Imperfective marking in present tense

[Östen Dahl]

Dear all,

It is not quite clear what uses such a non-imperfective present tense form
could have. In languages with marked imperfectives, these tend to cover the
whole range of uses that present tenses usually have (e.g. in the Romance
languages). Progressives cover a more restricted area (like in English).
There may of course be forms that are transitional between progressive and
generalized imperfectives; maybe those are the ones Kazuha is thinking of.

With regard to Bardi, mentioned by Claire Bowern, a little more information
would be needed to make clear what's going on there. What's the distinction
between the incomplete and unmarked forms in the present?

Östen Dahl



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion List for ALT [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG]
> On Behalf Of Kazuha Watanabe
> Sent: den 19 januari 2008 21:49
> To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> Subject: Imperfective marking in present tense
> 
> 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