Tense Auxiliary Research Articles

The Case Against a Future Tense in English

This paper addresses the controversy as to whether English will is appropriately analysed as a future tense auxiliary or a modal auxiliary: it examines the place of will within the verbal system and argues in detail on both formal and semantic grounds that it belongs with the uncontroversial modal auxiliaries can, must, may, etc. A crucial step in the formal argument is the demonstration that would needs to be analysed as the preterite counterpart of will (not as a distinct lexeme). The paper demonstrates the modal component in the meaning of will and argues against a grammatical split between modal will and future tense will.

The Development of Tense Markers from Demonstrative Pronouns in Panare (Cariban)

Two synchronic tense-marking auxiliaries in Panare are derived etymologically from demonstrative pronouns. The original pronouns differed in spatial deixis, one marking proximate ('this'), the other distal ('that'). They came to be required between predicate noun and subject in predicate nominal clauses, and thus evolved into copulas. As copulas, the deixis of the pronouns shifted to time, with proximal becoming present or immediate future and distal becoming past (but also sometimes interprétable as distant future). These copulas then evolved further to become tense auxiliaries for a new generation of main clause verbs.

An epistemological approach to past tense auxiliaries in okinawan

Abstract The Okinawan past tense auxiliaries, an, tan and een have traditionally been analyzed in a temporal framework as follows: an and tan indicate ordinary past, while een indicates “affirmative past” tan denotes progressive aspect, whereas an does not. This paper argues that the essential difference among the three forms is not temporal but epistemological: an is attached to perceptual information acquired as an experiencer; tan is attached to perceptual information acquired as an observer; and een is attached to inferential information.