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Time and perspective in a supposedly tenseless language Annika Tjuka Humboldt-Universit at zu Berlin April 13 th , 2018 April 13 th , 2018 Annika Tjuka (HU Berlin) Time and perspective in Vietnamese 1 / 21 Overview Vietnamese 1 Tense 2

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Time and perspective in a supposedly tenseless language

Annika Tjuka

Humboldt-Universit¨ at zu Berlin

April 13th, 2018

Annika Tjuka (HU Berlin) Time and perspective in Vietnamese April 13th, 2018 1 / 21

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Overview

1

Vietnamese

2

Tense

3

Elicitation study

4

Conclusion

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Vietnamese

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Vietnamese

Dialects divided into southern, middle and northern dialect 70 million native speakers in Vietnam und almost 1 million speakers in other countries Austroasiatic language family Sound system consisting of 6 tones (giá ”price“; già ”old“) Analytic language No marking of case, number and genus

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Tense

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Tenselessness

Tenselessness is understood as the absence of obligatory tense marking in finite clauses. (1) a. I went to the university.

b. #I go to the university yesterday.

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Tense and aspect in Vietnamese

Vietnamese is known to be a tenseless language. BUT there are tense and aspect markers in Vietnamese:

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Future marker

(2) Tôi 1.SG sẽ FUT nấu cook phở soup gà. chicken ‘I will cook chicken soup.’

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Past marker

(3) Năm year ngoái last tôi 1.SG đã PST đến go newyork. New.York ’I was in New York last year.’

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Progressive marker

(4) Tôi 1.SG đang PROG làm make buổi CLF.day sáng. morning ’I’m making breakfast.’

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Elicitation study

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Elicitation study – Research questions

Do Vietnamese native speakers use tense and aspect markers in spoken conversations? And if so, are these markers optional or obligatory in contexts which differ in terms of time reference and aspect?

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Elicitation study – Participants

3 male participants, all Vietnamese native speakers with English as their secound language (after the age of 6) Age: 18-25 years One speaker of the northern dialect and two speakers of the southern dialect

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Elicitation study – Material

10 contexts in different tense and aspect categories: past, present, future stative, perfective, progressive, habitual

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Elicitation study – Material

E.g. for past, perfective context: (5) Sarah and Joe are looking through a photo album. Sarah sees a photo of Joe standing infront of the statue of Liberty. Sarah asks Joe: ”Did you go to New York last year?“Joe answers: ”Yes, I went to New York last year.“

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Elicitation study – Results

Figure: Results of elicitation study

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Elicitation study – Results

sẽ was used consistently in all contexts with future reference đang was used in almost every context with progressive aspect đã wasn’t used consistently throughout different contexts that referred to the past

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Conclusion

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Conclusion

ptionality of tense and aspect markers in Vietnamese differs clearly

between markers the marker đang is also used in the present, stative context by one participant, therefore it could an imperfective marker further research on the future marker sẽ could prove that it is

bligatory –> supporting the hypothesis that Vietnamese isn’t a

tenseless language after all

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Literature

Goddard, Cliff (2005). The languages of East and Southeast Asia: an introduction. Matthewson, L. (2006). Temporal semantics in a superficially tenseless language. Linguistics and Philosophy 29(6), 673–713. Ngo, T. (2010). Interpretation of temporal relations in narrative in tenseless languages: The case of Vietnamese. UWA Linguistics Working Papers, 1. Thompson, Laurence C. (1991). A Vietnamese reference grammar.

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