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Aspect, mood and tense and their 'prominence' in different languages
Semester I 2004
(Education Room 139, 1 March 2004, 12 noon)
Abstract
English is a tense prominent language: the most grammaticalised
category in the English verbal system is non-past vs past. This
categorisation in English tends to bias descriptions of other
languages made in English. Whether the other language specifies
tense or not, English glosses are forced to specify tense, and in
elicitation in a language under study, if using English or another
tense prominent language, we tend to ask tenses questions and
interpret the forms we elicit as reflecting tense. A further look
at a description of another language sometimes brings about a
re-analysis of the language. This will be illustrated from
Yugambeh-Bundjalung in the Northern Rivers and Gold Coast areas of
eastern Australia.
