Tense Marking Research Articles

On the development of tense-aspect markers in Lingala youth language: a microvariationist look at language change in the verb phrase

Abstract This paper examines language change in two Lingala youth languages from the DR Congo, Lingala ya Bayankee (sometimes referred to as Yanké) and Langila, focusing on processes of grammaticalization and replication. Speakers of Lingala ya Bayankee use a grammaticalized prefix ké- for the near/immediate future tense, derived from the verb kokende ‘to go’ and from a manipulated form of the same verb, namely the prefix dyé- from kodyé (with the same meaning). The emergence and development of this tense marker is traced and compared with the strategies used by Langila speakers. Moreover, the microvariationist lens through which changes in the tense-aspect system of Lingala’s youth registers are examined in this paper looks at different formation patterns of progressive aspect, with two dominant construction types in Lingala ya Bayankee; these are also compared to the strategies used by Langila speakers. While linguistic manipulations have long been the focus of sociolinguistic approaches to the study of adolescent language use, fine-grained differences in tense and aspect marking have received little attention. Here, this paper aims to take a first step, based on rich empirical data collected during various research stays in the urban environment of Kinshasa (DR Congo).

It Costs To Exist: Acceptability Judgments of the Temporal Concord of the Auxiliary Verbs You and Hui in Taiwan Mandarin.

The mechanisms underlying the processing of the temporal reference of a sentence are still unexplored. Most of the previous psycholinguistic studies used the temporal concord violation between deictic time adverbs and tense marking on the verb to investigate this issue. They found that processing past tense marking is more difficult than non-past tense, indicated by lower accuracy rates and/or longer reaction time. However, it is not clear whether this complexity is due to tense marking or the temporal reference it denotes. This paper examines this issue with a judgment acceptability experiment in Taiwan Mandarin, which is analyzed as a tenseless language. The two modal auxiliary verbs you and hui were placed after deictic past time adverbs (grammatical with you but not with hui) and deictic future time adverbs (grammatical with hui but not with you). The temporal concord violation of the auxiliary verb you led to higher acceptability rates but longer reaction time than hui, reflecting higher processing difficulties. This paper argues that these complexities are due to the existential-assertive meaning of you, which interplays with the meaning of the event described by the verb rendering the situation more or less likely to occur in the future. The computation of the temporal concord of hui, displaying a future sense meaning, is more straightforward and therefore easier to process. This suggests that the mechanisms responsible for temporal reference processing are of different nature depending on the semantics of the temporal marker in the sentence.

African American Language in Children’s Literature

The purpose of this study was to determine the most prevalent African American Language (AAL) phonological and grammatical features in slavery- and Civil Rights–themed children's literature. Seventy-six books were initially selected to determine if they used AAL in dialogue or in narration. Of the 76 books, only 39 included AAL. The 39 books were analyzed further to categorize the specific AAL features used. The results revealed that the reduction of the final g (e.g., thinkin’) was the most prevalent phonological feature. Moreover, phonological features were used more often in slavery-themed texts than in Civil Rights texts. Additionally, the most frequently used AAL grammatical features were negation tense markers (e.g., didn’t and neither) and subject-verb agreement ( he listen). Grammatical features of AAL appeared more often in slavery-themed texts than Civil Rights themed texts. Implications for practice include suggestions for selecting, evaluating, and reading the books from this study with students. Implications for research include investigating other AAL features in slavery- and Civil Rights-themed books, authenticating the storylines of slavery- and Civil Rights–themed books, and analyzing other books with AAL that do not use these themes.

