28.3813, Qs: Query Regarding Tense in Biaka, Mbuti, Mozabite (Africa)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3813. Mon Sep 18 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3813, Qs: Query Regarding Tense in Biaka, Mbuti, Mozabite (Africa)

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Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2017 14:01:12
From: Ljiljana Progovac [progovac at wayne.edu]
Subject: Query Regarding Tense in Biaka, Mbuti, Mozabite (Africa)

 
Dear Colleagues,

We are working on a project here at Wayne State University (Detroit),
searching for associations between language parameters of variation and
frequency of certain genetic markers in populations, inspired by Dediu and
Ladd (2007)’s work. 
    One of the parameters we are investigating is the presence vs. absence of
Past Tense as a grammatical category in a language. We have already consulted
WALS specifications, as well as many individual language references, including
grammar books. However, for some of the languages (for whose populations we
have genetic data) we still cannot determine if they have Past Tense or not. 
    If you are an expert on Biaka (Bantoid), Mbuti (Nilo-Saharan), or Mozabite
(Berber), or otherwise have knowledge of one of these languages, would you
mind telling us how it should be analyzed with respect to the following
questions: 
    1. Does Language X have Past Tense?
We assume that a language with Past Tense will obligatorily mark it in
sentences with an adverbial such as “yesterday” or “last week” (paraphrastic
marking included). Some examples: 
John is a teacher. vs. John was a teacher last year. 
I see a snake. vs. I saw a snake yesterday. 

    2. Does Language X have aspect, such as perfective aspect? If so, is the
past tense marking (as per above) distinguishable from any aspectual marking? 

    3. Can you please provide sources of your evidence (such as published
references and/or your own examples obtained through fieldwork), as well as
reasoning, as to whether we are dealing with Past Tense as opposed to aspect
in Language X.  As also noted in WALS, distinguishing aspect from tense can be
tricky. 

With gratitude,
Natalia Rakhlin, Feng Tao, Haiyong Liu, Peter Staroverov, Geoff Nathan, Igor
Yanovich, Ljiljana Progovac, Martha Ratliff, and Chuanzhu Fan

References:
Dediu, D., & Ladd, D. R. (2007). ‘Linguistic tone is related to the population
frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and
Microcephalin.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA
104: 10944-10949.

Dahl, Östen and Viveka Velupillai, Chapter on The Past Tense. WALS.
 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics



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