The Past Tenses of the Mongolian Verb. Meaning and Use

The Past Tenses of the Mongolian Verb Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory Managing Editor Brian D. Joseph The Ohio State University, USA Editorial Board Artemis Alexiadou, University of Stuttgart, Germany Harald Baayen, University of Alberta, Canada Pier Marco Bertinetto, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy Kirk Hazen, West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA Maria Polinsky, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA VOLUME 1 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ealt The Past Tenses of the Mongolian Verb Meaning and Use By Robert I. Binnick LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Binnick, Robert I. The past tenses of the Mongolian verb : meaning and use / by Robert I. Binnick. p. cm. — (Empirical approaches to linguistic theory; 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-21429-3 (alk. paper) 1. Mongolian language—Verb. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general—Tense. I. Title. II. Series. PL473.B56 2012 494’.2356—dc23 2011035786 ISSN 2210-6243 ISBN 978 90 04 21429 3 Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. not least: James Bosson Lucia Hammar John Krueger Nicholas Poppe Wayne Schlepp Tserenchunt Legden Yidamjab Meng .For Sodnomdorj Gongor and for all those who have in one way or another through the years encouraged my interest in the Mongolian language. . ........................................ The Problem of the Past Tenses .............2................. Abbreviations ........ 3........................... 2......................................... 1...................4...................................... 2.................................................2...............3... The Pragmatics of Immediacy .... 2... -sen in speech ......2.................................. The Participles ................................ 2....................... Future -lee .. 1.. Inferential -jee .................... Toward A Pragmatic Theory . Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... 1.........3....................... Theories Based on Tense and Aspect ............................................. Evidential and Inferential ................................................................3........2...... 2.................................. 2.......................................... The Opposition of Evidentiality and Inferentiality .............................. 3..... Preface .................................................. 1.4..... Semantic Theories ............................................. The Mongolian Past Tenses ...........1... 3......................... 3.................................................. The Problem of the Mongolian Past Tenses .......................... Metric (Degrees of Remoteness) Theories of the -jee and -lee Tenses .................... 3............... The Evidential .......................... 61 61 61 62 70 74 79 79 82 88 92 ...............1.................................... The Verbal Systems of the Mongolic Languages .................................... The Modality of -v .. Conventions and Transcription ....... 2.........1. 1...2........................................1........... Use and Interpretation of the Past Tenses in the Spoken Language ......... Distal and Proximal .....................................................4........................... The Finite Indicative Verbs ......... 3............................. 2.................... Distal and Proximal .................... 1.................................................. 1..... The Inferential ... 2.................CONTENTS Editorial Foreword .......5...... Chuluu’s Critique ..........1......................................................... Discourse Functions ......4...... Evidential -lee ..................................................... 1 1 1 10 14 14 20 25 33 37 37 40 46 50 54 II...................................................................................................... 2.. 1.. ix xi xv xvii xxi I........ Spoken -v and the Past Tenses in Questions .........3.......................... ....... The Paragraph ............. The Non-equivalence of the Written Tenses ....... 1......................... Competing Grammatical Systems .... Diegetic and Mimetic Genres .... 102 102 105 108 III... 3..... 1..... Definite..................... Deictic........................ Deictic and Anaphoric . Written -v ........................ 1.. 3.................. 2.............. 3.........1........................2................... An Implicative Hierarchy ..... Distal -lee ...................... 1. Past Tenses and Grounding .......................... Past Tenses and Temporal Reference .........3......................... Past Tenses and The Topics of Threads .... 3.................................. 3.............................................. List of Works Cited .......... 3....2............ 3..... 2............................. 2....................3............................... Use and Interpretation of the Past Tenses in the Written Language ..... Reference Times .................................4............ The Three Levels of Discourse Coherence .................... and Anaphoric Tenses ...... 2........ 2....................3............................... The Functions of the Past Tenses .......................................................................................... Spoken and Written Language .........1...... 1.................................................................4..2.............. 2..................... 2..................................... The Past Tenses in Writing .... 2..3..............................................................1......... 3.................1..... 1................ 221 223 229 .................................... 113 113 113 116 122 132 132 138 140 145 IV.......................................................................... 147 147 147 149 161 161 171 188 195 198 198 202 207 209 Remarks in Lieu of a Conclusion ...................................... The Language of the Internet and Levels of Usage 2....... The Functions of the Tenses in Discourse and Text ............ The Functions of Utterances . Meaning....2..... Past Tenses in the Various Genres ... The Discourse Functions of the Tenses ........................... 215 Appendix ...1.................... Use and Genre .1.... -jee and -sen baina ............3........................2.............................. 1........................2.......................... 2........ Index ...4................... Genre and Tenses ....viii contents 3........................... -sen and -sen baina ................................. The Functions of the Past Tenses in Various Genres . Joseph EALT Series Managing Editor Columbus. The series is eclectic as to theory and does not privilege any particular theoretical framework over any other. We editors expect that each volume will advance our knowledge of how human language works through solid theoretically sophisticated description and through empirical testing of theoretical constructs and claims.EDITORIAL FOREWORD The present volume. by Robert Binnick. In this case. Meaning and Use. The goal of this series is to offer contributions to our understanding of language in general—the key desideratum of linguistic theory— through highly empirically based studies. and Maria Polinsky. The Past Tense of the Mongolian Verb. and am joined in this enterprise by a strong team of editorial board members: Artemis Alexiadou. and the realization and value of temporal reference constitute the theoretical constructs that are tested by the Mongolian data. inaugurates a new series by Brill. Binnick is particularly well known for decades of work on tense and on Mongolian. Ohio USA 1 August 2011 . Brian D. Harald Baayen. but do not rule out the possibility of volumes that are focused collections of papers on a common theme. I am proud to be the managing editor of the series. Dr. We look forward to seeing many volumes appear under this imprint in the years to come. Pier Marco Bertinetto. entitled “Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory”. so this study represents a joining of these two areas of his expertise. Kirk Hazen. Mongolian provides the empirical basis. We envision that the series will consist mainly of monographic research studies. . only to come running out almost at once to inform his fellows that Bill üxčixjee—“Bill’s dead!” It turns out that old Bill has left a treasure map and soon the hero of the tale.” the mysterious lodger at the Admiral Benbow Inn. The question.PREFACE One of the interesting features of the Mongolian language is the existence of four different past tense forms of the verb. that Flint üxčixsen—“Flint is dead. marooned there years before by the cruel Captain Flint. L. finds himself a member of the crew of a vessel sent to seek out that treasure. Jim encounters Ben Gunn. and ирсэн irsen. Binnick (1979) was an early attempt at posing. or merely a matter of style. иржээ irjee. when Jim tells Gunn that Captain Flint üxčixsen? Is the choice of different tenses simply fortuitous. To translate ‘came’. and ultimately inadequately informative concerning this significant topic.” But why is it that the pirate declares that Billy Bones üxčixjee. and how their meanings and/or uses differ from one another. the Mongolian translation of R. Gunn asks him. When the crew lands on the treasure island of the title. where the past tense endings of Mongolian are concerned. This question may be illustrated by a couple of passages from Erdene bulsan aral. Binnick (1990) termed the differentiation of the tenses “pragmatic. is it?” At which Jim assures him that it isn’t. or does it reflect some real difference in meaning and/or use? Until the last two decades the grammatical literature was at best unhelpful. Jim Hawkins. More than a decade later. furthermore. “That’s not Flint’s ship. semantic. as previously thought. for example. is why Mongolian has four different past tense endings.” thereby claiming that the difference between the past tenses was not. Textbooks and reference grammars have contained various accounts of the differences between these endings. and did not have to . Panicked at the sight of Jim’s ship. naturally. ирлээ irlee. In the novel. and. when both time and his former shipmates finally catch up with the old pirate “Billy Bones. the problem. one can choose (in the written language based on Khalkha Mongolian) between ирэв irev. sometimes mutually contradictory. one of the pirates enters the inn to call on Bones. Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island. and at worst misleading. generally vague. and pointing towards a solution for. I have 1 My less than adequate Russian has unfortunately not allowed me to profit from Dugarova’s work as much as I might have done. if any. which has provided easy access to samples of a wide range of genres in contemporary Mongolian. Song in 1997 (and 2002). In the early 90s. suggestions in a number of the works mentioned above. on native-speaker intuition.” and as well to provide an account of the “neutral” past tenses. Sodnomdorj Gongor. when editorial pressure forced me to provide simple labels for the endings -jee and -lee in a contribution on Mongolian. and to flesh out the details covered by. but rather with how they are used in context. though insightful. the proposal was based largely. and to a lesser extent to the advent of the World Wide Web. (1998). Nor did it clarify the roles of the so-called “neutral” endings -v and -sen—how they differed from the “non-neutral” endings -lee and -jee. albeit limited. Unknown to me at that time. the labels of “evidential” and “inferential. to term them inferential and evidential respectively. Nelson et al. as well as from one another— though there are useful. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996).xii preface do primarily with their literal. The intention in the present work is to construct an argument for. (A different. no one but Svantesson and myself had suggested anything of the sort. on what seems now to have been insufficient evidence (albeit following the approach of my 1990 article). and moreover was so vague and general as to provide little. . based on essentially the modal opposition of evidentiality and inferentiality—Wu (1995. if not entirely. and in the next few years a number of scholars put forward similar analyses of the Mongolian past tense system. guidance to the non-native-speaker wishing to properly use and interpret the various past tense endings. context-free meanings in terms of tense and aspect. and Tserenchunt and Luethy (2000)—but as of the mid-90s. I chose.)1 And while by the beginning of the present century the idea that Mongolian might have a past tense system based at least in part on an opposition of evidentiality and inferentiality was no longer novel. a similar suggestion had been published in the meantime by Svantesson (1991). If this goal has been fulfilled it is due principally to the assistance of a native speaker. Ujeyediin Chuluu (1998). Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999). approach appears in Dugarova 1991. 1996). preface xiii also profited greatly by the insightful work. provided a more reliable and useful guide to usage than has hitherto existed. and some methodological differences. Many of the questions raised by the Mongolian past tenses are far from fully resolved. and laid the foundation for further investigation into a number of aspects of this fascinating language. It would have been useful to have known. at the very least.2 Their article is perhaps the most insightful work on the Mongolian past tenses to come out of the twentieth century. however. while there is concern in their brief article for the distribution of the past tense endings. it constitutes a milestone in our understanding of the Mongolian tenses.. there is still primary dependence on subjective judgments on the part of speakers. of the 1998 article by Nelson et al. but hopefully the present work has. of another native speaker. For all that. and the generous responses to my queries. 2 There are some significant differences between our conclusions. some of their conclusions are quite general. so that on the whole the article strikes one as programmatic. Moreover. . before I completed my research. which anticipates many of my conclusions. Tserenchunt Legden. . who lent me her intuitions as a native speaker of French. her works are amongst the most insightful published. and I regret that I only became aware of the Web site (and through it. article. From the Scarborough campus: Harald Ohlendorf. and for both the fine textbooks she produced with Sharon Luethy. Corrine Beauquis. both spontaneous and in response to my questions. who arranged for Kenji Oda (whom I also gratefully thank) to provide me with a précis of the 1993 article by .html) to which she contributed useful grammatical comments. which have been invaluable and from which I have benefited greatly.edu/~celcar/intermediate/mongolinter. who provided some of the translations from Dugarova with the assistance of Mr. Anatoly Oleksiyenko (whom I also wish to thank).ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would above all like to thank Sodnomdorj Gongor for letting me make use of his native speaker knowledge of. and for kindly providing translations for a dozen or so colloquial examples taken from the Internet. for his toleration of my minimal and truly execrable spoken Mongolian. and intuition for. which proved. I would similarly like to thank Diane Nelson for providing me with a copy of the 1998 Nelson et al. and the Web site (http://www. for his numerous interesting and useful observations. I would also like to thank Tserenchunt Legden for her encouragement. which I have sometimes silently corrected in the manuscript. too. alas. for her comments on the final manuscript. Without his assistance. As regards the past tense endings. I would like to thank her. which I have sometimes silently corrected. and Yoonjung Kang. Michal Schonberg. for her communications. who checked most of my translations from the German.indiana . and for his comments on the final manuscript and corrections of numerous errors. which I much regretted somehow failing to find in my earlier bibliographic searches. this research would literally have been impossible. her textbooks) when I had with much travail independently re-discovered what she had already written about the spoken language. to have been a very significant piece of work. the Khalkha Mongolian language. her observations on a number of errors. Also due thanks are six former or present colleagues at the University of Toronto. xvi acknowledgments Hashimoto (which. Much of the work on this book was done while on a sabbatical research leave in the Winter session of 2008. and in the main forgiving. the former for arranging for Jan Schallert (whom I also hereby thank) to provide the translation of one of the passages from Dugarova’s book. I would like very much to thank my friends and loved ones for understanding. my neglect of them during the writing of this book. From the St. George campus. especially to Mirjam Elbers. and the latter for his helpful responses to various queries. its production editor. Acknowledgment is also due to the anonymous reviewers whose numerous suggestions have gone far to helping to improve the final version of this book. and accompanied by a wholly inadequate summary in English). and largely made possible. Finally. . and to all those at Brill who have worked so hard to transform the manuscript into this volume. by a grant from the University of Toronto. despite its title. The research upon which this work is based was partly funded. and for their support throughout. I wish to thank Christina Kramer and Wayne Schlepp. is in Japanese. so that nom. I have separated affixes from their stems using a dot. the English gloss is mine and the other gloss is that of the source.. and the examples in Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 84–100). actually is written as nom un. dat and past in example 8 above) represent grammatical categories. In some cases it is impossible to provide a unique and precise English equivalent and the glosses should accordingly be taken as purely nominal. the native speaker of Khalkha Mongolian who gave me the benefit of his native-speaker intuitions.. or follows another verbal noun affix (as in examples 1 It should be noted that in the vertical-script language. so: bai. and have arbitrarily assigned the -g. or the question particle be/ve. Unless otherwise noted. for example.t boso.g.’ (Street 1963: 122) In the glosses. this morning I six hour-dat get up-past ‘This morning I got up at six o’clock.v. the terms and abbreviations following the hyphens (e. Önöö öglöö bi zurgaan tsag. See Grønbech and Krueger (1955: 20). case (and some other) affixes are generally (though not in all contexts) written as separate words from their stems. (See the table of abbreviations.un). a copula.) The -x form is simply glossed in this work as ifvn “infinitive/future verbal noun” but the -sen form is glossed as past when it is a predicate and as pfvn (perfective verbal noun or participle) when it is a modifier or noun.CONVENTIONS AND TRANSCRIPTION Conventions Unattributed glosses and comments in italics are those of Sodnomdorj Gongor.g.aa ‘be-impfvn’). precedes an auxiliary verb (as in example 3a below). Where glosses both in English and some other language such as French or German are given. A hyphen is conventionally used (as in nom-un) to indicate the connection between the two.1 8.un. nom-un) has been replaced with a dot (nom. postposition. all the word analyses and detailed glosses accompanying the examples (as in example 8 below) are mine. In examples drawn from other works.used to separate long vowels to the verb stem rather than to the suffix (thus baig. a hyphen indicating a morpheme boundary (e. Poppe (1964: 30). .na. d tör. which have been noted.” and contrast bosov ‘got up’ with bosčixov ‘sprang up’. (Yatskovskaya 1976: 8) Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 year-dat be born-past ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in 1906. When such examples are used here. Transcription Examples in the literature are sometimes cited in phonetic or phonemic transcription. On the Internet..’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1999: 191) The affix -čix. 3a..2 Translations (in single quotes) placed to the left of the name. below) the source name (as in example 16 below).jee.san bai. published accounts tending to be brief and vague. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 133) call it a marker of “[fully] completed action. indicating that the “action is complete and unexpected.g. 16.has not been glossed. the transcription used in the source (e. but in any case no completely satisfactory. Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999: 87).e. Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 on.” with “a slight perfect meaning” and gloss ted duusčixjee as ‘they’ve finished (it)’ (from duus‘finish’).” and in a similar vein. -lee. date. are mine. affixes containing vowels are represented by their written form containing e. these labels generally reflect its use in the various types of examples in question. and page of the source publication (as in examples 8 and 3a above) are those of the source publication. singular či is glossed simply as ‘you’.na. the plural/polite second person pronoun similar to French vous has uniformly been glossed ‘you (plural)’.. Ta. however. In contrast. Ramstedt 1902) is employed. . e. Although somewhat arbitrary.’ In the present work.g. It likely has no counterpart or adequate gloss in English. say it forms “intensive” verbs (terminology echoing Poppe 1951: 51).xviii conventions and transcription 37–39). The non-past (present-future) tense affix simply has been labeled pres (“present”). with some modifications. Break-pfvn be-pres ‘It’s broken. definitive statement of its meaning or use has appeared. Xugar. translations to the right of (i. Mongolian 2 Thus Street (1963: 83) simply labels it “perfective. as in (3a). ” The use of the letter <v> is so well established in the grammatical literature. Standard schemes of transliteration have been followed. yö yo j i ö ü x ts č š ” ii ’ e yu ya ts ch sh ii e yu ya 3 Tserenchunt points out (p. however. and Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996). that I have chosen not to use <w> here in its place.3 Table 1 Cyrillic Street е ë ж й ѳ у х ц ч ш ъ ы ь э ю я ye. Examples written in the old vertical script have been transliterated using a fairly standard transliteration. yʉ ya Vietze Sanders (“popular and transliteration”) Bat-Ireedüi je jo dsch j ö ü ch ts tsch sch y j e ju ja yö yo j i ö ü kh ts ch sh ” y ’ (or i) e yu. especially those employed by Street (1963). it has become common to transliterate Cyrillic <х> as <h>.. yü ya Kullmann and Tserenpil This book ye yo j i o u ye. Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1995. but this book continues the tradition of using Latin <x>. (1998).conventions and transcription xix is not infrequently written in the Latin alphabet and such examples have been noted. yѳ yo j i ѳ ʉ x c č š ә ɨ ә e yu. 1999). . . and presented as they originally appeared. Vietze (1974). Where such examples are already transliterated in the source from which they have been taken. The letters for which there is some variance between transliteration schemes are shown in Table 1 below. 2008) that “Now Professor George Kara and other scholars use ‘w’ for Mongolian <в> and it has been accepted by many people.c. .: yavaad > yawaad. yavj > yawj. Mongolian examples written in the Cyrillic alphabet are transliterated in this book into the Latin alphabet. Similarly. as in the name (Narmandah) of one of the authors of Nelson et al. that transliteration is generally used here. October. So ‘w’ is better than ‘v’ . names and titles in the references). The Cyrillic letter <ж>. reflecting differences between the Cyrillic alphabets of the two languages. in the Russian transliterations. but none should cause any trouble for the reader. Also. is given as <ž> in that of Russian. <ы> is represented as <y> (and <й> as <j>).xx conventions and transcription Where Russian is concerned (for example. transliterated as <j> in the case of Mongolian. There are a few other differences in the transliterations. the transliteration employed here is a fairly standard one. . ) label them modal particles. eine (immer noch) andauernde Handlung” (“continuous state or a (still) continuous action”). and bii are identified in the present work as copular particles (COPP). seit deren Eintritt bereits die Haupthandlung ausgeübt worden ist” (“an action. note 29 on p. hence Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 168) call it the “progressive” converb.) . mön. there is no standard terminology. he notes. Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999: 105) call it the “continuous” converb.it can be translated ‘keeps on’. 3 This is the term used by Sanders and Ireedüi (1999: 83) for the particle č. