Tense marking on NPs

Wed Jan 21 12:32:45 UTC 2004

Dear Roland, dear all,

Araki, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu (with about 3 speakers left), has two ways to mark tense-aspect-mood on NPs [and I believe several other Oceanic languages behave the same].

  a.. When they form an NP which is not in predicate position (=argument, complement of prepositions...), nouns cannot bear any TAM marker (contrary to Tupi-Guarani):

BUT
  1)  Araki lacks any copula, in such a way that nouns are directly predicative;  most of the time, this involves a time-less equational predicate (bare noun, without TAM marking):
    Nia  moli.  
    /[free.pronoun]3sg/chief/  
    'he is (a/the) chief.'
  but if the noun predicate is for some reason not "time-stable" (e.g. change of social status, change of identity...), then the noun will directly be marked in Tense-Aspect-Mood, just like verbs  
  (here co is a subject clitic = portmanteau morpheme Person+Mood realis;  pa is an tense-aspect marker for Future):
    (Nia) co pa MOLI.  
    /[free.pronoun]3sg/ [subject.clitic]3sg:Irrealis/FUT/chief/
    'he will be a/the chief.'   
    (lit. he will chief.)
  or 
    (Nia) mo re MOLI  mo iso.  
    /3sg/3sg:Realis/PFT/chief/ 3sg:Realis/finish/
    'he is already a/the chief.'   
    (lit. he has already chief-ed.)
  In this type of construction, nouns take the same slot as verbs, demonstrably without ceasing to be nouns. This is a context where several Oceanic languages perfectly allow TAM-marking on nouns  --  although, to be precise, this is limited to the predicate position (*Co pa moli cannot be used as an NP "the future chief").

  Another language on which I have detailed evidence for this 'TAM-sensitiveness of nouns' is Mwotlap (also Vanuatu): see discussion in François (2003: 47-75). I can give you more examples of Mwotlap if you wish.  
  Finally, you should also have a look at Polynesian languages, which as far as I know allow quite different constructions that combine TAM with nouns  (knowing that the distinction between nouns and verbs is even problematic for some of these Polynesian languages!)
I'm not insisting here, since I'm afraid this is not exactly the sort of "tense-marked NPs" you were asking for (or is it?).

  2) closer to your query, Araki (not Mwotlap) has the possibility of coding TAM inside NPs even outside the predicate position, provided it has a numeral.  Indeed, numerals in this language behave like (or better said: form a subset of) verbs, which means that a NP with a numeral will necessarily be marked in (Tense-Aspect)-Mood [without the need for a relative structure, contrary to verbs]. 
  Most of the time, this takes the form of a (3 singular) subject clitic, either Realis or Irrealis. 

  Generally speaking, there seems to be some sort of mood agreement between the main verb and the mood of its surrounding NPs (relevant NP is bracketed):
    Nam inu-mi-a  [LASA ai  mo dua].
    /1sg:Realis/drink-TRansitiviser-3sg/cup/water/3sg:Realis/two/
    'I drank two glasses of water' 
    lit.  I REALIS-drink glasses of water REALIS-two

    Nam de  na inu  [re  LASA ai  co dua].
    /1sg:Realis/say/ 1sg:Irrealis/drink/ PARTitive /cup/water/3sg:Realis/two/
    'I'd like to drink two glasses of water' 
    lit.  I say  I IRREALIS-drink  some glasses of water IRREALIS-two
  Interestingly, the contrast Realis/Irrealis on numerals is directly correlated with referentiality of the NP  (François 2002: 58):  basically  Realis NPs are [+ref], irrealis NPs are [-ref].  

  But discrepancies between mood marking of the predicate vs. the NP are also attested: (François 2002: 110):
    Na pa sivo lesi-a [racu  mo hese hosun].
    /1sg:Irrealis/FUT/go.down/see-3sg/man/1sg:Realis/one/here/
    'I will go and have a look at that man over there.' 
    lit. I IRREALIS go look the man REALIS-one there
  In my view, this is directly linked with the referentiality/specificity of the referent. This can have interesting semantic effects on the interpretation of the whole NP/sentence, e.g. (François 2002: 55):
    Nam dogo  na pa vavere  [lo  vere  mo hese].
    /1sg:Realis/feel/ 1sg:Irrealis/FUT/sing/ OBL/song/3sg:Realis/one/
    lit.  I feel I IRREALIS-sing  a song REALIS-one
    'I want to sing a (specific) song 
    = There is a (specific) song I'd like to sing.'
    Nam dogo  na pa vavere  [lo  vere  co hese].
    /1sg:Realis/feel/ 1sg:Irrealis/FUT/sing/ OBL/song/3sg:Irrealis/one/
    lit.  I feel I IRREALIS-sing  a song IRREALIS-one
    lit. 'I want to sing a (non-specific) song that should be one.'
    = 'I feel I will sing one song (only one song, whatever it is)'
References: 
  François, Alexandre (2002). Araki. A disappearing language of Vanuatu. Pacific Linguistics, 522. Canberra: Australian National University.
  -- (2003). La sémantique du prédicat en mwotlap (Vanuatu). Collection Linguistique de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 84. Paris, Louvain: Peeters.

Hope this is of interest for your study,
Best regards

Alex François.

***********************
Alex François
LACITO - CNRS
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  FRANCE
tel. prof.       +33 (0)1.49.58.37.48.
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email  <Alexandre.Francois at vjf.cnrs.fr>

http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/personnel/francois.htm
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