Table Of ContentLinguistische
Arbeiten 338
Herausgegeben von Hans Altmann, Peter Blumenthal, Herbert E. Brekle,
Gerhard Heibig, Hans Jürgen Heringer, Heinz Vater und Richard Wiese
Tense Systems
in European Languages II
Edited by
Rolf Thierof f
Max Niemeyer Verlag
Tübingen 1995
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Tense systems in European languages / ed. by Rolf Thieroff.- Tübingen : Niemeyer
[Vol. 1.] ed. by Rolf Thieroff and Joachim Ballweg. - Literaturangaben. - Beitr. teilw. dt.,
teilw. engl.
NE: Thieroff, Rolf [Hrsg.]
Vol. 2 (1995)
(Linguistische Arbeiten ; 338)
NE:GT
ISBN 3-484-30338-7 ISSN 0344-6727
© Max Niemeyer Verlag GmbH & Co.KG, Tübingen 1995
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Printed in Germany.
Druck: Weihert-Druck GmbH, Darmstadt
Einband: Hugo Nadele, Nehren
Contents
Preface vii
List of Abbreviations viii
0. INTRODUCTION
Rolf Thier off
More on Inherent Verb Categories in European Languages 1
1. GERMANIC LANGUAGES
Maria Bonner
Zum Tempussystem des Isländischen 37
Osten Dahl
The Tense System of Swedish 59
2. ROMANCE LANGUAGES
Hans Fetter Heiland
A Compositional Analysis of the French Tense System 69
Fatima Oliveira & Ana Lopes
Tense and Aspect in Portuguese 95
Mario Squartini
Tense and Aspect in Italian 117
Martin Haase
Tense, Aspect and Mood in Romanian 135
3. SLAVIC LANGUAGES
Heinz Vater
The Tense System of Polish 153
Ronald Lötzsch
Das sorbische Tempussystem 167
Jadranka Gvozdanovic
Western South Slavic Tenses in a Typological Perspective 181
Tania Kuteva
Bulgarian Tenses 195
vi Contents
4. OTHER INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
Nijolt Slizient
The Tense System of Lithuanian 215
Eva Hedin
The Tense Aspect System of Modern Greek 233
Jean-Louis Ducket
The Albanian Tense System 253
Natalia Kozintseva
The Tense System of Modern Eastern Armenian 277
5. NON-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
Helle Metslang & Hannu Tommola
Zum Tempussystem des Estnischen 299
Ray Fabri
The Tense and Aspect System of Maltese 327
List of Contributors .....345
Preface
In the preface of Tense Systems in European Languages (R. Thieroff & J. Ballweg, eds.,
1994), a second volume with more contributions on tense systems of European languages,
especially those languages underrepresented in the first volume, was announced. More
quickly than I expected, this second volume could be completed, and I am glad to be able to
present 16 more contributions on tense systems in European languages, thus giving a more
representative picture of the tense systems found in Europe than could give the relatively
small selection of languages described in the first volume.
As in the first volume, the reader will find descriptions of tense (and aspect) systems of
Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages; in addition, this volume includes descriptions of
further Indo-European languages and of two more non-Indo-European languages of Europe.
The two volumes now present descriptions of the tense systems of 31 European languages:
eight Germanic languages - Danish, Norwegian, English, Dutch, German, and Yiddish
(vol. I), Icelandic and Swedish (this volume); five Romance languages - Spanish (vol. I),
Italian, Portuguese, and Rumanian (vol. II), French (both volumes); six Slavic languages -
Russian (vol. I), Polish, Sorbian, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian (vol. )Π ; five other
Indo-European languages of Europe - Irish (vol. I), Lithuanian, Modern Greek, Albanian and
Armenian (vol. II); and seven non-Indo-European languages of Europe - Finnish, Hungarian,
Turkish, Lezgian and Basque (vol. I), Estonian and Maltese (vol. )Π .
Whereas French is represented in both volumes (in the first volume, only the French past
tenses are described, in this volume, the entire tense system of French is analyzed), a few
major European languages are still missing, as e.g. Catalan, Czech and Slovak, Ukrainian and
Belorussian (unfortunately, the paper announced on these languages has not been written),
Latvian. Certainly, it would be no problem to find enough European languages for a third
volume, even if the Caucasus is disregarded. Indeed I have been asked by many linguists to
edit a third (and final) volume, containing contributions on the tense systems of these and
other languages. However, editing a reader is a very time consuming task, and at the present
moment I am not able to promise that such a third volume will follow.
Whereas the first volume originated from a workshop on "Tense systems in different
languages" (see preface to Tense Systems in European Languages), the present volume con-
sists of contributions especially written for this book.
As a result, these contributions are more consistent than those of volume I (cf. Bernard
Connie's review of Tense Systems in European Languages [Linguistics 30, 1994, 298-299],
where he mentions the "contrast between more empirical and more theoretical contribu-
tions"). With the exception of the papers on the French, Italian, and Portuguese tense systems,
all examples are provided with intermorphemic glosses. With very few exceptions, the same
principles of glossing and the same abbreviations are used throughout the entire book. A list
of the abbreviations used in the glosses is provided on pages viii-ix.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the individual contributors for their cooperation and
Heinz Vater, editor of the Linguistische Arbeiten series, for his commitment and enthusiasm.
Bonn, April 1995
Rolf Thieroff
List of Abbreviations
A aspect INDEF indefinite article
ABESS abessive INESS inessive
ABL ablative INF infinitive
ACC, AKK accusative IPX infix
ACT active INFL inflection
ADESS adessive INFM infinitive marker
ADJ adjective INSTR instrumental
ADM admirative (Albanian) INT interrogative particle
ADV adverb INVAR invariable
AGR agreement marker IPFV imperfective
ALL allative IT iterative auxiliary
ANT anterior JUSS jussive
AOR aorist KONJ subjunctive (=Konjunktiv)
ART article L-F /-form (Serbian)
COM comitative LOG, LOK locative
COMP complementizer M mood; masculine
COND conditional MEDPASS mediopassive (Albanian)
CONJ conjunction mINF /ttfl-infinitive (Estonian)
CONT continuative N neuter
COP copula NEG negation
Dl 1st Person Determiner NOM nominative
D2 2nd Person Determiner OBJ object
DAT dative PART participle
DBF definite article PARTI participle I
DEM demonstrative PART2 participle Π
DIR directional PASS Passive
DU dual PERF Perfect
ELAT elative PFAUX perfect auxiliary (Greek)
F feminine PFORM perfect formant (Greek)
PUT future PFV perfective
GEN genitive PL plural
GER gerund PLUP pluperfect
HAB habitual PLUP1 pluperfect I
HYP hypothetical PLUP2 pluperfect Π
ILL illative POSS possessive pronoun
IMP imperative Postp postposition
IMPF imperfect PC compound preterite
(Portuguese)
List of Abbreviations IX
PRE presumptive RPRT reportive
PRET, PRAT preterite SG singular
PROG progressive SR subordinator
PRON pronoun SUBJ subjunctive
PROSP prospective SUP supine
PRS present T tense
PRTV partitive TRGR transgressive
PST past TRNSL translative
PSTF Past Frequentative VOC vocative
(Lithuanian)
1 1st person
PTL particle 2 2nd person
RES resultative 3 3rd person
RFL reflexive
