Future reference with and without future marking

Abstract

AbstractThe nature of future temporal reference has long posed a challenge to linguistic theories of temporal interpretation. On the one hand, the future would seem to be the mirror image of the past on a linear timeline. On the other hand, the future is inherently non‐factual, suggesting a modal analysis of the future that is non‐symmetrical with the past and the present. Cross‐linguistic studies of temporal reference have furthermore uncovered much variation in the strategies used to express future interpretation, and this variation cross‐cuts the tensed/tenseless language divide. This article focuses on two aspects of future interpretation: (a) the semantics of future markers and the division of labor between the temporal and modal semantics encoded in them and (b) the availability of future interpretations without overt future morphology. The cross‐linguistic picture suggests that a modal treatment of the future may be a semantic universal, though certain cases that appear to challenge this generalization will be discussed and require future research.