Article

Name: Functional and semantic field “Tense” in Tuvan and Mongolian languages (Present tense system)

Authors: B. Ch. Oorzhak

Institute for Linguistic Studies of the RAS, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Морфология

Abstract:

The article examines how the present tense is linguistically represented in Tuvan and Mongolian languages, specifically Khalkha-Mongolian, Buryat, and Kalmyk, focusing on the unique aspects of this representation. The expression of present tense temporal values shows typological semantic correspondences among the compared languages. Actions and events in the present tense revolve around the moment of speech. The incorporation of fragments from both past and present extends the sphere of the present. The utilization of the present tense can indicate two main aspects. Firstly, it signifies the continuous progression of an action extending from the past to the future. Secondly, it reveales the incompleteness of the action in this context. The present tense can surpass the constraints of time and embody values that are considered timeless. The speaker directly observes the present tense actions, thus actualizing them, with some traces of the historical undifferentiation of the spheres of the present and future time still remaining. To summarize, the present tense in Tuvan and Mongolian languages can be described by the following linguistic features. (1) Adding an evidential component to the present tense makes its meaning more intricate. (2) Aspects of aspectuality are inherent in the common present tense. (3) Timelessness is derived from the aspectual meaning of duration. Modern languages retain elements of the historical blending of present and future tenses, which originally conveyed a general sense of the non-past, but now exhibit varying degrees of specialization towards the future tense.

Keywords: Tuvan language, Khalkha-Mongolian language, Buryat language, Kalmyk language, functional and semantic field of tense, present tense, grammatical indicators, tense forms

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