction exploited by Comrie (1985: 18–35) between meanings which are independent of context and other meanings which can be implied or inferred because of the effects of context (and these latter meanings come under standard label implicatures). Comrie records that context-independent meanings and context-dependent meanings are distinguishable in that the latter meanings can be cancelled but not the former. He gives the well-known example of it’s cold in here, which can be given and taken as an implied directive to close the window. The implication can be cancelled, but the basic meaning about the temperature in the room cannot. We shall attempt to show that many additional or alternative meanings are context-dependent meanings, a consideration which is not fully maintained in the works listed above.

6.2 Implicatures and extensions of tense


6.2.1 Epistemic modality


Modal analyses of Welsh finite verb inflections are to be found in Jones (1970), Jones and Thomas (1977), and Fife (1990: 84–103). They concentrate in particular on Future-Forms, sometimes distinguishing different sorts of modality such as epistemic and root (or epistemic and deontic modality). In this section, we shall concentrate on epistemic modality. The argument for an epistemic modal interpretation can be most clearly introduced by returning to examples, discussed in 2.2.3, which show that the PRESENT tense, the FUTURE tense and the PAST tense IMPERFECTIVE can occur in descriptions of situations which are located outside the periods of time with which these tenses are traditionally associated.

Über Autor(innen)

Bob Morris Jones, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK.