Tense
editIt is an open discussion among specialists in Greenlandic whether the language should be considered to have tense or not. Because the manner by which the language refers to time grammatically is so different from European languages, it becomes a question of whether the Greenlandic method qualifies as being the same thing as what is referred to as tense in European languages. Proponents of classifying Greenlandic as a tenseless language hold that because time is not a part of the Greenlandic inflectional system and most verbal forms can be interpreted as either past, present or future according to context, Greenlandic does not have grammatical tense.[1][2] Other scholars claim that since Greenlandic is perfectly capable of constructing verbs that have only one possible temporal reading by using different derivational affixes related to time, it does have grammatical tense.[3] The examples below illustrate how Greenlandic expresses temporal relations.
All verbs can have past readings with the simple indicative or interrogative moods; some verbs can also have present readings. Whether or not this is possible is determined by their aktionsart: verbs that describe a change of state only have past readings; whereas verbs that describe states can have either past or present readings depending on context. Specific temporal reference can be expresseds in two ways: Either by means of derivational affixes are used to fix verbs in a specific time reference to express the past, the present, or the future. Or, by using temporal expressions like "today", "yesterday" or "tomorrow" in the clause.[4][5]
- aserorpoq "It is broken / It broke"
- siallerpoq "It rained / It rains"
- itsaq siallerpoq "In the old days it rained" (itsaq = "in the old days")
- massakkut siallerpoq "It's raining now" (massakkut = "now")
The derivational suffix -ssaa- is used to express events that are predicted to take place in the future:
- unnugu siallerssaaq "It will rain tonight" (unnugu = "tonight")
The derivational suffix -sima- is used to express events that were concluded at some moment in the past or which one has been told about. It carries both the meaning of completive past and of "hearsay" evidentiality. The derivational suffix -reer- is used to express events that happened and which were supposed to happen, it is often translated with "already". The derivational suffix -ler- expresses events that are just about to begin or which have just begun.
- aallarpoq "He left/he leaves"
- aallarsimavoq "He has left (they say)"
- aallareerpoq "He has already left"
- nerivoq "He ate/he eats"
- nerereerpoq "He already ate/he finished eating"
- nerilerpoq "He's about to eat"
References
edit- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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HayashiSprengerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Bjørnum (2003) pp. 37-38
- ^ Trondhjem, Naja Frederikke, "The marking of past time in Kalaallisut", in Mahieu & Tersis (2009) p. 180-181