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 337ff. (Cf. it conveys a “fortdauernden Zustand bzw.‘be’. They note that with bai.ABBREVIATIONS ABL ACC AGVN CAUS COM CONDC CONTC COPP DAT EMPHP GEN HABVN IFVN IMP IMPFC IMPFVN INFERP INSTR IPA MODC MODP ablative case accusative (object) case agentive verbal noun causative affix comitative case conditional converb continuative1 converb copular particle2 dative case emphatic particle genitive case habitual (frequentative. Poppe (1951: 89) calls it the Konverbum abtemporale and describes it as meaning “eine Handlung. even though there is general agreement as to the meaning of this form. 2 Yum. since the beginning of which the main action has been performed”). With an auxiliary verb such as bai. 206 on l. who call it a “focus” particle. described by Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 346–8). This particle has a wide range of uses. Vietze (1974: 140) says similarly that as the predicate of a subordinate clause it can be translated “seit” [‘since’]. Similarly. generic) verbal noun infinitive/future verbal noun imperative imperfective converb imperfective verbal noun inferential particle instrumental case International Phonetic Alphabet modal converb modal3 particle 1 As with many aspects of the grammar. xxii NEG NOM PASS PAST PFC PFVN PL PRFUT QP RP TERMC VOL abbreviations negative affix nominative (subject) case passive affix past tense perfective converb perfective verbal noun plural present/future (non-past) tense question particle reflexive-possessive affix terminal converb voluntative (first-person imperative) . that the status of various members of the family as independent languages or . Some members of the family have three or more different affixes which seem to be markers of the past tense. for it is often easier (but not necessarily precise) to refer to aspects of a “Mongolian” grammatical system than to specify a more specific language or languages.1. the problem is easily stated. To a certain extent there is only a terminological issue involved here. irlee. first because of the complexities of the term “Mongolian. irjee. From another point of view. and irsen all can translate. From a certain point of view. The Mongolian Past Tenses 1.CHAPTER ONE THE PROBLEM OF THE MONGOLIAN PAST TENSES 1. assuming that they do differ in some way (or ways). and be translated by. however. the English past tense verb came. for example.” and secondly because of the complexities of the type of verbal system typical of these languages. The problem with this is that the term “Mongolian” has been used to refer to many different spoken and written languages. the problem of the Mongolian past tenses is not so easily stated. irev. The reader may find some background information on both these topics helpful in understanding the problem of the Mongolian past tenses. The Verbal Systems of the Mongolic Languages The problem of the past tenses of the members of the Mongolic (or “Mongolian”) language family is one of the most challenging puzzles in the study of that family and has long resisted solution. To discuss the problem purely within the context of Khalkha dialects and/or the Mongolian language written in the Cyrillic alphabet is to deprive oneself of insights from other members of the family and to artificially limit the scope of the inquiry at the outset. so that in Khalkha. The question is how these forms differ in meaning and/or use. The issue of what precisely is meant by “Mongolian” is relevant here because the puzzle of the multiple past tenses found in Khalkha extends not only to the majority of spoken Mongolic dialects and all of the corresponding written languages today. but goes back to the very beginnings of the recorded history of the members of the family. It is a different matter where the dialects which have variously been called Oirat or Kalmuck are concerned. differs from written Khalkha more than the corresponding spoken languages differ from one another. is the basis for written Khalkha (also referred to as “Mongol” or “Modern Mongolian”). but is read as if representative of the modern spoken language. something like [strejt]). and consequently appear here in different transliterations. At present the Mongolic dialects spoken in Inner Mongolia. form the bases for four different written languages. Mongolia (the former Mongolian People’s Republic. and the historical and classificatory relationships of the members of the Mongolic language family remain controversial. the language of the vast majority (some 80% or more) of the inhabitants of Mongolia. The various Khalkha and Buriat dialects are fairly close to many. This written language still has currency amongst the Oirats of China. partly due to different spelling conventions and partly to the much greater effect of Russian on Buriat than on Khalkha. Historically. Spoken Khalkha. though the Kalmucks in Russia today use a written language with a Cyrillic alphabet. they formed the basis for a written language in a modified version of the Mongolian vertical script. of the Mongolic dialects spoken in Inner Mongolia. The Buriat language. What Bläsing (1984) has to say about the finite indicative verb forms of Kalmuck. pronounced somewhat differently. The verbal systems of these various “dialects” and “languages” are for the most part essentially the same. and nearby parts of China and Asiatic Russia. and Inner Mongolian on the one hand. though the endings are spelled differently. At the same time. for the grammars of the two groups of languages to be mutually enlightening. at an earlier time Outer Mongolia). and clearly form a distinct language (or languages) from them. such as Chakhar. perhaps most. for example. much as English-speakers write straight but read the word as the spoken equivalent. bears . the adjacent Buriat Republic in Russia. Buriat. a somewhat modernized version of the old vertical script language is used. and Oirat and Kalmuck on the other. written in a slightly different Cyrillic script. strate (phonetically. In Inner Mongolia.2 chapter one as mere dialects is by no means clear. Both the spoken and written languages differ quite a bit from Khalkha and the dialects of Inner Mongolia. which utilizes the Cyrillic alphabet. there are sufficient similarities in the verbal systems of Khalkha. especially where vocabulary is concerned. scholars today believe the Altaic languages to be a group of genetically unrelated families which have converged within a language union (Sprachbund). . Discussion of the Mongolic languages also raises the issue of their relationship to the other members of the Altaic group of languages. Turkish and Manchu. Doerfer (1963. the best-known members of which are. Despite the paucity of cognates and hence systematic sound correspondences linking the three families—let alone the three together with Japanese and/or Korean—there are significant structural similarities common to all five. tense. of an Altaic type of language. Miller (1971. this group also includes the Turkic and Tungusic language families. many.1 For present purposes it really does not matter which is the case. Menges (1975) and most strongly.2 Thus while the present work largely restricts itself to a discussion of. The verbal systems of the members of this third group require entirely separate treatment. this view is criticized by Clauson (1956). respectively. 1996) represent the school of thought believing in a genetic relationship between most or all of the five. Finally. This group includes the Mongolic languages of China outside of Inner Mongolian: principally Dagur (Daur) in the former Manchuria and in Xinjiang. perhaps even most. there are those Mongolic languages whose verb systems are sufficiently different from the preceding as to render their analysis quite distinct from the systems of the first two groups. much more than the pronunciation of their names. possibly along with Korean and/or Japanese. and are ignored here. Aside from the Mongolic languages. justify speaking. 1991. and in the province of Gansu. Monguor and Moghol (a now defunct language of Afghanistan) differ from Mongol in much.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 3 on the analysis of the corresponding verb forms of the languages in the former group. While formerly there was largely a consensus that these three families formed branches of an Altaic super-family. though to be sure there are important differences between the grammars of the two. 1985) and Vovin (2005). despite real differences between them. and principally draw its data from Khalkha and relatively closely 1 Poppe (1965)—following Ramstedt (1952–56). 2 Where the verb is concerned. which. Tu (Monguor). the formation and use of aspectual. Bonan (Baoan) and Dongxiang (Tunghsiang). and other markers of verbal categories show remarkable similarities across the Altaic languages. at least in some regards. j tusal.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 199) Combinations of auxiliaries or copulas with other verbal forms mark various distinctions of tense and aspect.na. . http://www. .güi write-ifvn-neg bai. I won’t write a letter to him. (The italicizations in the examples are mine.mongolianoralhistory.sen bai. along with content verbs. Šaardlag.xml.’ (http://www.saar be-contc bai.güi bol That me-dat begin-impfc letter write-ifvn-neg if bi I tüün.x. . especially for the reader unfamiliar with languages of this type.d that-dat zaxia letter biči. The Mongolic languages.org/samples/transcriptions/ TR060402.4 chapter one related Mongolic languages. In (2a) the “continuative converb” (-seer) combines with the copular verb baix ‘to be’ to form a continuative perfect (‘have been waiting’). some facets of which should be pointed out. a.” (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 209) c. That this about know-pfvn be-impfc match-pres ‘He must have known about this.x.x be-ifvn bol.j provide-impfc amji.org/samples/ translations/EN060402.xml) d.’ (lit. though if the sentence is positive (without the -güi ‘not’). succeed. . namely Turkish. become-pres ‘If he does not write me a letter first.j ögö. such as those italicized in the examples in (1) below. Ter ene tuxai med. which can be strung together. . we have occasion as well to refer to at least one other Altaic language.mongolianoralhistory.t yar’.iig Demand-acc arai čamai with great difficulty xanga.impfc be-pres ‘[The restaurant] is just barely able to satisfy the demand . Ter nada.) 1. .d exel.x.na.güi yuu? We pl-dat speak-impfc help-impfc give-ifvn-neg qp ‘will you please tell us . often to form long strings of verbs. . are noteworthy for their extraordinarily rich and complex verb systems. the “imperfective converb” (-j) is used instead of the corresponding verbal noun. ‘is succeeding satisfying’) (Street 1963: 149) b.j taar. They have numerous auxiliary verbs and copular particles. as in (2c).j zaxia biči.no. . In (2b) the “imperfective verbal noun” (-ee) combines with the copula to form a kind of progressive not unlike the English progressive construction. like the other Altaic languages. bid nar.j bai. which is the “perfective converb” of an obsolete verb (bü-) 3 I have arbitrarily assigned the -g. non-finite verb forms entering into these combinations have other uses as well. e.ee.j baina ve? What do-impfc be-pres qp ‘What are [you] doing?’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1999: 63) Mongolian verbs today have at least four different verbal nouns or participles (in Khalkha.. belief’ from itgex ‘to believe’ and idee ‘food’ from idex ‘to eat’. for example. What modp do-impfvn-neg be-pres ‘(I’m) not doing anything.g.güj3 bai. a. differentiated mostly by temporal relationships. are used as the main verbs of subordinate structures which function syntactically as phrases. Converbs are also the etymological sources of conjunctions such as bögööd ‘and’ in (3f). and converbs. and -deg) and a dozen converbs. those marked with the affixes -sen. This pre-theoretical understanding of the aspects is unsatisfactory. The root of xiigeegüi is xii-. while the progressive construction. would be imperfective. but semantically as clauses. Converbs can also occur on their own as adverbs (3e). As is typical of Altaic languages. Verbal nouns can be used just like any other noun. like the non-past one or “infinitive” in (3c).seer bai. Yuu xii. I that-acc wait-contc be-pres ‘I have been waiting for him. with (3a) or without (3b) accompanying copulas. the “perfective” or “perfect” verbal noun formed with -sen and the corresponding perfect(ive) converb in -eed contrast with their “imperfective” or “imperfect” counterparts in -ee and -j as perfective aspect to imperfective. -ee. Both verbal nouns.’