Future tense in Serbian: A fuzzy linguistic category

Abstract

In the world we live in, and more so in natural languages, it is rarely possible to offer strict and precise categorisations. In light of discussions on the semantic status of the future tense in linguistic theory, this paper aims to investigate further the possibilities of treating the Serbian future tense within a modal category and thus provide an elucidating account of its fuzzy nature. The modal-temporal semantics of the future tense is viewed from the perspective of prevailing standpoints presented in the relevant literature on tense and modality. Therefore, the provided account focuses on three components of utterance meaning (the modal, performative and propositional). In order to present a systematic and detailed description, the following semantic pragmatic features of future reference utterances have been investigated: non-factuality and non-assertiveness, modal meanings (epistemic and volitive), a speaker's commitment to the propositional content of an utterance and its higher-level, illocutionary, potential. The authentic examples of the future tense in simple sentences extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary Serbian Language (SrpKor) have been used in the analysis. As my analysis has shown, future tense utterances are necessarily modally nuanced by additional information, which is not related to the localization of time but to the modal attitude conveyed. This, in turn, is directly related to the illocutionary potential of utterances and non-factuality of propositions. Accordingly, it is possible to treat the future tense in Serbian within the category of modality. The paper has shown that modality and tense are intertwined to such an extent in future reference that the crucial issue of the future tense categorization could hardly be fully resolved. In this regard, my analysis has confirmed the fuzziness of the examined linguistic category and the existence of a modality-non-modality continuum.