Tense and Aspect in Balti Language: Morphological Perspective

Pakistan is a multilingual and multicultural country where 72 language diverse languages are used for communication. Gilgit-Baltistan is one of the most well-known northern regions for its stunning natural beauty, distinct landscapes, evergreen forests, snow-capped mountains, and rich cultural heritage. Most of the Gilgit-Baltistan regional languages have been studied historically and culturally, but a few studies address this from a linguistic perspective. Balti language is one of them. Balti is a member of the more extraordinary Tibeto-Burman language family, specifically the Western Tibetan branch of the Tibetan language family. The present study analyses the tense and aspect markers in the Balti language. This study contributes to the regional language of Pakistan and analyzes the language in the morphological domain that is not mostly touched yet; also, studying tense and aspect markers in the Balti language from a morphological perspective is crucial for understanding the language’s nuances within temporal expressions. The present study results show that Balti has a complex system of tense and aspect markers; using the qualitative research design, n= 50 root words (verbs) were collected from the Balti language within the framework of inflectional morphemes of tense markers for this study. Nine markers for tense and some of their aspect, including eḑ, en, s, yoḑ, and yoḑpə: set̪, ʊk, t̪ʊk, and sed̪ʊkt̪ʊk, are identified in the current study. These markers are attached to the corresponding root verbs to indicate the present simple, present progressive, past simple with progressive, future simple, and future participle. The study also develops a deep understanding of various future tense markers as connectors to root words based on the consonant and vowel sounds at the end of root words.

Delayed auditory experience results in past tense production difficulties and working memory deficits in children with cochlear implants: A comparison with children with developmental language disorder

Extent evidence has shown that morphosyntax is one of the most challenging linguistic areas for children with atypical early language experiences. Over the last couple of years, comparisons between deaf children with CIs and children with DLD have gained interest – as cases of atypical early language experiences, including, but not restricted to, delayed onset of exposure to language input and language-processing difficulties. Evidence suggests that the morphosyntactic difficulties experienced by deaf children with CIs and children with DLD are very similar in nature. However, the few studies that have directly compared both groups are inconclusive, with deaf children with CIs either performing significantly better or on par with children with DLD. These differences in findings can be attributed, in part at least, to a failure to implement essential methodological controls – even more so given that deaf children with CIs comprise a very diverse population. The goal of the present study was to directly compare the performance of deaf children with CIs to that of children with DLD on a morphosyntactic ability known to be particularly difficult for both groups. Specifically, the present study conducted a detailed examination of the past tense marking abilities of deaf children with CIs and children with DLD while controlling for factors specific to deaf children with CIs, for children's basic cognitive abilities as well as for children's age, sex assigned at birth, and SES. Past tense verbs are particularly relevant as they are used as a marker of developmental language disorder (DLD) in children learning French.Moreover, extent evidence shows that deaf children with CIs and children with DLD have important WM difficulties, but also that there is an association between auditory perception, processing abilities, and working memory (WM) abilities as well as with the acquisition of morphological features, including tense marking. Unfortunately, no study has examined the relation between the accurate production of past tense verbs and WM abilities in children with CIs and children with DLD learning French.Fifteen deaf children with CIs between 5 and 7 years of age were compared to 15 children with DLD and to 15 typically-developing monolingual controls (MON), matched on important variables, using a past tense elicitation task as well as measures of phonological and nonverbal WM abilities.The results confirm that the deaf children with CIs and the children with DLD both performed significantly lower than the MON controls on the past tense elicitation task – suggesting that difficulties with past tense verbs in French might not only be a marker of DLD but, instead, a correlate of atypical language acquisition. Of importance, the present study is the first to show that deaf children with CIs perform significantly lower than children with DLD on a past tense elicitation task – highlighting the importance of using methodological controls. As well, significant correlations were found between the performance of the deaf children with CIs and of the children with DLD on the past tense elicitation task and their phonological and nonverbal WM abilities. Taken together with previous studies conducted in the same populations, this represents another evidence suggesting that early atypical language experiences result in language and WM deficits, including morphosyntactic difficulties.

VARIASI VERBA PENGARUH PENANDA PERSONA DAN KALA PADA BAHASA-BAHASA DI TANAH PAPUA

Papuan area known as ethnic and language variety. In language aspect, Papuan languages have uniqueness. The most unique is have person and tense marker in verb. The present of person and tense marker making many verb forms. In addition, there are two types of languages. The types are Austronesian and Non-Austronesian, and two types of sentence structure are SOP and SPO. This research aims to describe verb forming of Papuan languages because person and tense markers. And also, to compare verb forming process of Papuan Austronesian and Non-Austronesian, and more SOP and SPO languages structure.

