[Lingtyp] Co-expression of future and past

[Yukinori Kimoto]

Hi Lauren,

In Iraya, a Philippine language spoken in Mindoro has developed "present vs. non-present" tense system, in which the infix <in> marks both past and future, and the basic forms signal present. 

The infix originally marked past ~ anterior, not future, and in fact most languages spoken in northern part of the Philippines seem to follow that system, but Iraya extended the meaning to cover the future sense. The ambiguity between the past and future readings is resolved by the use of preverbal element "batay" (future). 

Nay ʔ<in>inəm ʔag sapaʔ ʔaray ʔumaga.
1SG <TR.non-pesent>drink DET water today morning.
'I drank the water this morning.'

Nay batay ʔ<in>inəm ʔag sapaʔ girabas.
1SG FUT <TR.non-pesent>drink DET water tomorrow.
'I'll drink the water tomorrow.'

Nay ʔinəm-ən ʔag sapaʔ ŋuna.
1SG drink-TR.present DET water now
'I am drinking the water now.'

You can refer to the following article. 

Reid, Lawrence A. 2017. Re-evaluating the Position of Iraya Among Philippine Languages. Liao, Hsiu-chuan (ed.) Issues in Austronesian historical linguistics. JSEALS special publication no.1. pp.23-47 (Available online)

All the best,

Yuki

> 2018/12/11 10:37、Lauren Reed <lauren.reed at anu.edu.au>のメール:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> My colleague Alan Rumsey and I are working on a small sign language in Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea. The language has a marker which appears to express either remote future or remote past. This co-expression is attributed by users to the fact that both far future and far past events occur many sleep-wake cycles from now.
> 
> I am interested in hearing of any other examples you may be aware of where languages overtly mark both future and past with the same marker (whether this be remote or not). 
> 
> Best regards
> Lauren
> 
> ---
> Lauren Reed
> Australian National University
> laurenwreed.com
> +61 438 583 808
> 
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木本幸憲
名古屋大学大学院　人文学研究科
日本学術振興会特別研究員(PD)

Yukinori Kimoto, Ph.D
Graduate School of Humanities, Nagoya University
JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Visiting scholar, University of Melbourne
e-mail: yk.kimoto at gmail.com
phone: +81-90-6370-2777
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