The Prominence of Tense, Aspect and Mood
The book puts forth an exciting hypothesis for the typologist. Its major claim is that languages can generally be regarded as belonging to a tense-prominent, aspect-prominent or mood-prominent language type. This grouping can be based upon the relative prominence that languages attach to one or the other of the three verbal categories, namely tense, aspect and mood, by grammaticalizing the chosen category to a greater degree than others, and by making it more obligatory, more systematic and more pervasive than others. The grouping, however, involves a gradation, as is indeed the case with other typological groupings, with some languages manifesting the relevant characteristic more strikingly than others.
There are several characteristics that can be correlated with the relative prominence that languages attach to verbal categories. For example, tense-prominent languages tend to have mostly active but not stative verbs. They also tend to keep adjectives as a distinct category, or group them with nouns but not with verbs. Verbal forms used for foregrounding generally belong to the most prominent verbal category. These and other similar correlations make this typological classification worth pursuing. The book also contains a descriptive study of the three verbal categories.
There are several characteristics that can be correlated with the relative prominence that languages attach to verbal categories. For example, tense-prominent languages tend to have mostly active but not stative verbs. They also tend to keep adjectives as a distinct category, or group them with nouns but not with verbs. Verbal forms used for foregrounding generally belong to the most prominent verbal category. These and other similar correlations make this typological classification worth pursuing. The book also contains a descriptive study of the three verbal categories.
[Studies in Language Companion Series, 49] 1999. xii, 198 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008
Published online on 21 October 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Preface | p. ix
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List of Abbreviations | p. xi
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Chapter 1: Introduction | p. 1
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1.1 Universalistic and Differentiating Approaches
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1.2 Nature of the present study
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1.3 Organisation of the monograph
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Part 1: A Descriptive Study
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Chapter 2: Category of Tense | p. 13
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2.1 Introduction
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2.2 Deictic tense
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2.3 Non-deictic tense
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2.4 Distance from the reference point
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2.5 Use of temporal adverbials
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Chapter 3: Category of Aspect | p. 43
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3.1 Introduction
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3.2 Perfective and imperfective
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3.3 Phasal aspects
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3.4 Quantificational aspects
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3.5 Situational and viewpoint aspects
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3.6 Use of aspectual adverbials
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Chapter 4: Category of Mood | p. 63
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4.1 Introduction
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4.2 Epistemic mood
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4.3 Deontic Mood
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4.4 Epistemic moods and interrogatives
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4.5 Deontic moods and imperatives
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4.6 Use of modal adverbials
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Part 2: A Typological Study
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Chapter 5: Basis of the Typology | p. 91
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5.1 Introduction
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5.2 Basis of tense-aspect-mood variation
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5.3 Possibility of using alternative categories
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5.4 Criteria for prominence
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5.5 Nature of generalizations
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5.6 Bias in grammars
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5.7 Need for diachronic considerations
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5.8 Correctable characteristics
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Chapter 6: Classification of Languages | p. 103
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6.1 Introduction
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6.2 Tense-prominent languages
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6.3 Aspect-prominent languages
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6.4 Mood-prominent languages
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6.5 Summary
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Chapter 7: Correlatable Characteristics | p. 141
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7.1 Introduction
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7.2 Effects of decategorization
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7.3 Ergativity split
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7.4 Tensedness parameter
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7.5 Absence of state verbs
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7.6 Variations in the mode of encoding the categories
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7.7 Differing points of view
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7.8 Foregrounding sequential events
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7.9 Paths of grammaticalization
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7.10 Conclusion
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Index | p. 193
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