Дезидератив в ласкинском говоре нарымского диалекта селькупского языка

The paper discusses the phonetic and semantic features of the desiderative mood markers in the Laskino subdialect of the Narym dialect of the Selkup language. Consideration is also given to the cognates of the desiderative suffix -ndȥ(V)- as markers of imperfective and future tense that are not clearly separated in synchrony. The study reveals the distinction between the use of the derivational and inflectional suffix -ndȥ(V)-. The reason for this distinction is that imperfective verbs consistently indicate the imperfective aspect. However, the aspectual relationship of the verb in the future tense and desiderative mood depends on the aspect of the verb stem. Additionally, suffixes seem to retain partially the meaning of imperfectivity in inflection. Most examples in the Laskino subdialect have the suffix -ndȥ(V)- used to convey desire, with the indicator -l(e)- mainly expressing the future tense. The discussion also focuses on the distribution of the suffix -ndȥ(V)- as a marker of the imperfective/future tense/desiderative in the Southern and Central dialects. In Southern dialects, the suffix -ndȥ(V)- is primarily utilized to convey the future tense. In Central dialects, the suffix -ndȥ(V)- serves to express desire and indicate the peripheral future tense, while the suffix -l(e)- is the main marker of the future tense. The identification of the suffix -(e)ndȥ(V)- as an indicator of imperfectivity in the Southern and Central dialects (excluding the Sondrovo subdialects, where it was absent) demonstrated a relatively limited occurrence, suggesting its peripheral usage.

Effect of Discrete Trial Training and Scripting on Third Person Past Tense Marking of Children with Autism and Cochlear Implant in Tamil Language

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of Discrete Trial Training and scripting on third person past tense marking in children with Autism and cochlear implanted children in Tamil language. Total of 8subjects, 4 children with Autism and 4 with cochlear implant with age group between 6 to 12 yrs. Both the groups were assessed using past tense scoring. Both groups scored 0% in pre therapy assessment. Whereas both groups scored 100% in post therapy assessment. Drastic improvement was recorded. The conclusion of this study indicates that the Discrete Trial Training and Scripting are effective in improving past tense marking of children with Autism and cochlear implant.

What is Your Color? A Study of Najdi Bedouin Greetings

This study investigates the greetings of the Bedouin speakers of the Central Najdi Dialect in Afif, Saudi Arabia. It analyzes the greetings used by the subjects and examines the impact of the contextual factors of age, social status, social distance, period of absence, and formality of situation on their choice, and it also identifies the politeness strategies they opted for. The study uses a discourse completion test, interviews, and fieldnotes to collect its data. The study involves 50 subjects randomly chosen from the area. It shows that the subjects use the Islamic greetings, phatic questions, welcoming greetings, temporal greetings, and expressions of longing. It also demonstrates that the subjects use individual and group greetings that are differentiated by the second singular and plural pronoun inflections. Moreover, it shows that the subjects utilise some greetings the reference of which is made to the third singular and plural person pronouns. Also, it reveals that some of the greetings used take the present and past tense markers.

Dependent clauses with the conjunction kṳ̀ ‘and’ in Dinka

Dinka, a Western Nilotic language, has a construction in which a clause with dependent syntactic status is combined with a preceding clause of any type by means of the conjunction kṳ̀ ‘and’, which is also used for coordinating both noun phrases and independent clauses. Dependent kṳ̀-clauses, which all have the same syntactic structure, do not express any particular semantic function and normally have fewer markers of tense, aspect and mood than the clause with which they are combined. But they are interpreted as having the same semantic function and generally also the same tense, aspect and mood as that clause.

Counterfactual mood in Czech, German, Norwegian, and Russian

The type of mood or tense marking that causes counterfactuality inferences—as figuring prominently, but far from exclusively, in counterfactual conditionals—has not yet received a comprehensive and compositional analysis. Focusing on four languages, the paper presents under-appreciated facts and a novel theory where the mood serves to activate alternatives to modal operators, particularly one: the identity operator, often giving rise to counterfactual implicatures.

