Limited research is available about how lexical and phonological verb properties interact with past tense production by children. Frequency of the inflected form and phonotactic probability might serve as input-driven alternatives to previously-studied factors such as lexical aspect and coda composition. Archival elicited production data from 4-9 year old children with typical language (N = 24) and specific language impairment (N=14) using 108 two-clause complex sentences/85 different verbs were analyzed for past tense use, coda composition, telicity, phonotactic probability (Vitevitch & Luce, 2004), and lexical frequency (CHILDES; MacWhinney, 2000). Several regression models were considered, including one with only categorical factors (e.g. obstruent/continuant ending), one with only continuous factors (e.g. average biphone probability), one with only phonological factors, one with only lexical factors, and several mixed models. Diagnostic status and verb regularity accounted for the majority of the variance. The combination of lexical frequency of the inflected form with residuals of stem lexical frequency was the best lexical model. Place and manner information for the final consonant of the stem comprised the best phonological model. These two models combined into a final overall predictive model.

Este trabalho investiga o futuro subjuntivo em orações relativas restritivas no português brasileiro considerando noções de modo, tempo e aspecto. Partindo de Quer (1998, 2008), assumimos que o modo subjuntivo em orações relativas indica sempre uma leitura não-referencial/atributiva do antecedente e observamos que o futuro do subjuntivo nesse ambiente só é selecionado quando há alguma referência de futuro na matriz, como um verbo no futuro do presente ou um predicado intensional como querer. Para questões temporais, tomamos por base a teoria referencial de tempo de Partee (1993) e o conceito de tempo de tópico de Klein (1994, 2009) e propomos que o futuro do subjuntivo deve ser considerado um tempo referencial não-passado a) relacionado a um tempo de tópico evidente no contexto; b) concomitante ou posterior ao momento de fala; c) também concomitante ou anterior ao tempo da matriz, nunca posterior a ele. Abordamos as classes de aspecto lexical propostas por Vendler (1957) para investigar os contrastes entre presente e futuro do subjuntivo em orações relativas, duas formas subjuntivas que autores como Comrie e Holmback (1984) e Marques (2010) consideram competidoras entre si no sistema verbal do português. Concluímos que o contraste entre eles pode parecer pouco relevante a princípio, em especial em casos de predicados estativos, mas que ele se torna mais claro à medida em que se evidencia o tempo de tópico relacionado ao futuro do subjuntivo. Por último, com fins descritivos, voltamos nossa atenção a noções de aspecto gramatical, partindo da relação entre o tempo de situação e o tempo de tópico também proposta por Klein (1994, 2009) para definir o futuro do subjuntivo como um tempo referencial não-passado em que, em oposição aos tempos pretéritos do português, não há marcação morfológica de aspecto perfectivo ou imperfectivo. / This work investigates the future subjunctive in relative restrictive clauses in Brazilian Portuguese considering notions of mood, tense and aspect. From Quer (1998, 2008) we assume that subjunctive mood in relative clauses indicates a non-referential / attributive reading of the antecedent. We also observe that the future subjunctive in this environment is only selected when there is some future reference in the matrix clause, as a verb in the simple future or an intensional predicate as to want. In discussing temporal features, we take Partee\'s (1993) referential theory of tense and the concept of topic time by Klein (1994, 2009) to propose that the future subjunctive should be considered a non-past referential tense a)related to a topic time highlighted in the context; b)concomitant or subsequent to the speech moment; c)also concomitant or prior to the time of the matrix clause. We approach the aspectual classes proposed by Vendler (1957) to investigate the contrasts between present and future subjunctive in relative clauses, two subjunctive forms that authors like Comrie and Holmback (1984) and Marques (2010) consider to be competitors in the Portuguese verbal system. We conclude that the contrast between them may seen little relevant at first, specially with stative predicates, but it becomes clearer if the topic time related to the future subjunctive is evidenced. At last, for descriptive purposes, we turn our attention to grammatical aspectual notions, considering the relation between the time of the situation and the topic time also proposed by Klein (1994, 2009), to define the future subjunctive as a non-past referential tense in which, in opposition to the past tenses in portuguese, there is no morphological marker of perfective or imperfective aspect.

