Present Tense Markers Research Articles

‘It’s Depend’, ‘Its Depend’, or ‘It Depends’? A Portrait of ELF Speaking Variations

The present study aims to contribute to the existing knowledge on individual variation in situations where English is a lingua franca (ELF). In spoken conversations, it explores using two ungrammatical constructions, ‘it's + Vø’ (e.g., it’s depend) and ‘its + Vø’ (e.g., its depend). These constructions involve an uninflected present-tense singular verb form with it’s or its as subjects, which diverge from the standard -s inflected third-person singular with the pronoun it (e.g., it depends). This study examines the distribution of the variants of the ‘it's + Vø’ and ‘its+ Vø’ constructions and the factors influencing individual choice from an ELF environment. The data was from transcribed spoken texts of multilingual Asian English speakers in the Asian Corpus of English (ACE). The study identified 29 constructions from the idiolects of 20 individual speakers (4 males and 16 females) of various age groups, nationalities, and L1s. The analysis compared the individual use of the ungrammatical constructions, contracted form it’s in grammatical sentences, and present-tense markers (-s or zero) of singular verbs with singular subjects (he, she, it, this, and that). The findings suggest that ‘it's+ Vø’ and ‘its + Vø’ constructions of individual speakers are by the priming of it’s and zero inflection and chunking of idiomatic it's. The speakers exhibited interchangeability between these constructions and the present-tense markers of singular verbs with singular subjects.

Salience and Learned Attention: A Study on the Perception of Uninflected Verbs by Brazilian Portuguese-English Bilinguals

The present study explores the potential reasons for L2 users’ difficulty with inflectional morphology. We investigated the effects of salience and learned attention on the processing of second language inflectional morphology by Brazilian Portuguese(BP)-English bilinguals. To analyze the effects of salience, we tested L2 users’ perception of past regular verbs and past irregular verbs ending with /?t/, which involves a more salient change in the verb root. To probe the influence of learned attention, we compared their behavior concerning regular past tense makers (–ed) and regular present tense markers (–s), as the latter occurs in a grammatical context in which Portuguese uses null morphemes. We conducted an Acceptability Judgment Task to observe L2 users’ behavior in relation to sentences that were ungrammatical due to the use of uninflected verbs. The results indicate that the participants were more sensitive to the absence of regular past tense than to the absence of regular present tense marking, but the absences of regular and irregular past tense markings were perceived similarly. The study's results corroborate models that account for the effects of cross-linguistic influence on learned attention to linguistic cues and also reverberate through second language teaching practices.

Supralocalisation Processes in Early Modern English Urban Vernaculars

This article contributes to existing studies that are concerned with standardisation and supralocalisation processes in the development of written English during the Early Modern English period. By focussing on and comparing civic records and letter data from important regional urban centres, notably Bristol, Coventry and York, from the period 1500–1700, this study provides new insight into the gradual emergence of supralocal forms. More precisely, the linguistic variables under investigation are third person indicative present tense markers (singular and plural). The findings of this study reveal that each urban centre shows a unique distribution pattern in the adoption of supralocal -(V)s singular and plural zero. Furthermore, verb type as well as text type appear to be important language internal and external factors respectively.

Subject and adjacency effects in the Old Northumbrian gloss to theLindisfarne Gospels

The subject and adjacency effects found to condition the distribution of present verbal morphology in northern Middle English, and commonly referred to as the Northern Subject Rule (NSR), are generally regarded to be an Early Middle English development that did not condition the distribution of verbal morphology in northern varieties of Old English (Isaac 2003; Pietsch 2005; de Haas 2008; de Haas & van Kemenade 2015). Using data taken from the tenth-century interlinear gloss to theLindisfarne Gospels, this study considers variation between the present-tense markers -ðand -sin Late Old Northumbrian and discusses evidence which indicates that the subject and adjacency effects at the crux of the NSR were already operative in Old Northumbrian with different morphological material. The findings also debunk the traditional conviction that -sspread first to second-person plural contexts and only subsequently to the third-person plural and singular (Holmqvist 1922; Blakeley 1949/50; Stein 1986).

