Minhast: Difference between revisions

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A few additional comments need to be made about the tense and aspect markers. The Present Tense in combination with the Imperfect Aspect is commonly used as the "narrative tense" in both traditional oral literature, and modern literature involving poetry and fiction where the author wishes to convey a sense of intimacy and immediacy in a narrative. The Present Imperfect is also used in ordinary speech to describe an action that began in the past but nevertheless is still continuing, illustrated in such sentences as ''Tenkūr wandirahyilabu >> *tenkūr wa=ind-rahy-l-ab-u~~'' (~~CONN=INCEP-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS~~), lit. "~~This morning she begins crying [still]". Minhast does have a Continuative affix ''-xt-'', but it occurs in the ~~Theme I~~ slot. A different meaning would result if intervening affixes from the Theme I slot surfaced. For example, if the ~~Theme I~~ Iterative affix ~~appeared after~~ the Continuative affix~~, the resulting~~ phrase ''Tenkūr waxtixrirahittarlabu ~~>> *Tenkūr~~ wa=xt-xr-rahy-tar-l-ab-u~~'' (~~CONN=INCEP-ITER-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS~~) actually means "~~This morning she begins to continue to cry ~~several times [~~still~~]." The latter sentence~~ implies the act of crying occurred in discrete individual events since the ~~start of~~ crying. up until the present. The ~~previous sentence~~, however, cannot be interpreted in that manner. This example shows that Minhast speakers consider time frames as relative to each other, as opposed to typical Indo-European languages that consider time as having discrete start and end point.

A few additional comments need to be made about the tense and aspect markers. The Present Tense in combination with the Imperfect Aspect is commonly used as the "narrative tense" in both traditional oral literature, and modern literature involving poetry and fiction where the author wishes to convey a sense of intimacy and immediacy in a narrative. The Present Imperfect is also used in ordinary speech to describe an action that began in the past but nevertheless is still continuing, illustrated in such sentences as the following:

{{Gloss

|phrase = Tenkūr wandirahyilabu

|IPA =

| morphemes = tenkūr wa=ind-rahy-l-ab-u

| gloss = CONN=INCEP-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS

| translation = This morning she begins crying [still]

}}

Minhast does have a Continuative affix ''-xt-'', but it occurs in the Preverb 1 slot. A different meaning would result if intervening affixes from the Theme I slot surfaced. For example, the combination of the Iterative affix with the Continuative affix yields a different meaning:

{{Gloss

|phrase = Tenkūr waxtixrirahittarlabu

|IPA =

| morphemes = tenkūr wa=xt-xr-rahy-tar-l-ab-u

| gloss = CONN=INCEP-ITER-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS

| translation = This morning she begins to continue to cry on and off and is still crying

}}

This example implies the act of crying occurred in discrete individual events since the crying started, up until the present. The first example, however, cannot be interpreted in that manner. This example shows that Minhast speakers consider time frames as relative to each other, as opposed to typical Indo-European languages that consider time as having discrete start and end point.

The Distributed-Periodic aspect marker, often translated as "from time-to-time" or when used with discrete time references ("every Thursday") indicates that the action, event, or state occurs with some sort of periodicity. If the periodicity is predictable (e.g. "every Thursday"), it co-occurs with the Habitual affix. The Distributed-Periodic does not indicate punctual or durative information, as they may occur ad-hoc in both telic and atelic verbs. Durative and punctual information is instead indicated by separate affixes, the Semelfective and the Durative; these affixes are derivational in nature and occur in a different slot in the verb template.

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-A few additional comments need to be made about the tense and aspect markers.  The Present Tense in combination with the Imperfect Aspect is commonly used as the "narrative tense" in both traditional oral literature, and modern literature involving poetry and fiction where the author wishes to convey a sense of intimacy and immediacy in a narrative.  The Present Imperfect is also used in ordinary speech to describe an action that began in the past but nevertheless is still continuing, illustrated in such sentences as ''Tenkūr wandirahyilabu >> *tenkūr wa=ind-rahy-l-ab-u'' (CONN=INCEP-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS), lit. "This morning she begins crying [still]".  Minhast does have a Continuative affix ''-xt-'', but it occurs in the Theme I slot. A different meaning would result if intervening affixes from the Theme I slot surfaced.  For example, if the Theme I Iterative affix appeared after the Continuative affix, the resulting phrase ''Tenkūr waxtixrirahittarlabu >> *Tenkūr wa=xt-xr-rahy-tar-l-ab-u'' (CONN=INCEP-ITER-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS) actually means "This morning she begins to continue to cry several times [still]."  The latter sentence implies the act of crying occurred in discrete individual events since the start of crying. up until the present.  The previous sentence, however, cannot be interpreted in that manner.  This example shows that Minhast speakers consider time frames as relative to each other, as opposed to typical Indo-European languages that consider time as having discrete start and end point.
+A few additional comments need to be made about the tense and aspect markers.  The Present Tense in combination with the Imperfect Aspect is commonly used as the "narrative tense" in both traditional oral literature, and modern literature involving poetry and fiction where the author wishes to convey a sense of intimacy and immediacy in a narrative.  The Present Imperfect is also used in ordinary speech to describe an action that began in the past but nevertheless is still continuing, illustrated in such sentences as the following:
+{{Gloss
+|phrase = Tenkūr wandirahyilabu
+|IPA =
+| morphemes = tenkūr wa=ind-rahy-l-ab-u
+| gloss = CONN=INCEP-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS
+| translation = This morning she begins crying [still]
+}}
+Minhast does have a Continuative affix ''-xt-'', but it occurs in the Preverb 1 slot. A different meaning would result if intervening affixes from the Theme I slot surfaced.  For example, the combination of the Iterative affix with the Continuative affix yields a different meaning:
+{{Gloss
+|phrase = Tenkūr waxtixrirahittarlabu
+|IPA =
+| morphemes = tenkūr wa=xt-xr-rahy-tar-l-ab-u
+| gloss = CONN=INCEP-ITER-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS
+| translation = This morning she begins to continue to cry on and off and is still crying
+}}
+This example implies the act of crying occurred in discrete individual events since the crying started, up until the present.  The first example, however, cannot be interpreted in that manner.  This example shows that Minhast speakers consider time frames as relative to each other, as opposed to typical Indo-European languages that consider time as having discrete start and end point.
 The Distributed-Periodic aspect marker, often translated as "from time-to-time" or when used with discrete time references ("every Thursday") indicates that the action, event, or state occurs with some sort of periodicity.  If the periodicity is predictable (e.g. "every Thursday"), it co-occurs with the Habitual affix.  The Distributed-Periodic does not indicate punctual or durative information, as they may occur ad-hoc in both telic and atelic verbs.  Durative and punctual information is instead indicated by separate affixes, the Semelfective and the Durative;  these affixes are derivational in nature and occur in a different slot in the verb template.