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1999: 63) c.na. 4 Traditionally perfective aspect and imperfective aspect are considered to contrast as marking complete action vs.used to separate long vowels to the verb stem rather than the suffix. but should suffice for present purposes. but they also can serve as the predicates of sentences. and (3) converbs like the “perfective” yavaad ‘having gone’ and “imperfective” yavj ‘going’. Yuu č xiig. like the “terminal” or “terminative” converb in (3d). in the Mongolic languages there are three different types of deverbals—(1) nominalizations like itgel ‘faith. . Thus the verb in the English sentence I went home would be considered to be perfective. or sometimes as past tense to present.na. Bi tüün. (2) verbal nouns (essentially participles) like the “perfect” or “perfective” suusan ‘(having) sat’ and “imperfect” or “imperfective” xiigee ‘doing’.iig xülee. -x.4 The deverbal. I was going home.’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1999: 105) b. incomplete.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 5 2. x. more than one past tense. Xugar. Üün.” (Kullmann and Tserepil 1996: 300) In addition to these complexities.’ (Street 1963: 207) c.’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1999: 191) b.aa yav. this multiplicity of past tenses presents a real problem. In the case of the Mongolic languages.san bai. Break-pfvn be-pres ‘It’s broken. that Altaic languages typically have.aa My friend Germany-dat study-impfc be-impfvn bögööd uda. has the form of a converb— the “modal” converb—of a verb. a.’ (adapted from Sanders and Ireedüi 1999: 106) e.na.na. too.aas. in addition to their present tense or tenses. often based on little . While every textbook and grammar necessarily comments on the various “tense” endings.iig marta. This-acc forget-ifvn-abl-rp before do-imp ‘Do it before [you] forget. (The italizations in (3) are mine.güi ir.č baig.aa ömnö xii. assuming that they do.dag. we shall see that there has been a wide divergence in opinions. Ter ajil.’ (Altangerel 1998: 33) d. Ter oros bolon xyatad xel.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 299) g.eer sain That Russian and Chinese language-instr well yar’.ne.d. The topic of the present volume comes from the fact. namely bolox ‘to become’. there are those presented by the tense/aspect morphology of the content verbs.n xar! Me-acc don’t stare-modc look-imp ‘Don’t stare at me!’ (Kullmann and Tszerenpil 1996: 158) f. That work-dat-rp go-past ‘He has gone to work.) 3. speak-habvn “He speaks Russian and also Chinese well. already noted above. Minii naiz German.tol ted end ajilla. Namar bol. as it has never been made precisely clear in what manner of meaning and/or of use these tenses differ.san.6 chapter one meaning ‘be’.x. Bolon ‘as well as’ (3g). and delay-ifvn-neg come-pres ‘My friend studies in Germany and will come soon. Namaig bitgii širte. Autumn become-termc those here work-pres ‘They’ll work here until [it becomes] autumn.d sur. -в [-v]. -жээ). each ending in a typical modern Mongolic language potentially appears in between two and eight different forms.‘enter’ (back. with some noteworthy exceptions. in Kalmuck and Khalkha there compete three forms in the past tense: Kalmuck –ла [-la]. the letters represented in transliteration as g and γ reflect velar sounds which obey vowel harmony. -ав [-av]. as the past tenses in -v. -жээ [-jee]. -в. unround) oro.” ‘Aside from participial units such as -сн.‘take’ (back. very similar in most Mongolian dialects and languages. so konkurrieren im Kalmückischen und Khalkha-Mongolischen . do for someone else’ (front.B. members of the Mongolic language family typically contain three different past tense suffixes. -ав. In the old written language in vertical script. respectively. -ж.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 7 more than naïve speaker intuitions and sometimes on mistaken comparisons with the quite different verbal systems of other languages. these are referred to here. It is only in the last couple of decades that linguistic research focused on this problem has seriously advanced its solution. as in the vertical-script example (4) below. To be specific. g occurring with “front” vowels.).5 For the sake of convenience. . unround) deve. -лаа. and -jee. drei Formen auf der Zeitstufe der Vergangeheit miteinander (klm. The importance of this for present purposes is simply that in written Khalkha. -ла. xlx. . Khalkha -лаа [-laa]. {} ba la jai you (plural) book read-past ‘you read a book’ (Wu 1995: 94) 4. the -lee ending and the -sen ending have four different forms each (table 2): Table 2 Stem ava. .‘give. . for example. For example.‘wave’ (front. Bläsing (1984: 38) says. For surveys of the forms.’ (My translation—rb) . -ж [-j]. see Poppe (1955) and Wu (1996). ta nom ungsi- Because of vowel harmony. round) -lee form -sen form avlaa devlee orloo öglöö avsan devsen orson ögsön 5 The past tense endings and their uses are. -lee. because the vowels in the endings generally adjust themselves to the vowels of the stems as regards rounding and a feature until recently called palatality or backedness. round) ög. γ with “back” ones. “Sieht man einmal ganz ab von Partizipialeinheiten (z. -сн . As a participle it often bears a relative past (i.). and -ж(ээ).. there are two verbal nominal (participial) forms that belong in any discussion of the past tenses. Weiers 1969: 158f. yavsan ‘gone.6 In written Khalkha in Cyrillic script...g. there may be a (harmonizing) linking vowel. anterior) meaning (e. This is more accurate than “perfect.g. -luqa. -luγa/-lüge (modern -la/-le). The first of these. vowelless variants. as in ол-о-в (ol-o-v) ‘found’. Both -jee and -lee also have short.. a practice generally followed here. affixes containing vowels are referred to by their written form containing e.. is shorter. 153f. Wu (e.8 often functions as a predicate bearing some sort of past meaning.” but the latter term is traditional and hence familiar. 1996: 73) cites the forms -ǰei/-ǰai/-čei/-čai for the modern language. Wu (e.7 As noted in the section on Conventions. -ǰei. 7 Depending on the final sounds of the stem the ending -v is added to. -čai. the ending -jee also has variants in -č following certain consonants. 1996: 77) cites the modern forms -la/-le. -laa. for example in questions before the question particle uu/üü: Bagš xödöö yavj uu? ‘Did the teacher go to the countryside?’ (Kullmann and Tserepil 1996: 186). usually termed the perfect or perfective (sometimes the past) verbal noun. the three endings called here -v. -čei). Weiers 1969: 149.g. the consonants j and č vary according to the final sound of the stem the ending. zogsč(ee) ‘stopped’. the verbal noun whose ending in vertical-script Mongolian is transliterated as -gsen/-γsan (= written Khalkha -сан/-сэн/-сон/-сѳн. -lee.. -legei/-laγai.g. the corresponding forms are -в (-v). and -jee. Thus avjee ‘took’ but also irjee ‘came’ and ögjee ‘gave’.e. and -ǰuqui/-ǰüküi/-čuqui/-čüküi (modern -ǰai. As in the Cyrillic script. this linking vowel is assigned in analyses to the stem. As well. in the present work. to refer to the affixes using their back-vocalic forms.). respectively.8 chapter one The -jee ending is unusual in not undergoing vowel harmony. -лаа/-лээ/-лоо/-лѳѳ (-laa/-lee/-loo/-löö). In the present work. however. The second is the verbal noun formed with the affix 6 At various times there also occurred the forms -bei/-bai and -lügei/-luγai. are usually transliterated as. -luqai (Poppe 1955: 265f.. 8 Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999: 25) refer to it as the perfective verbal noun.g.g.. oro-v ‘entered’. In written Mongolian in the old vertical script. -lee. . and should occasion no confusion as long as the actual meaning and use of the form are borne in mind. e. -san/-sen/-son/-sön). -ba/-be. e. (It is quite common in the literature. Cf. having gone’). Other forms include -ǰükü/-ǰuqu (Poppe 1955: 265f. e.) In addition to the three finite indicative past tense endings. ч(ээ) (-j(ee)/-č(ee)). (It is also.ee uil. and when. following the lead of some grammarians.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 9 -ge/-γa (= Khalkha -аа/-ээ/-оо/-ѳѳ. however. Tseren cried. however. .san bai. Tseren iči. 5.’ (Poppe 1970: 134) Consequently. 6. to similarly label the -ee ending a past tense marker. and -v. there is little or nothing to distinguish these participles from finite verbs. it is functioning as a participle. while not excluding use of the term imperfect so long as the actual meaning of the form is borne in mind.) 3. however. arbitrarily assigned in analyses to the stem. -gee. or -göö immediately following a long vowel (as in nuugaa ‘hiding.d. as in example (3a). hence the -ee ending appears as -gaa. . Break-pfvn be-pres ‘It’s broken. a. . . Minii sar. . since there is ample reason to regard the -sen suffix as a fourth past tense marker. concealing’) or diphthong (as in baigaa ‘being’). -goo.10 As with any other verbal nouns in the Mongolic languages. as uilsan does in example (5).ee. referred to as the “perfective” participle.güi. these participles may serve. compare the sentences in (6). . In such sentences. as in baig. 10 In Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999: 63). as it only does so when negated.iin temdeg .aa. here this linking consonant is. a. As with the perfective (see note 8 on p. alongside the finite tense endings -jee.san Tseren be ashamed-pfvn-dat-rp cry-past ‘When he was ashamed. the perfective verbal nominal (participial) form is referred to in the present work as the past tense in -sen. we generally follow their practice.sen. months. since it is debatable whether it really functions as a pasttense ending.’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1999: 191) There is little reason. month come-impfvn-neg ‘I haven’t had my period for . the imperfective verbal noun. -lee. as the main predicate of an independent clause or sentence. it is labeled pfvn rather than past.9 This is usually called the imperfect or imperfective (also the present) verbal noun.na. without any accompanying copular particle or copular auxiliary verb.’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1995: 128) 9 Mongolian regularly inserts g between two long vowels (including diphthongs). Xugar. . -aa/-ee/-oo/-öö). 8). sar ir. As has already been noted. My month-genitive mark . 10 chapter one b. Mongol uls ix xögji.j baig.aa. Mongolia(n) nation greatly develop-impfc be-impfvn ‘Die Mongolei entwickelt sich sehr.’ (Vietze 1974: 84) ‘Mongolia is being greatly developed.’ 1.2. The Problem of the Past Tenses Although there is general (though not universal ), agreement that the various past tense forms of Mongolian differ in meaning and/or use— after all, there must be some reason why a language would have the different past tense forms found in example (4)—it remains debatable, and, to this day, much debated, how they so differ.11 {} ba la jai you (plural) book read-past ‘you read a book’ (Wu 1995: 94) 4. ta nom ungsi- There has been a wide divergence of opinion regarding almost every aspect of the meanings and uses of these forms. As Chuluu puts it (in chapter 4 of his doctoral thesis, Ujeyediin 1998),12 . . . it is clear that any of the four morphemes [-v, -jee, -lee, -sen] can be chosen by the speaker to indicate the past tense and the choice of suffix is perhaps up to the speaker. There is no doubt that they can be all regarded as past tense markers, the question is, however, why Mongolian has four different morphemes for the same past tense. . . . It has been generally concluded that these morphemes are distinct in certain ways but attempts to establish clear and reliable criteria for distinguishing them are not conclusive. Until the last twenty years or so almost all scholars accepted some form of the theory, first articulated by Ramstedt (1902), but having its roots 11 Sanžeev (1973: 92) states that “the differences between [the three past tense] forms, which are almost imperceptible, are still debated by students of Mongolian.” (Oddly enough, he also says, “the three past tenses are used interchangeably.”) It is interesting, and suggestive, that while Sodov’s Foreign Literature Reader (1967: 60) uses törjee in Šyekspir 1564 ond . . . törjee ‘Shakespeare was born in the year 1564’, Altangerel’s English-Mongolian dictionary (1998: 40) uses törsön in Šyekspir 1564 ond törsön. 