Third person present tense markers in some varieties of English

AbstractIn British Standard English, number in the verb phrase is exclusively characterized by the use of the -sinflection with the third person singular present tense. World Englishes present a high level of variation as the uninflected third person singular and the inflected third person plural may also occur in these contexts. This paper pursues four objectives: a) to analyse the use of present third person inflections and compare their distribution in different varieties of English; b) to assess the occurrence of forms across speech and writing, text categories and the informants’ age and gender; c) to classify the instances by type of subject (nominal vs. pronominal); and d) to evaluate the impact of proximity agreement, notional agreement and the existence of intervening elements in the choice of the inflection. Our evidence comes from the New Zealand, Indian, Singaporean and Hong Kong components of the International Corpus of English.

Pushed output in a multi-stage dictogloss task

The present study set out to determine how learners’ written production would affect their noticing and production of a specific language form (the English 3rd person singular present tense marker -s) upon receiving relevant input subsequently, in an attempt to contribute to the ongoing debate about how production affects noticing of linguistic forms. One hundred and eighteen (118) English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners (age range 15–6) in two educational contexts (Content and Language Integrated Learning and mainstream EFL) carried out a multi-stage dictogloss task. They followed the usual steps in this type of task (listen and jot down key words, text reconstruction). Then the experimental group (EG) listened to the text once again and compared it with their reconstructed version of the original passage. Their production of the target feature was compared to that of a control group (CG) who did not receive input after their own reconstruction. Results showed that the difference between the EG and the CG in the amount of instances of the target feature produced in the dictogloss task did not reach statistical significance. In other words, the act of producing and subsequent exposure to relevant input did not affect the noticing and production of the morpheme under study. In addition, no interaction between the pushed output condition and the educational context was found.

Some more on the history of present-tense -s, do and zero: West Oxfordshire, 1837

AbstractThis paper analyses the present indicative third-person singular markers in a diary kept by a servant from West Oxfordshire in 1837. There are three present-tense markers present in the diary: periphrastic auxiliary verb do, -s, and zero. However, all affirmative declarative do forms are found to be emphatic, so I deduce that periphrastic do was not present. Zero occurs at the surprisingly high rate of 21%. I examine the possibility that zero was the result of hypercorrection (perhaps due to misapplied schooling, or perhaps due to dialect contact as the diarist left West Oxfordshire and took up employment in London), but this is rejected because -s and zero patterns in the same way as in other southern data, based on an analysis of pronoun v. NP subjects, auxiliary v. full-verb have, non-categorical NPPR, and non-categorical Early Modern subjunctive zero. Presumably, these regular patternings would not be present were the zeroes due to an over-applied rule. I hypothesise that as periphrastic do and older -th became abandoned, an empty morpheme slot emerged, which later became filled with generalised -s. It is this temporarily empty morpheme slot, I suggest, which accounts for the 21% zeroes.

Dictogloss and the production of the English third person '–s' by CLIL and mainstream EFL learners: A comparative study

This study compares focus on form in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and mainstream English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts in the production of a specific morphological feature, the English 3rd person singular present tense marker –s. Research conducted in CLIL contexts to date examining morphosyntactic features has yielded disparate results. Thus, little is known about how this methodology affects learners’ attention to form while completing a dictogloss task (Wajnryb, 1990). In the study 116 adolescent learners (CLIL, n = 54; mainstream EFL, n= 62) in the Basque Autonomous Community completed a dictogloss collaboratively and individually. Results showed that CLIL learners noticed and produced more instances of the 3rd person singular -s than mainstream learners, but not in a significant manner, and that those working in pairs in the CLIL group obtained significantly better results.

FOSSILIZATION IN INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES BY PERSIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

This paper provides a cross-sectional study of the fossilized endstate L2 English grammar of freshmen and junior university students of English. Results are presented from spontaneous production and grammaticality judgment tasks of two groups of the students, high-level (24) and low-level (19), concentrating on use of 3ʳᵈ person simple present marker (-s), past tens marker (-ed) and pronominal case assignment. Data showed that despite low rate of suppliance of 3ʳᵈ person imple present tense marker (-s) just in spontaneous task, students' suppliance of past tense marker (-ed) and pronominal case assignment is about perfect at both levels and tasks. Syntactic correlates (such as case assignment and presence of overt subject) were completely accurate, suggesting no underlying impairment to functional categories or features. There is some evidence from the L1, which has the person and number features of the subject marked by verbal agreement but usually lacks the thirdperson singular in production task.