From tweets to trends: analyzing sociolinguistic variation and change using the Twitter Corpus of English in Hong Kong (TCOEHK)

ABSTRACT This article presents the Twitter Corpus of English in Hong Kong (TCOEHK): a 123-million-word corpus derived from sampling tweets across the 18 districts and three geographical (macro-)regions of Hong Kong from 2010 to 2022. It introduces the corpus and demonstrates its utility by examining four linguistic variables found in English in Hong Kong (EngHK) and the dominant variety Hong Kong English (HKE): tense marking, ‘-ize/-ise’ suffix use, adverb syntactic position, and copula (non-)use. It explores their relationship with intralinguistic, stylistic (e.g. formality), and extralinguistic factors (e.g. region, year, affect). The findings show that the distribution of variants in all four variables (e.g. rates of -ize use) is similar to the patterns identified in prior HKE work. In addition to confirming previous research, the results also reveal how intralinguistic, stylistic, and extralinguistic factors can each influence the distribution of variants differently depending on the variable studied, highlighting the complex and ever-changing nature of EngHK. The availability of social metadata and the large size of the TCOEHK make it viable for examining (socio)linguistic variation and changes in contemporary (Twitter-style) EngHK, as well as potential regional and social sub-varieties/styles within EngHK. It promises to advance research on variation and change in EngHK.

The Function and Usage of the Verb ‘be’ in Ho language

The Ho language, a member of the Austro-Asiatic language family, specifically falls under the Munda group. Traditionally, the verb 'be' has been denoted to as the ‘-tan’ verb. However, our study seeks to argue that both the ‘-tan’ and ‘-min’ verbs should be categorized as 'be' verbs, serving as main verbs with the meaning 'is’, while maintaining distinct usage and functions. Thus, this paper aims to examine the functions and uses of both the ‘-tan’ and ‘-min verbs. In pursuit of this goal, we will explore not only their roles as main verbs but also their applications as tense markers, brand names, and linking verbs.

Longitudinal Grammaticality Judgments of Tense Marking in Complex Questions in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment, Ages 5-18 Years.

Identification of children with specific language impairment (SLI) can be difficult even though their language can lag that of age peers throughout childhood. A clinical grammar marker featuring tense marking in simple clauses is valid and reliable for young children but is limited by ceiling effects around the age of 8 years. This study evaluated a new, more grammatically challenging complex sentence task in children affected or unaffected with SLI in longitudinal data, ages 5-18 years. Four hundred eighty-three children (213 unaffected, 270 affected) between 5 and 18 years of age participated, following a rolling recruitment longitudinal design encompassing a total of 4,148 observations. The new experimental grammaticality judgment task followed linguistic concepts of syntactic sites for finiteness and movement within complex clauses. Growth modeling methods evaluated group differences over time for four different outcomes; three were hypothesized to evaluate optional omissions of overt finiteness forms in authorized sentence sites, and one evaluated an overt error of tense marking. As in earlier studies of younger children, growth models for the SLI group were consistently lower than the unaffected group, although the growth trajectories across groups did not differ. The results replicated across four item types defined by omissions with minor differences for an item with an overt error of tense marking. Covariates of child nonverbal IQ, mother's education, and child sex did not significantly moderate these effects. The outcomes support the task as having potential screening value for identification of children with SLI and are consistent with linguistic interpretations of task demands.

A functional approach to the formal mismatches of indexation markers

Abstract This paper argues that indexation markers (i.e., argument-indexing agreement markers and/or pronouns) show a wider range of formal mismatches across languages than the exponents of other inflectional categories. These mismatches are defined in terms of mixed behavior with respect to different criteria of wordhood. The mismatches that the indexation markers (or “indexes”) show include extrametricality with respect to reduplication and “mobility” in that they can occur in different slots of otherwise identical word forms. Other indexes can freely occur on either member of a phrase-level construction or behave like full-fledged affixes in one context but like full-fledged words in another. The claim that the range of these traits is extraordinary is based on a larger project, (Zingler, Tim. 2020. Wordhood issues: Typology and grammaticalization. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico PhD dissertation), which in addition to indexes investigates mismatches among case, definiteness, and tense markers. The explanations offered for this behavior primarily rely on the manner in which reference is established in discourse and on the different diachronic pathways for which these usage patterns pave the way. Another major conclusion is that the indexes described here constitute a formally heterogeneous set that cannot be easily subsumed under the label of “clitics.”