12 His name is given in his thesis as Ujeyediin Chuluu. He has published also under the name Chaolu Wu (i.e., in the Chinese style, Wu Chaolu). I generally refer to him as Chuluu, but refer to the various works by the name of the author given in each case. the problem of the mongolian past tenses 11 at least as far back as the grammar of Schmidt (1831), that the distinctions between the endings have to do with time.13 I call this account the “semantic” theory. Few if any scholars other than the ones noted in the preface had, prior to the mid-to-late 1990s, suggested a different type of account, one based on modal distinctions, a type of account characterized here as a “pragmatic” theory. In the last decade or so, elements of essentially such a modal account have been presented, for example, in the grammar by Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996), works by Song (1997, 2002), the thesis of Ujeyediin Chuluu (1998), and the textbook of Tserenchunt and Luethy (2000) (as well as on a Web site with grammatical notes by Tserenchunt).14 However, there are a number of inadequacies shared by these various works. None of them presents much (if any) evidence other than sheer native speaker intuition to support their accounts; none presents a sufficiently detailed account to allow the non-native-speaker to properly use and interpret the various forms;15 and none of them make clear that, as in the case of French, the tense/aspect systems of spoken 13 Already in Schmidt (1831) something approaching Ramstedt’s theory is present, if only in embryo. The -ba (-v) past he calls (p. 56) the “Präteritum imperfectum” (i.e., imperfect past). Schmidt’s “Perfectum” (‘perfect’, p. 57) includes both the -luγa (-lee) and -ǰuqui (-jee) forms, which he glosses using the German present perfect: i. bi γar.iyar bari.luγ-a I hand-instr take-past ‘ich habe es mit der Hand ergriffen’ (‘I have seized it with my hand’) ii. qola γaǰar.ača ire.ǰüküi far land-abl come-past ‘er ist vom fernen Landen gekommen’ (‘he has come from a distant country’) 14 As noted in the preface, I only became aware of this Web site (which at the present time is available at http://www.iub.edu/~celcar/intermediate/mongolinter.html) and, through it, the Tserenchunt/Luethy textbooks, at the point at which my research on the spoken language with a native speaker, Sodnomdorj Gongor, was almost complete, and I had just realized that the written language was a distinct problem from that posed by the spoken language. I had read Kullmann and Tserenpil’s grammar, but obviously had not taken in what they had to say on this topic, since their account came as news to me when I referred to their grammar while reading Tserenchunt’s textbook. Whether their grammar (unconsciously) influenced my research, I cannot say. As I noted in the preface, too, I only became aware of Nelson et al. (1998) after completing my research and the drafting of this book. 15 Interestingly enough, the Mongolian phrasebook in the popular Lonely Planet series (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1995) simply omits any mention of the verb endings -lee and -jee in its grammatical sketch, despite the fact that these are amongst the most commonly used endings in the language. (These authors’ 1999 textbook does, however, discuss these affixes.) 12 chapter one Mongolian and written Mongolian are not identical.16 Also, from the theoretician’s perspective, most of these works fail to deal with Mongolian tense/aspect in terms of contemporary theories of semantics and pragmatics. Accordingly, the present study aims to present a new and comprehensive account of the meaning and use of the past tense endings in spoken and written Khalkha, which holds true (at least in broad outline) as well for the closely allied Mongolic languages (such as Inner Mongolian, Buriat, and to a large extent even Kalmuck/Oirat), and thereby provides implicit suggestions for new directions in the study of yet other members of the family, such as Dagur (Daur) and Monguor (Tu). The main points I argue for here are these: a) The Khalkha verbal system is fundamentally an evidential/inferential system. That is, apart from tense (past vs. non-past), perhaps the most important distinction marked in the verb is between what the speaker personally can vouch for (evidential) and what the speaker cannot—what he or she is merely reporting or inferring (inferential), or has freshly discovered (mirative). b) The system also makes a fundamental distinction between the distal and the proximal. Thus -lee can be used as a present—or even a future—time marker, as well as a past time one, so long as the situation recounted is in some way part of the speech act situation (situation of utterance), that is, part of what is happening when 16 When I finished the first draft of this book, I discovered that Nelson et al. (1998) did state that “Mongol has grammaticalised . . . stylistic features related to spoken vs. written discourse” (p. 115) and generally anticipated my conclusions regarding the distribution of the forms and their different uses in spoken and written language. To sum up what they have to say regarding spoken and written use (pp. 117–18): /-jee/ . . . appear[s] in both spoken and written Mongol. It [is] particularly prevalent in spoken storytelling, particularly when setting the scene or introducing a new event in the discourse. /-laa/ . . . occurs in both spoken and written language, especially to convey a sense of immediacy. /-v/ . . . appears in written, rather than spoken, language. . . . . . . [/-san/] as a finite verb affix is extremely prevalent in spoken language. In conclusion, two of the affixes, /-jee/ and /-laa/, occur in both spoken and written language . . . . . . . /-v/ and [/-san/] . . . are largely confined in their distribution to written and spoken Khalkh Mongol, respectively. We see below, however, that some of their conclusions are not quite correct, and others do not tell the full story. the problem of the mongolian past tenses c) d) e) f) 13 and where the speaker is uttering the sentence in question.17 When talk is of an occurrence separated—and especially when distant—in time from the time of utterance, the -jee form is generally used instead. The past tenses marked by -jee and -lee are essentially deictic and indefinite (they simply indicate that some occurrence happened some time in the past, without necessarily relating it to any particular contextual time), while those in -sen and -v are anaphoric (relating the occurrence recounted in their clause to a contextual time) and definite (relating it to a particular time). When, for some reason, neither the evidential, proximal -lee, nor the inferential, distal -jee is appropriate to use, a neutral form is used instead, -sen in the spoken language, -v in the written. At least some of the contexts triggering use of these latter tense markers are specifically those in which definite, anaphoric tenses are appropriate. Within a topical thread (a passage or string of passages sharing a common subject or theme), -lee may indicate a new subject or theme, or may suggest further information to come, while -jee may mark the conclusion of the thread. In texts and extended discourses, past tense use depends on genre. In narration, the tenses are anaphoric; -jee indicates an occurrence preceding the reference time (roughly, the current time defined by the context), -lee one which follows it, and the neutral -v (-sen) indicates one occurring at the reference time, which allows its use to foreground narrative material (that is, to mark it as part of the main events of the narrative). In non-narration, the tenses are deictic and function like metric tenses, that is, tenses marking degrees of remoteness18 from the present time: -jee is a distant past, -lee a recent past, and -v is neutral in this regard. 17 Nelson et al. (1998: 121) propose that -lee “does not mark past tense per se, but rather signals the relative proximity of the speaker with the situation being related, which may include the past or future,” from which they conclude that “[i]n most cases, -/laa/ is a discontinuous tense that includes past or future but excludes the present,” which they compare (p. 122f.) to a discontinuous tense reported by Comrie (1985: 88–89) in an Australian aboriginal language, Burera. (They mistakenly date this to 1976.) However, they later note (p. 125) that “[t]here are some types of predicates where a present tense interpretation for /-laa/ is possible, or more precisely, where a state is interpreted as continuing into the present,” so that (p. 126) “[i]n these examples, /-laa/ is not a discontinuous tense.” The upshot would seem to be that, as proposed in the present work, -lee is not a discontinuous tense. 18 That is not to say that the tense systems of the Mongolic languages are remoteness or metric systems of the kind typified by the Bantu languages. 14 chapter one g) The meanings of the various endings and their functions in discourse are mutually determinant. Not every tense can be used in every context, nor in every context can every temporal relationship be expressed. Meaning and use are not independent. h) The uses of the tenses in written language differ from those in spoken language. Formal speech approximates the usages found in writing, while informal writing approximates that of speech. Speech and writing alike range over a variety of usages, from the most colloquial and informal to the most formal and standard. The evolving language of the Internet and non-traditional media exhibits many of the usages of each of writing and speech, and in some regards, its usage is unique. 2. Semantic Theories 2.1. Theories Based on Tense and Aspect For almost a century and a half, the correct analysis of the tense/aspect system of Mongolian largely eluded even the greatest scholars. This is not at all surprising, given that their accounts of the semantics of the verb were nearly all based on a false assumption, namely that the grammatical “tenses” of the Mongolian verb marked by the affixes -jee, -lee, and -v are differentiated primarily by tense (time of the occurrence or state relative to the present, or some other, time) and aspect (roughly, completeness of the occurrence). While such theories have been superseded by more adequate ones, such as the accounts presented in Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996), Sanders and Ireedüi (1998),19 and Tserenchunt and Leuthy (2000), their prevalence in older works still widely consulted today and perpetuation in some recent works requires their review, particularly as it serves to provide a background to the development in the last two decades of more satisfactory theories. The various accounts of the meanings and uses of the forms given in the older, and much of the recent, literature are often vague and sometimes contradictory. Scholars do not agree with each other, and some, such as Poppe, even differ with themselves. For example, Poppe’s 1951 19 Their characterizations of the tenses are not as satisfactory as those in the Tserenchunt/Leuthy textbook or the Kullmann/Tserenpil reference work, but still mark an advance on the accounts in the older textbooks. a “superficial” regress being marked by the form -lee. и являются в каком-то смысле “дейктическими” в пределах хронологии художественного “мира” повествования. and are in some sense ‘deictic’ within the framework of the chronology of the artistic ‘world’ of the narrative. (This last characterization also is to be found in some Russian and Mongolian works. напротив. a concept applied by Dugarova (1991: 55). Dugarova writes:20 Формы -лаа и -жээ относят ситуации. a marker of the recent past (1954). The sense that -jee marks a distant past. These verbal forms express something similar to precedence. назад. глубокий—формой -жээ. or just the “simple” past (1970). Функциями форм -лаа и жээ. Ševernina characterizes -jee as a distant past (as does Schlepp 1983). even a pluperfect (the time of the occurrence is earlier than a given past time). Thus the forms -laa and -jee serve to denote ‘regression’. к более ранним этапам. for example Kas’yanenko 1968 and Jančivdorj and Ragčaa 1967). in keeping with definitions accepted in the present work. At various times Poppe terms the -v ending an indicator of a completed past occurrence or a perfect (1951). к предшествующим событиям. (The forms -laa and -jee relate situations. обусловившим ситуацию. But it is -jee which is called a recent past by Street (1963)—as is -lee by Ševernina (1958) and by Kas’yanenko (1968). являются технически не темпоральными. который достигнут в повествовании. may be due to its marking a regress. while the Handbook calls it an extended past. “глубоким” (возвращение к более отдаленным событиям). . согласно принятым в настоящей работе дефинициям. таким образом. Кошмидера [1962 387]. если воспользоваться термином Э. “Регресс” может быть “неглубоким” (возвращение к непосредственно предшествующему этому моменту событию) или. unless otherwise noted. if one is to use E. происходящие на том этапе. then his 1954 grammar calls -jee a pluperfect marker. although. back to earlier stages.