On the Etymology of the Present Tense in Tamil

The evolution of the present tense markers -(k)kinrand -d-ninrin Tamil is considered in light of comparative Dravidian grammar. Both are shown to descend from compound verbs in early medieval Tamil. Bloch's (1946) etymology is brought up to date with new, explicit arguments, buttressed with cognate evidence from Toda. Comparison of the argumentation used in three different etymologies reveals that Bloch's best integrates these forms and their evolution into the synchronic and diachronic grammar of Tamil. This evolution is then placed in the context of the common Dravidian historical development which re-establishes central verbal functions by innovating new simple verb forms from ancient compound verbs.

The cyclic and non-cyclic distinction and the verbs of sense in English

Abstract The now-form of the verbs of sense or sensation is different from the now-form of most other verbs in the English language. For instance, the now-form of the verb, think, requires the progressive tense marker whereas the now-form of the verb, see, requires the simple present tense marker. Thus, the patterning of the verbs of sense with the differing tenses in English appears to be easily explicable at first glance, but on examination, it turns out to be fairly complex. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that the action underlying cyclic verbs such as look at, which describes an action that must be terminated before it can be repeated, and is different from the action underlying non-cyclic verbs such as see, which can be maintained indefinitely without any necessary termination. From this, it is possible to show that the tense-aspect markings inherent in the higher verb or underlying tense-aspect markings affect the grammaticality judgments rendering grammatical forms which in other environments would be ungrammatical. Information from this analysis can best be incorporated in a theory of grammar with the use of Weinreich's transfer features which are assigned to the underlying feature matrices to predict the occurrence of all the other surface forms.

The Duration of an Action-Real or Aspectual? The Evolution of the Present Tense in Tamil

Earlier scholarly discusssions on Dravidian verbs have identified -(k)kinras the most prevalent present tense marker used in the positive forms of modern Tamil verbs. This paper claims that -(k)kinris nothing but the amalgam of an aspect marker -(k)kiland the current time marker -n-. It also shows that -(k)kinrhas replaced an earlier present tense marker -aninrwhich itself is a synthesis of an aspect marker -aniland the current time marker -n-. Attestations from pre-modern Tamil poetry and medieval Tamil inscriptions evidence the gradual replacement of -aninrby -(k)kinr-, while the commentaries on traditional Tamil grammars support the analysis of -aninrand -(k)kinras conglomerates of the aspect markers -aniland -kilwith the current time marker -nrespectively.

The Origin of the Verbal -S in Black English

ONE OF THE CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES in study of black English has been verb morphology, particularly synchronic status and diachronic provenance of paradigmatically related present tense verb endings -s and zero. The observation that third person singular -s is frequently deleted by lower class black speakers has lead to assumption that the third singular present tense marker is not required in black dialect (Lanier 1976, p. 51; cf. Funkhouser 1973, pp. 809-10, 819; Fickett 1972, p. 17; Loflin, Sobin, and Dillard 1973, p. 24; Smitherman 1977, p. 26). This view was originally offered by creolists in connection with creole substratum hypothesis, which suggests a creole origin of dialects spoken by blacks in United States (cf. e.g., Dillard 1972, pp. 40-42; Traugott 1976, p. 88); for use of uninflected verb forms is typical of pidgin and creole languages, e.g., Gullah (Turner 1949, p. 224; Van Sertima 1976, p. 141), Haitian Creole (Hall 1966, p. 109) and West African Pidgin English (Grade 1892, p. 383), which reveals influence of African languages (Turner 1948, p. 78; cf. Hall 1966, p. 109; Van Sertima 1976, p. 141). By virtue of results of recent sociolinguistic research, which has shown uninflected verb to be predominant third person singular form in black English, this hypothesis has obtained considerable support among sociolinguists as well (e.g., Fasold and Wolfram 1970, pp. 63-64; Fasold 1971; Fasold 1981, pp. 170-71; Labov 1970b, p. 230).' William Labov infers from relatively high proportion of zero forms, lack of stylistic variation, and inefficacy of phonological constraints, that there is no underlying third singular -s in NNE [Nonstandard Negro English] (Labov, Cohen, Robins, and Lewis 1968, 1: 164). Within this theoretical framework, existing -s suffixes in black English have been interpreted, if in third person singular, as post-creole interference from standard English, or, if in any other grammatical person, as hypercorrect usage,2 as is explained by Burling (1973, p. 49):