Time computation in tenseless languages
In the Minimalist Program (1995), Chomsky gets rid of the Agreement projection and argues that Tense and Agreement can be assimilated universally. Tasks that were previously thought to be responsibility of the Agreement node are reassigned to Tense and other heads. Serbo-Croat data contradicts the above theory showing that not only does this language lack a Tense projection, but it also lacks a Tense marker, allowing a manipulation and interpretation of its predicate forms. Further investigation shows that the entire Slavic language group, as well as some African and some Arabic languages display the same property. A Tense morpheme is absent from all of them and they heavily rely on Aspect in the computation of the time of any given action. Apart from Slavic languages, a link between Tense and Aspect is evident in Spanish and Latin as well. Aspectual opposition is not powerful enough to express all the various ~time frames~ that a language needs and that are, for example, available in English. To overcome this problem, Slavic languages introduce Agreement into the ~time~ computation. Introducing two different sets of Person and Number markers ensures even greater variety. Since the Tense head is absent from
Dragacevic, Sanja
Time computation in tenseless languages. In the Minimalist Program (1995), Chomsky gets rid of the Agreement projection and argues that Tense and Agreement can be assimilated universally. Tasks that were previously thought to be responsibility of the Agreement node are reassigned to Tense and other heads. Serbo-Croat data contradicts the above theory showing that not only does this language lack a Tense projection, but it also lacks a Tense marker, allowing a manipulation and interpretation of its predicate forms. Further investigation shows that the entire Slavic language group, as well as some African and some Arabic languages display the same property. A Tense morpheme is absent from all of them and they heavily rely on Aspect in the computation of the time of any given action. Apart from Slavic languages, a link between Tense and Aspect is evident in Spanish and Latin as well. Aspectual opposition is not powerful enough to express all the various ~time frames~ that a language needs and that are, for example, available in English. To overcome this problem, Slavic languages introduce Agreement into the ~time~ computation. Introducing two different sets of Person and Number markers ensures even greater variety. Since the Tense head is absent from
time computation language minimalist_program chomsky get rid agreement projection argue tense agreement assimilate universally previously_think responsibility agreement node tense head data contradicts theory show language lack tense projection also lack tense marker allow manipulation interpretation predicate form investigation show entire slavic language group well african arabic languages display property tense morpheme absent heavily rely aspect computation time give action apart slavic language link tense_aspect evident spanish latin well aspectual opposition powerful enough express various time frames language need example available english overcome_problem slavic languages introduce agreement time computation two_different set person number marker ensure even great_variety since tense head absent