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 15 grammar has it that the -jee ending marks a witnessed or certain past occurrence (which is how he characterizes the -lee ending in his 1970 Handbook). Эти глагольные формы выражают подобие предшествования. хотя. “Неглубокий” регресс маркируется формой -лаа. a profound one by -jee. являются обозначение “регресса”. возвращения “назад”. a turning ‘backwards’. which are occurring at the stage which has (already) been achieved in the narration. до которого продвинулся рассказ. наличную к моменту. to previous events which have provided conditions for the situation that exists in 20 Extended quotations in translation here are mine. are technically not temporal. Koschmider’s term [1962: 387]. The present perfect tense has sometimes been identified with a recent past. all of the sentences are equally on the main narrative line and form part of the foreground of a narrative. it can be ‘deep’ (a return to more remote events). Chuluu’s already-quoted conclusion (Ujeyediin 1998) that “attempts to establish clear and reliable criteria for distinguishing them are not conclusive” seems an understatement. ‘Shallow’ regression is marked by the form -laa. I conquered. and the term “present perfect” has been applied both to -jee— Street (1963: 122) says it may emphasize “the present result of a past action or of a state that existed in the past (and may continue into the future)”—and to -lee (by Ramstedt. they may halt it or even send it backwards. Ramstedt.)21 What Dugarova is suggesting is that these markers form part of the background. a. 21) calls the 21 Translation by Jan Schallert. . and ‘deep’ regression by the form -jee. 1970 and Sanžeev 1964). The Titanic sank. rather than of the narrative foreground. 1955. Several scholars indeed have suggested that there is no temporal or semantic distinction between the endings. It hit an iceberg. I came. and to which point the story has progressed. in his pioneering (1902) study. In light of this (brief and unsystematic) survey. generally lack adequate supporting evidence. thanks to Christina Kramer. on the contrary. by Poppe 1951.16 chapter one the present moment. Although he (on p. in which each sentence recounts a later event than the one before. where the explanatory second sentence involves an event that precedes in time the event recounted in the first sentence. already warned against a simple account of the endings as “tenses. b.” though his warning proved inadequate to prevent subsequent authors from taking too seriously the labels he assigned the endings. An illustrative example from English is (7a). but their suggestions are on the whole vague. such as Caesar’s boast (7b). I saw. 7. This contrasts with a narrative sequence. The ‘regression’ can be ‘shallow’ (a return to events immediately preceding this moment) or. In such examples. and following him. Instead of advancing narrative time. and do not point toward definite alternative analyses. but only a difference of the point of view of the person speaking and the latter’s subjective attitude. does not fully subscribe to the view that the Mongolian “tense” forms are simply markers of tense and aspect. perspective. non-temporal. So. nicht denjenigen der objektiven zeitstufen. nicht von “tempora” reden. noted by Bläsing 1984: 37) that “there is no temporal difference between various present (or past) forms. Die gegenseitigen verhältnisse der khalkhasischen tempusformen entsprechen also. i.22 A number of scholars have stated something similar to Poppe’s observation (1954: 163.und aktionsarten (action imperfecta & actio perfecta)” (“these Khalkha verb forms indicate in reality besides certain objective temporal distinctions also various kinds of time and aspect (actio imperfecta & actio perfecta”). the non-past or present-future). wenn die -wɒ-bildung zu hypothetischen annhamen gebraucht wird. he warns that “kann man auch hier den namen ‘tempora’ nur mit vorsicht gebrauchen” (“one can use the name ‘tempora’ only with care”). wenn durch sie etwas als sicher geschehend oder als demonstriert bezeichnet wird.” “[d]ieser khalkhassischen verbalformen bezeichnen nämlich in der that. (In many cases aspect comes out more clearly in the tenses than relative time. apart from “certain objective temporal distinctions.e. despite his use of terminology based on tense and aspect. and we should then talk of ‘modi’. und wir sollten dann von “modi”. for his help with the translations from German given in the present work. Thus when the [-v]-form is used for hypothetical suppositions.” Similarly. trotz ihrer hier gegebenen namen. Thus too the [-lee]-form. but implicitly presents another. when through it something is indicated as clearly happening or as 22 The translations here from Ramstedt are mine. He notes that the past tenses often have uses that he characterizes as modal. . I wish to thank my colleague.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 17 endings -ne (the “present-tense”. not of ‘tempora’. that In vielen fällen tritt bei den tempora die aktionsart deutlicher als die relative zeitstufe hervor.”23 Even Ramstedt himself. 23 To use Bläsing’s (1984: 37) term. albeit somewhat obscurely. So auch die -lā-bildung. -lee. dass sie eher die hundlung ganz tempuslos als auf eine bestimmte zeit hinweisend aussagt. though ultimate responsibility for them remains mine. auch verschiedene zeit. Professor Harald Ohlendorf. -jee. He writes (1902: 21). ausser gewissen objektiven zeitunterschieden. Ševernina (1958: 39) warns that the various forms are often used for one another and are not “definite. Die -nɒ-bildung dagegen hat eine so allgemeine bedeutung. and -v “tempora indicativi” (“tenses of the indicative”). Präteritum Imperfekti ‘imperfective preterite’.e. 25 Although the terms perfect and imperfect are often used in this connection in the Mongolistic literature. tense) opposition of past versus non-past. that it expresses the action entirely atemporally (timelessly) rather than as referring to a definite time. Präteritum perfekti ‘perfective preterite’. Präsens Imperfekti ‘imperfective present’. and Wu (1996: 58–68). Ramstedt’s terminology (given in table 3 below) suggests a theory in which the four24 finite. see Poppe (1955: 261ff. ‘preterite of the perfect’ Perfektivisches präsens. . ‘present of the perfect’ Imperfektivisches präteritum. but rather “modi” (moods). Weiers (1969: 131–46). despite the names given them here. however. or temporal. to those of the objective times. indicative tenses of Mongolian are semantically defined by the temporal (i. -yü/-yu (Poppe 1954: 92). The [-ne]-form on the contrary has such a general meaning.25 Table 3 Ending -ne -v -lee -jee Label Imperfektivisches präsens. or some combination thereof. ‘present of the imperfect’ Perfektivisches präteritum. and the aspectual distinction of perfective (i. Nor is it entirely clear in the end whether Ramstedt views the endings as modal. For the forms and uses of the present tense endings in the Mongolian languages.e. ‘preterite of the imperfect’ 24 Some Mongolian languages show more than one present tense. most scholars through the end of the 1980s took the distinctions between the past tense markers to be semantic ones involving both tense and aspect.) Ramstedt suggests designating them not “tempora” (tenses). Ramstedt does not provide us with “an elucidation or precise definition” of such terms as modus and actio. the vertical script language has a second present tense ending. The reciprocal relationships of the Khalka tense forms thus do not correspond. But as Bläsing (1984: 37) comments.18 chapter one demonstrated. the aspectual distinction in question is actually that of perfective and imperfective. For example.). But notwithstanding Ramstedt’s warnings. complete) and imperfect (incomplete). aspectual. Präsens Perfekti ‘perfective present’... following Ramstedt. and present of the perfect (1970: 130). ‘past perfect tense’ (as in Beffa and Hayamon 1975: 81). is considered by some scholars not to be a true past tense at all. Praeteritum perfekti (1955: 266). Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 80) call it the effectif non passé (i. 15). odoo tsag zaax xelber ‘form indicative of present time’.28 Instead. Thus Poppe (1954: 92). again following Ramstedt (1902: 18). Praesens perfekti (1955: 265). 28 Strangely enough.e. who has präteritum imperfekti.31 These contrasts are summarized in table 4 below. termed the narrative past by Hangin (1968: 114). referred to simply as the past tense by Hangin (1968: 24) and as the definite past by Bosson (1964: 27). and past of the imperfect (1970: 131). has Präteritum perfecti (1951: 80).e. reflecting a purely—if perhaps only nominal—aspectual contrast between the two. In Russian. Table 4 tense\aspect past non-past perfect imperfect -v -lee -jee -ne 26 Poppe. . the -v past. which differs from the past perfect in tense (i. in Russian imperfektnyj prezens (Sanžeev 1964: 185).. they term it a present perfect. 24). In Russian this is perfektnyi preterit (Sanžeev 1964: 193). is called by many scholars the past perfect or past of the perfect. 24). non-past). time) and from the present imperfect in aspect. hence Mongolian öngörön tögssön tsag. following which come Poppe’s Präsens imperfecti (1951: 79).the problem of the mongolian past tenses 19 Thus. on the other hand. some scholars who refer to it as the present perfect list it as one of the three past tenses. following Ramstedt’s präteritum perfekti (1902: 19). Ramstedt writes of the perfektivisches präsens (p. following Ramstedt’s präsens perfekti (1902: 17). Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi’s textbook (1999: 39) calls this form the past perfect tense. 24). and past of the perfect (1970: 131). includes it in the “three forms of the past. 30 Ramstedt calls this the imperfektivisches präsens (1902: 24) or präsens imperfekti (p. writes of the Präteritum imperfecti (1951: 80). In Russian this is perfektnyj prezens (Sanžeev 1964: 188). this is imperfektnyj preterit (Sanžeev 1964: 190).30 this marks the non-past (present-future) tense. 27 Poppe..29 The contrasting present imperfect is for Ramstedt and those following him the form in -ne. Praeteritum imperfekti (1955: 265). has Präsens Perfecti (1951: 80). who consistently calls it the present perfect.26 while the past in -jee. in Mongolian edüge/odu-a čaγ ziγaqu khelber.27 The -lee past. Ramstedt also writes of the perfektivisches präteritum (p. and. 31 Similarly in Mongolian ( Jančivdorj and Ragčaa 1967: 113) it is the odoo ba ireedüi tsagiin dagavar ‘present and future tense suffix’. Praesens Imperfecti (1955: 260) and present of the imperfect (1970: 130). önggeren tegüsegsen caγ. Oddly enough. Ramstedt also has imperfektivisches präteritum (p.” 29 Poppe. is on the contrary called the past imperfect or past of the imperfect. to those of the objective times. 9).20 chapter one As has already been suggested. trotz ihrer hier gegebenen namen. so that “past imperfect” means little more .t boso.” in parallel with the label “past perfect. independent of those of the others. But in fact incompletion as such does not usually enter into characterizations of this form. this morning I six hour-dat get up-past ‘This morning I got up at six o’clock. and to attempt to justify.” should suggest an event not completed in the past.v uu? you yesterday book read-past qp ‘Hast du gestern ein Buch gelesen?’ (Vietze 1974: 44) ‘Did you read a book yesterday?’ The term “past imperfect. despite the names given to them here. nur auf ihre historische unterlage. und man hat nur mit einer gewissen freiheit des redenden zu rechnen unter den vorhandenen ausdrucksmitteln die für seine zwecke passendsten zu wählen. which is more properly the “present of the perfect. nicht denjenigen der objektiven zeitstufen.’ (Street 1963: 122) 9. . Ramstedt’s labels in terms of various semantic distinctions. The Finite Indicative Verbs The name “past perfect” suggests that the past tense in -v “refers to past and perfected action” as Hangin (1968: 24) puts it. to an event completed in the past. The meaning and use of each particular form is based. as in (8. 