This report elucidates the linguistic representation of temporal relations among events. This involves examining sentences that contain two clauses connected by words like once, by the time, when, and before. Specifically, the effect of the tenses of the connected clauses on the acceptability of sentences are examined. For example, Rachel disappeared once Jon had fallen asleep is fine, but *Rachel had disappeared once Jon fell asleep is unacceptable. A theory of acceptability is developed and its implications for interpretation discussed. Factoring of the linguisitic knowledge into a general, syntactic component and a lexical component clarifies the interpretation problem. Finally, a computer model of the theory is demonstrated.

This monograph is a comparative study of past time reference in Spanish and Russian.The ambition is to present a functional perspective of how both languages systemically express temporal and aspectual information. The verb, naturally, attracts the main attention of the thesis and the focus is almost exclusively on verbs in the indicative mood.The definition of the parameters of Time and Aspect plays an important part in the present dissertation. A particular emphasis concerns the elaboration and testing of the ‘ABC’ model, which represents a graphic definition of verbal aspect as a grammatical category.Another important issue is the distinction of aspect and Aktionsart; these concepts are closely related but operate on different functional levels. The analysis is essentially based on linguistic material from parallel corpora, constructed for this purpose. At first the material is treated statistically in order to create astarting point for the qualitative part of the analysis. The three main areas of investigation dealt with are:1) The relation between the simple past tenses, pretérito and imperfecto, in Spanish and their imperfective and perfective counterparts in Russian.2) The relation between the compound tenses in Spanish and the Russian verbal system.The analysis of this relation also comprises a critique of the traditional interpretationof the aspectual contents of the compound tenses.3) The usage of alternative strategies in both languages. In this part of the analysis the focus is widened to include verbal periphrasis, infinite verb forms and subordination. The results of the analysis demonstrate that verbal aspect, according to the definition represented by ‘the ABC model’, works as a grammatical category in both Spanish and Russian. It is also shown that there are systemic differences in the manifestation of this functional category in both languages. Another important result is that the neither the compound tenses nor the progressive express verbal aspect, at least not in a narrow sense of the word but represent different verbal functions related to aspect.

A questionnaire was administered to a selected group of students of Spanish at The University of Texas. The responses to this questionnaire were studied to determine the students’ motivations, attitudes, and cognitive strategies concerning the Spanish preterit and imperfect verb forms. It was found that the students felt that these Spanish verb forms are important in Spanish study and that they are a difficult portion of Spanish study. Also, most of the students surveyed used rule-based cognitive strategies concerning the study of these verb forms, in that a large percentage of the students’ strategies are to study their textbook and to memorize grammar rules. Generally, the students felt that the Spanish preterit is less difficult than the Spanish imperfect and that more drills, work sheets, and instructor-supplied examples would be beneficial to their learning processes. Those students with lower self-reported grades concerning the Spanish preterit and imperfect are more likely to have been informed that the Spanish preterit and imperfect are difficult areas of Spanish study. / text

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

In general, L2 learners have great difficulty mastering aspects of grammar in the second language. For example, Chinese-speaking ESL learners often fail to mark past tense in their speaking and writing (Aaronson & Ferres, 1987; Bayley, 1991; Bean & Gergen, 1990; Jia & Fuse, 2007; Krashen & Pon, 1975; Lardiere, 1998; Wei, 2000), and there are some suggestions in the literature that Chinese learners of English never master English tense (Lardiere, 1998). One question that arises is whether the failure to learn to use the past tense is due to a failure of competence or a failure of performance. If the former, then Chinese-speaking ESL learners should show such failures in all tasks including comprehension tasks.However, little research has investigated L2 comprehension of tense marking in reading. The studies (Gass, 2001; Guillelmon & Grosjean, 2001; Jiang, 2004, 2007) have showed that late L2 learners are not sensitive to certain types of grammatical marking. They have poor inflectional comprehension. It is possible that Chinese English-language learners are insensitive to grammatical violation involving tense during reading. This dissertation tests this idea.A group of English-proficient college students from Fu-Jen University in Taiwan was tested in a number of tasks. In paper-and-pencil tests, Chinese English-language learners showed knowledge of the past tense forms and the appropriate contexts for their usage. This suggests that past tense marking is learnable. Chinese English-language learners can acquire this knowledge. Does the relative mastery of past tense show up in comprehension in a similar L2 population? A reading comprehension test that measured reading time to sequential segments of a sentence indicated that unlike native speakers of English who were tested, Chinese English-language learners were insensitive to grammatical violation involving tense. This finding is consistent with the other studies, indicating that L2 learners are insensitive to grammatical marking during reading.Overall, it appears that high-functioning Chinese English-language learners can learn almost the proper way to use tense, but fail to do so during performance.

