Imperfective marking in present tense

[Paolo Ramat]

Non-finite verb forms may refer both to present and past tense:
* *El estudiante cantando/ Cantando el estudiante, todos empezaron a 
retirarse* * (continuative, imperfective Gerund  in the past) vs. * *Los 
estudiantes cantan ** (plain tense form) vs. **Los estudiantes estàn 
cantando** (progressive present form).

Prof. Paolo Ramat
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS)
Responsabile della classe di Scienze Umane
V.le Lungo Ticino Sforza 56, 27100 Pavia - Italia
Tel. +39 0382 375811 Fax +39 0382 375899


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Claire Bowern" <bowern at RICE.EDU>
To: <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 10:00 PM
Subject: Re: Imperfective marking in present tense


> Dear all,
> Bardi has this. It has a three-way tense suffix contrast between -n 
> 'continuative', -gal 'incomplete', and -null (unmarked). There is also a 
> tense prefix position (null for present, ng for past, ngg for future, la 
> for irrealis),
> Claire
>
> Kazuha Watanabe wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I am looking for a language which has both plain present tense form and
>> distinctively marked imperfective aspect form (not progressive).  All the
>> languages I know seem to either use imperfective only in the past
>> tense(Romance, for example) or mark imperfective in the present tense but
>> do not have a separate plain present tense form (Slavic, for example).
>>
>> Thank you very much!
>>
>>
>> Kazuha Watanabe
>>
>> !DSPAM:4134,47926426224281179361415!
>>
>>