22) against taking them too seriously: Die gegenseitige verhältnisse der khalkhassischen tempusformen entsprechen also. only on its historical base. and one has but to reckon with a certain freedom of the speaker to choose amongst the available means of expression that serves his purpose. Önöö öglöö bi zurgaan tsag. Či öčigdör nom unši. Die bedeutung und verwendung jeder einzelnen form gründet sich. 2.” to translate Ramstedt’s term. .) Nonetheless there has been a tendency by later scholars to elaborate on. that is. unabhängig von denen der anderen. some writers emphasize prolongation in time. 8.2. (The reciprocal relationships of the Khalka tense forms do not correspond . Rather than the incompleteness of the action.v. Ramstedt explains these labels poorly and indeed warns the reader (p. iin Mongolia-gen büx whole nutg. and which is prolonged or repeated in the present.jee. Similarly Kas’yanenko (1968: 20) says this expresses “prolonged past time” (prošedšee dlitel’noe vremya).j.” Besides an infinitive.iin country-gen dundaj middle öndör height 1550 metr a.tai ir.” and he offers the examples numbered (10. such good boy be-past ‘there was such a good lad’ Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 82) claim that the action may extend into the present. it also functions as a presentfuture or non-past form.j.x wrestle-ifvn34 ge. . 13): 12. Ürgelj ündes tüü.”32 Poppe (1970: 131). for example. öngörön ürgelǰilsen tsag. saying this form indicates “an action commenced in the past.jee. say-impfc wrestler’s-jacket wrestler’s pants-com come-past ‘les deux combattants sont arrivés avec leur costume de lutter aux jeux (au Naadam)’ (‘the two combatants have come with their fighting suits to the games [to the Naadam]’) 32 Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 82) call this the passé prolongé ou aoriste ‘prolonged past or aorist’. 11) below:33 10. xoër two baildagč combatants naadam. önggeren ürgülzilegsen caγ ‘passing extended time’. Tiim sain xüü bai.” They offer the examples (12.j zodog šuudag. in Mongolian.d Naadam-dat barilda. 33 The translations are Poppe’s. says that the past tense verb formed with -jee “denotes an action that took place in the past and lasted for some time. 1550 metres be-past ‘l’altitude moyenne de toute la Mongolie est de 1550 mètres’ (‘the mean altitude of all of Mongolia is 1550 metres’) 13. the “nomen futuri. Mongol. 34 The form sometimes called the “infinitive” is the so-called future participle or verbal noun. all the time roots collect-past ‘all the time he collected [edible] roots’ 11.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 21 than “extended past. for though he calls it “the present of the perfect. Used thus.. It includes thereby a reference to an indication of something that somehow supports the correctness of the statement. miteinbegriffen. was für die richtigkeit der aussage irgendwie eine stütze giebt. 17) about the form. sondern auch die sicherheit des ausgesagten an. (Yatskovskaya 1976: 8) Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 year-dat be born-past ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in 1906. . wo eine handlung als sicher abgeschlossen oder ein zustand als sicher erreicht angegeben wird.č sun come out-past ‘the sun rose’ (Poppe 1970: 131) 16. where an action is represented as firmly concluded or a state as firmly achieved. Sie giebt nicht nur eine bestimmte zeitstufe. the -jee past.j? where go-past ‘kuda pošel?’ (Kas’yanenko 1968: 20) ‘where did s/he go?’ 15.d tör. (This form is used in sentences. perfect. jetzt’).’ Although Ramstedt (1902: 16) calls the -lee past the “present of the perfect” (präsens perfekti).22 chapter one As a matter of fact. It indicates not only a certain tense.jee. can serve to mark completed past actions (14–16): 14. ‘wie bekannt’) oder auf die zeitlichen verhältnisse berufen (‘schon. ‘es versteht sich’). at present’). The speaker can refer either to the personal recollections of the addressee (‘it was. Es kann aber die rightigkeit der aussage auch aus der äusseren situation im momente des sprechens (‘sieh da’. die gegenwart des vollendeten. the present of the perfect. Es wird dadurch eine handlung auf etwas. as you know’ or ‘as is well known’) or to the temporal relationships (‘already.” he observes that it is a kind of preterite (past tense). So angewendet entspricht diese form unseren präteritis (imp. and pluperfect). Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 on. His statements (p. though it can also serve as a present or a future: Diese form wird angewendet in sätzen. In solchen fällen müssen wir bei dem übersetzten das präsens oder futurum gebrauchen. und plusqupf. are a bit confusing. Der redende kann sich entweder auf die persönlichen erinnerungen des ausgeredeten (‘es war ja’ od.). ‘sich doch’) oder als logische konsequenz aus dem vorher gesagten hervorgehen (‘es wird ja’. this form corresponds to our preterite (imperfect. but also the firmness of the statement. he does not justify this name. indeed. supposedly imperfective in aspect. xaa oči. nar gar. perf. in contrast to Ramstedt’s “present perfect” as an imperfective. 35 By using ja. as in the case of this example. 37 For example. ‘do look!’) or as a logical consequence of what has been said before. od. ... 18.) Accordingly he glosses example (17) below thus: “ ‘(er) stirbt schon’. indicating “an action which has been started but is still unfinished. he’s already dead’.e.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 23 The correctness of the statement can also arise however out of the external situation at the moment of speech (‘look at that!’. Therefore the [translation of the sentence] can also be: . . Ramstedt and Poppe are trying in their glosses to capture a certain nuance of the -luγa (= -lee) form. By such an explanation. (b) the moment when an action just started. In such cases we must use the present or future in the translation. don’t you know’. tere kümün ire.37 however. i. namely a sense that the fact is well-known to.lee. the addressee. (d) the moment when an action is just finished or has already finished. You know and don’t you know are my attempts to capture the sense of German ja.’ ” . “that person has already started to come here.e. past. ‘ist ja schon gestorben’. 38 Dobu (1983: 52). cited in Wu (1995: 97).35 17. (c) the moment when an action is about to finish. ‘is already dead.’ Chenggeltei (1981: 298. in Wu 1995: 97) sees the form as indicative of a bounding point. Üxe.”38 Thus in (18).” i.” Poppe (1951: 80) glosses it as ‘ist ja tot’. an uncompleted. Dobu (1983: 52). die-past36 Others. but has not yet arrived” (Wu 1995: 95). in Wu (1995: 95). have viewed the form. 36 For the sake of consistency. one may understand that [example (18)] refers to an action that has already started and is going to be completed in the near future. 39 Wu (1995: 95) notes that “Dobu’s explanation partially coincides with Chenggeltei’s who suggests that -la/-le refers to an action which is either about to start or about to finish (1981: 298). that person come-past ‘That person is coming. rather than of a period of time:39 (a) the moment when an action is about to start.” even where this is not entirely felicitous.. all the “past“ tense forms are glossed here using the tag “past.le.e. i. “‘he is already dying’ or ‘you know. or should be recalled by. ‘That person is about to arrive. g.la I book read-past ‘I am about to read some books’ or ‘I have just read some books (finished a moment ago)’ 40 Examples from Wu (1995: 97). -lee refers mainly to the imminent future. as in his examples (23. However.čini una.) that adverbs such as sayi ‘just’. 24). as in (19) below.le soldier come-past ‘The soldier is just now coming’ or ‘The soldier has just arrived. This is the perfective converb.’ ire. the essence of his proposal is to be found already in Aristotle).24 chapter one Thus -lee can be used for the imminent future. presumably because accomplishments essentially combine an activity phase with a final achievement. He points out (p. Bi nom ungsi. 99f. ‘climb’) it may refer to either. or for either (21. nom. 42 Vendler (1957) classified verbs as activities like run and read. For discussion see Binnick (1991: 170–8).’ Wu points out (1995: 98) that the interpretation of -lee depends on the Vendlerian (i.’ 20. aspectual) class of the verb. Batu γaru. his name has come generally to be associated with it. whereas with stative verbs such as ‘be’ it refers principally to the recent past. Although Vendler was not the first to propose such an aspectual classification (indeed. come-past 21.’ or ‘Your book has just fallen down. states like feel and seem. 22).la. for Wu (p.la book-your fall-past ‘Your book is about to fall down. Batu go out-pfc41 go-past ‘Batu is about to go out. with accomplishment verbs (e.le.γad yabu. These categories of verbs differ in numerous semantic and syntactic properties. achievements like find and notice.. čirig ire.e. not to be confused with the perfect verbal noun. -lee may nonetheless refer to either imminent future or recent past.40 19.. tere sayiqan Kökeqota. and öčögedür ‘yesterday’ will disambiguate such sentences.42 With verbs denoting activities (and processes) and so-called achievements (such as ‘die’). or the recent past (20).’ 22. this correlation of tense with Aktionsart (“kind of action”) is only a tendency. udaqu ‘soon’. 23.ača he just Huhhot-abl ‘He just arrived from Huhhot. 99) observes that with some activity verbs. and accomplishments like climb (climb the mountain). 41 . (2) that the marked member.” whereas “marked” means “special. The three things relevant to the present discussion regarding markedness are (1) that the existence of the marked member of an opposition implies the existence of the unmarked (as terms like duckling imply the existence of terms like duck). and the so-called present perfect is often neither present nor “perfect.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 25 24. whereas the usual does not.la. rather.” Ramstedt’s terminology is not very revealing and clearly cannot form the basis for a sound account of the Mongolian past tenses. since it has been used to refer to formal. nor to adult members (compare duck. Markedness is a confusing concept. and (3) that the extension (membership in the real world) of the . 100) that “the [-lee] suffix does not actually have one core meaning as usually suggested in previous research. “unmarked” is a technical term roughly equivalent to “basic” or “usual.la I house build-past ‘I am about to build a house’ or ‘I have just built a house (finished a short time ago)’ Further. 2. but not necessarily the unmarked. unusual. bi ger bari.3. but require no explicit marker to refer to members of the species as a whole. which do not necessarily accord with one another. Thus languages often have a marker like English -ling (duckling.” To the extent that the forms labelled as “perfect” by Ramstedt do not necessarily refer to completed action. Batu go out-pfc go-past ‘Batu is about to go out. The Participles The ending -v has been labelled the “past of the perfect. and has been defined in different ways by different schools of linguistics.’ 25.” It is usually considered the unmarked43 or “normal” past tense. Tere yabu. goose).la he leave-past ‘he is about to leave’ (Wu 1995: 100) Wu concludes (p.” Most definitions revolve around the notion that the unusual requires an explicit indicator. it can have various meanings depending upon the type of verb to which it is attached. gosling) referring to the young of a species. and is usually 43 In the present context. 25): 19.γad yabu. -lee generally refers to the imminent future (19. with verbs of motion. requires explicit marking as by the addition of an affix. Batu γaru. and semantic properties. nor those labelled “imperfect” to incomplete action. distributional. than does that of duck). i. in Mongolian there are restrictions on its use and it is largely in alternation with the “perfect” participle (perfect verbal noun. person 28. and in turn often—but not always—serves as the translation of. Thus in (26) the verbal noun is effectively pluperfect because the main verb of the sentence is itself past. so perfect (or perfective) and imperfect (or imperfective) are marked member is included in that of the unmarked member (ducklings are ducks) but its intension (conceptual definition) includes that of the unmarked member (the definition of duckling contains more content.26 chapter one glossed by. ‘the thing you will have requested’. The verbal nouns can serve as nouns. rather than temporal (anterior vs. a participle may take a plural form (as -sen does in example 26). ‘verbal noun of the completed past tense’ (nom verbal du passé fini) (Beffa and Hayamon 1975: 99. imperfect(ive). but in (28) there is no defined contextual time and all one can say. because the context is present. Bi bas ene gazar šine ir. As a noun.sen I also this place newly come-pfvn ‘I’m a new-comer here too. In such uses the perfect participle refers to action completed at. provides more information. etc. in (27) the same verbal noun is past. contrary to the past tense used in Street’s gloss. In Mongolian.sa. 26. or prior to. anterior to the contextual reference time: it could. 