No description available.

In recent discourse-oriented studies of grammar, it has been claimed that the information structure of discourse is composed of two levels, foreground and background, and that linguistic categories such as tense and aspect have as their functions the sorting of information into these two levels. However, this study of Korean narrative finds that Korean tense and aspect distinguish not between foreground and background, but between ordinary and significant information within foreground and background. It was found that a total of five levels of information are signalled by the choice of tense and aspect in Korean narrative: ordinary background information, significant background information, ordinary mainline events, significant mainline events, and peak.Ordinary background information is indicated by the imperfective aspects (progressive, resultative, continuative, iterative, and inchoative) with the past tense. Significant background information is indicated by either the progressive the resultative with the historical present tense. The completive or inceptive aspects, both of which are perfective, combine with the past tense to mark ordinary mainline events. These shift to the progressive or resultative with the historical present to indicate significant mainline events. Peak is indicated by the completive aspect as well as tense-shift and other stylistic and linguistic devices such as onomatopoeia, concentration of participants, change of the normal pace of the story, or change from narration to dialogue. Tense and aspect are thus interrelated in signalling function and degree of significance of information.This study demonstrated two major points. First, Korean distinguishes five levels of information in narrative discourse. Second, these are differentiated by the choice of tense and aspect, among other devices. Two methodological consequences are that linguistic categories such as tense and aspect may be fully analyzed only in a discourse-based study and that mode of discourse cannot be analyzed without reference to tense and aspect.

The present thesis consists of an introduction and the following papers: The aspect-evidentiality system of Middle Mongol. Ural-Altaic Studies, 13. (forthcoming) The tense-aspect system of Khorchin Mongolian. In: Pirkko Suihkonen &amp; Lindsay Whaley (eds.), Typology of Languages of Europe and Northern and Central Asia. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (forthcoming) Aspect and epistemic notions in the present tense system of Khalkha Mongolian. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. (forthcoming) Factual vs. evidential? - The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian. In: Ad Foolen, Helen de Hoop, &amp; Gijs Mulder (eds.), Empirical Approaches to Evidentiality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (under review) Its purpose is to give an account of tense, aspect and evidentiality in three Mongolian varieties: Middle Mongol (MM) as spoken in the Mongol Empire, Khalkha Mongolian as spoken in the Mongolian state, and Khorchin Mongolian as spoken in eastern Inner Mongolia, China. MM started out with a tripartite tense distinction and a medium-sized aspectual system. Its past evidential system was tripartite with suffixes for firsthand, non-firsthand and evidentially neutral information. In Khorchin, which developed under the influence of Mandarin and Manchu, evidentiality was lost, and tense was simplified into a past / non-past distinction, alongside with a discontinuous proximal future / past marker. The aspect system underwent some changes, but retained its complexity. Khalkha, which developed under the influence of Turkic and Tibetan, underwent some shared innovations with Khorchin, but retained participles as a multifunctional unit within finite predicates, so that its aspectual system grew more complex. The past evidentiality distinctions of MM were basically retained, but the introduction of present tense evidentiality brought a number of changes: the evidentially neutral value shifted to signaling assimilated knowledge, and discontinuous future uses were introduced for all past markers. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 2: Accepted. Paper 3: Accepted. Paper 4: Submitted.</p><p> </p>