The effect of future-time referencing on pro-environmental behavior

Can the way a language encodes time influence speakers’ pro-environmental behavior? In a controlled experimental setting, we take advantage of a linguistic feature of the German language that allows speakers to use either the present or future tense when referring to an event in the future. Depending on the treatment, participants read a text about the future impacts of climate change and tree planting written in either the present or future tense. We then measured pro-environmental behavior using an incentivized task that represents a trade-off between individual immediate financial rewards and planting trees as long-term environmental gains. The results reveal a positive effect of future tense marking on the number of trees planted. We discuss construal level theory, timing precision, future orientation, and certainty of the occurrence of future climate events as potential mechanisms to explain why future-time referencing might affect individual pro-environmental behavior.

Teaching Past Tense Marking

Teaching Past Tense Marking

“Go,” “Going,” “Goed”: Relation Between Verb Tense Errors and Reading Comprehension Skills in English Learners

School-aged English Learners (ELs) are faced with the challenging task of acquiring a foreign language while simultaneously reading academically demanding literature. Therefore, the current research aimed to examine the relation between the rate of grammatical tense marking errors made by ELs and their performance on measures of reading comprehension (RC). The sample for the current study included 5th-grade students who were categorized as ELs who were receiving English support services ( n = 103). Samples were collected using i-Ready and writing samples. The samples were used to examine ELs’ RC in relation to tense marking errors in their written responses on the district writing assessment at the end of the school year. The results from the study revealed that there was a moderate negative correlation ( r = −.431, p < .010) between verb tense errors and reading comprehension. Students with high rates of verb tense errors received lower RC scores.

Comparison of Acquisition of Tense Markers in Oral and Written Language in Bilingual Children

Abstract: Tense acquisition plays a crucial role in the language development of children. Tense refers to the grammatical expression of time in a sentence, which can be in the past, present, or future. Children begin to learn about tenses from a very young age and gradually acquire the ability to use them accurately as they develop their language skills. The present study aims to describe the comparison of the acquisition of tense markers in the oral and written language of 8 to 12-year-old MalayalamEnglish bilingual children. The study involves 20 typically developing children, studying in regular schools with English as the medium of instruction. Two tasks were selected, which included oral and written picture descriptions and narration. The results revealed that, in 8 to 10-year-old children, the acquisition of the simple present tense for both oral and written tasks in Malayalam and English was non significant and the acquisition of the simple past tense for both tasks in Malayalam and English was significant. However, the acquisition of the simple future tense in oral tasks for both languages was significant, while the written performance for future tense acquisition in both languages was non significant. For children aged 11 to 13 years, the acquisition of the simple present tense for oral and written tasks in Malayalam and English was inconclusive and the acquisition of the simple past tense for oral and written tasks in both Malayalam and English was non significant. The acquisition of the future tense for oral tasks was significant whereas for written tasks, it was inconclusive in both languages.

Business is tense: new evidence on how language affects economic activity

We provide a large scale within-country analysis of the effect of language future time reference (FTR) on self-employment using individual-level data from Switzerland, a country characterized by a long-standing multilingualism and a large share of immigrant population. We test the hypothesis that speakers of languages where future tense marking is not obligatory in prediction contexts (defined as weak FTR) may have a closer perception of future rewards and be more willing to become self-employed, a choice that reflects future orientation. We perform an epidemiological analysis which consistently indicates that long-term immigrants who speak weak FTR languages are between 2 and 4 percentage points more likely to be self-employed compared to speakers of strong FTR languages, net of unobservable ancestral cultural traits, districts of destination’s characteristics, and linguistic features other than FTR. We find that the effect is largest when the main language of daily use is the mother tongue, but the effect is also significant when the main language is learnt later in life.