44 Ramstedt (1902: 27). adjectives. Poppe (1951: 81). for example. i.lee go-pfvn-pl come-past ‘those who had gone have come’ (Poppe 1970: 133) 27. činii zaxi. mean ‘the thing you had requested’. or adverbs.e.d ir. however. .’ (Street 1963: 206) xün. öngörön tögssön tsagt üilt ner/önggeren tegüsegsen caγ-tur üiletü ner-e ‘past perfective verbal noun’. cotemporal). yav. Vietze 1974: 58). the contextual time.san yum your request-pfvn thing ‘the thing you asked [me] to buy’ (Street 1963: 207) The distinction between -sen and -ee is nominally aspectual. the preterites (simple past tenses) of other languages. However. is that the event in question is relatively past. perfect(ive) vs.e. that is. nomen perfecti)44 formed with the variants of the ending -sen. These properties play a crucial role in deciding which categories are the marked members of their oppositions.. ii yav. like any other verbal noun. 32. prior action. -sen without a copula differs from -sen with a copula. and it may be negated (34). Hence the names perfective. Či üün. overlaps) the action of the main verb of the sentence. is co-temporal with (that is. 31. in what way(s) it does. and imperfective.san yum uu? you this-acc hear-pfvn copp qp ‘Hast du schon davon gehört?’ (Vietze 1974: 58) ‘Have you heard this?’ .sen.sn. issue that must be considered is whether a form in -sen. the state referred to by the perfective participle leads us to infer. Tseren be ashamed-pfvn-dat-rp cry-past ‘when he was ashamed.j come-impfc baig. With other types of predicates. -sen indicates anteriority (29) and -ee co-temporality (30).iig duul.x uu? person-acc be acquainted with-ifvn qp ‘Do you know that person who is coming?’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 146) The perfective verbal noun. Ta you (plural) ter that ir. with (as in 31) or without a copula (32. that of being ashamed.ee uil.sen üü? you that-gen go-pfvn-acc know-past qp ‘Did you know that he (had) left?’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 143) 30. central. 5. Tseren cried’ (Poppe 1970: 134) 29. sometimes past (33–35). It must also be considered whether.iig med. when employed as the main predicate of the sentence. Thus in (5) the state denoted by the -sen participle. As a main predicate. referring to completed action. and if so. 36). however. 36). and in what way. Či tüün. Tseren iči. can also serve as the main predicate of a sentence. referring to incomplete action. 33). but the verb itself does not refer to.d.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 27 better names for the participles that they form than are terms like past participle and present participle. When used with stative expressions. One. differs from the past tense finite forms in meaning and/or use.aa be-impfvn xün. it may also appear in a question (35. Sometimes the appropriate gloss is present perfect (31.iig tani.san. sen. amongst others.’ (Poppe 1951: 84) ‘.d. which also provides the root of ajee ‘was’) may be added. Za. the -sen form of the obsolete verb a-.sen.san. oh a fine khuushuur eat-ifvn-pfvn ‘How I’d like to eat Khuushuur [sic] again!’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 339) 38 xar xainag bol. to the perfect participle (38). I understand-pfvn-neg ‘I did not understand.son.dag. .’ (Hangin 1968: 32) 34. Bat xezee ir. Bi oilog.san here a yurt be-habvn-pfvn ‘hier pflegte eine Jurte zu stehen’ (Poppe 1951: 84)45 ‘Here there used to be a yurt.’ 45 The transcription in Poppe’s examples (37–39) has been adjusted slightly to fit the transliteration used in the present work. and to the frequentative (habvn) in (39): 37.x. that work-dat-rp go-past ‘He has gone to work. . .son black khainag become-pfvn-pfvn ‘war zu einem schwartzen Yakbastard geworden jedoch . neg saixan xuušuur ide. .j duus.’ 39. .’ (Hangin 1968: 32) 35. end neg ail bai.son.aa yav. Yar’.oos ir.san uu? talk-impfc finish-pfvn qp ‘Have you finished [talking]?’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1995: 78) In keeping with the agglutinative character of the Mongolian language. Bi xot.28 chapter one 32.sen be? Bata when come-pfvn qp ‘When did Bata come?’ (Poppe 1970: 134) 36. 37). Ter ajil. had become a black khainag.güi. a different ending -sen (labeled pfvn here though it is actually a short form of asan.’ (Street 1963: 207) 33. to the non-past participle (ifvn. I city-abl come-past ‘I came from the city. means something like ‘it used to be the case that [a yurt was usually here]’.46 so that (39). If the negation applies to the whole proposition—in which case we say it has wide scope—the meaning is that John has no desire for Sue to leave.” . . but doesn’t necessarily want her to stay.aa. . as in (6b). taking the rest of the proposition within its scope. the suffix can be used to indicate past tense in all Mongolian languages. if the negation has narrow scope.’ 46 By the scope of a semantic category such as negation is meant how much of the proposition (or other unit) the category in question applies to. depending on whether the underlying structure is something like John does want [Sue not to leave]. associated with narrow semantic scope. the imperfective participle used as a predicate is not a marker of past tense. has become a black khainag’. .48 Above. Syntactically. the additional ending acts like a past tense marker. but . conveying (as in 6b) the sense of something begun in the past and continuing at the present time: something which is still the case. where the affix immediately preceding the final perfect noun ending functions aspectually. b. 6. there is no structural scope ambiguity on the surface level. the so-called frequentative verbal noun. Poppe (1951: 81). marks usualness. .47 Wu was quite possibly the first scholar. for example. and the proposition within the scope of san is literally ‘a yurt is usually here’. . to label the form a past tense ending. In addition to the perfect(ive) participle. which is within the scope of the perfective affix meaning ‘it was the case that’.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 29 In these forms. it was commented in regard to the examples in (6) that -ee cannot be considered a past-tense marker in the way that -sen can. 81) of the -γsan ending could equally well be said of -γa: “[This] suffix is normally not identified as a past tense marker in grammars. associated with wide semantic scope. amongst the past tense suffixes found in Mongolic languages Wu (1996) lists the imperfect(ive) participle or verbal noun (nomen imperfecti) formed using -ee. Mongolia greatly develop-impfc be-impfvn ‘Die Mongolei entwickelt sich sehr. depending on the scope of the negation. John doesn’t want Sue to leave is ambiguous. in the West at least.). the meaning is that John positively desires that Sue not leave. thus in (39) -deg. though in a transformational syntactic theory there may be a syntactic scope ambiguity. any element which governs another may be said to have it within its scope. 48 What Wu says (p. .’ (Vietze 1974: 84) ‘Mongolia is being greatly developed. so its labeling by Wu as a past tense marker requires some qualification. 47 Ramstedt (1902: 25ff. If the negation applies to just the object of want. It is consequently often glossed using a present tense. In and of itself. Thus in John doesn’t want Sue to leave.j baig. For example. either: he can be quite indifferent. Similarly the included proposition in (38) is ‘. Mongol uls ix xögji. . but rather a kind of present. or it is John does not want [Sue to leave]. Mongolia greatly develop-impfc be-impfvn ‘Die Mongolei entwickelt sich sehr. the reference is to the contextual time. 45).) 50 I have not found any unnegated examples in questions. Thus in (41). my side-dat sit-impfc go-impfvn youth speak-past ‘The young man who was riding at my side spoke.’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1999: 63) 41. šireen deer baig.iin temdeg .. Minii xajuu. . adjective. 45) the scope of an auxiliary verb or copular particle.j baig.güi. and in this role it commonly occurs negated in either case (6a.’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1995: 128) b.’ 49 Sodnomdorj calls iree here a mistake and comments that he would say irj yavaa. . month come-impfvn-neg ‘I haven’t had my period for . Minii sar.aa. do-impfc be-impfvn person ‘the man (who is) doing .ee. Mongol uls ix xögji. 44) and without (6a. . not (directly) to the present. . whereas in (42) iree refers to present time because the question is (implicitly) in the present tense. My moon-gen mark . (This may reflect a difference in dialects.j baig. In such uses. months. this ending is cotemporal with the context time.. 40. It can also appear in questions (45). . .aa xün . a.30 chapter one Like any other verbal noun. or adverb. .50 6.’ (Street 1963: 207) 42. xii.ee49 xün xen be? the this way come-impfvn person who qp ‘Who is the person who is coming this way?’ (Hangin 1968: 93) 43.j yav. .lee. sar ir. this participle occurs both within (6b.aa tom šar tsag table on be-impfvn big yellow clock ‘the big yellow clock [which is] on the table’ (Street 1963: 207) As the main predicate of a sentence.aa zaluu xel. and in (43) baigaa again has no inherent time reference because there is no temporal context. . the imperfective may serve as a noun. yavaa refers to past time because xellee is past.’ (Vietze 1974: 84) ‘Mongolia is developing greatly. as (40): despite the present-tense gloss. .d suu. . . Ter naaš ir. however. and as the main predicate of subordinate structures. goes’ become yavaxgüi ‘isn’t going. not’ is added. It would seem that the participial predicates of sentences would likewise simply be negated by the addition of -güi.n yav. While this is generally the case with other participles (as in 46).” (Personal communication.” (Tserenchunt’s -gyi = my -güi. This is the general past tense form. June 1. I don’t live here. Tserenchunt and Luethy (2000: 62) say [The form -sen] is made negative by placing the [-eegüi] ending on the main verb. . but are replaced within the scope of negation by participles.. ireegyi) and -sangyi (awsangyi. and both yavna ‘goes. “Some scholars say that the negative -aagyi (awaagyi.dag. as recent works by native speakers point out.ee.güi. . will go’ and yavj baina ‘is going. finite verbs are not negated. üüreg av. cliticized form of the negative postposition ügüi ‘without. 2007).d xün yum xel.güi Me-dat person something speak-caus-impfvn-neg ‘Has anyone left me a message?’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1995: 70) yüü? qp In the modern. Bid . . The expected form [-sengüi] is only used when expressing not doing some thing as planned and is only used for the recent past.üül. to which a reduced. . We .the problem of the mongolian past tenses 31 44.’ (Sanders and Irredui 1995: 52) Tserenchunt writes. it is. colloquial language.aa yum. doesn’t go’. irsengyi) endings have no difference. . the various past tense forms meaning ‘went’ become yavsangüi ‘didn’t go’. Nada.g. not precisely the case where -sen is concerned.51 But it is not true in my opinion. 46. No I here live-habvn-neg ‘No. 51 The phrasebook by Sanders and Ireedui (1995: 28) glosses ‘no (he hasn’t [gone])’ by “yavsangüi or yavaagüi. so that yavsan when negated would be yavsangüi. -less. . responsibility take-impfc work-modc go-impfvn copp ‘We are working along with the responsibility of .’ (Street 1963: 207) 45.č ajilla.) .dag uu? You (plural) here live-habvn qp ‘Do you live here?’ — Ügüi. bi end am’dar. e. — Ta end am’dar. as in (50) below.) I that-acc see-pfvn-neg see-impfvn-neg In predicative use with the negator ügüi (-güi).’ (Kullmann and Tsedenpil 1996: 146) 52 The form -eegüi baina is glossed ‘hasn’t -ed’ in the Sanders/ Bat-Ireedüi phrasebook. 48) iv. 47.ee.) Bi tüün.aa. (p. . . I’m not married. it may. Ter šiid.aa.güi. I’ve just got married.) similarly say that For negation [-sen] should only be used if the action happens against one’s assumption. (gar. . My month-gen mark .güi. months. Minii sar. .güi. . Bid sonin unš. Bi sayaxan gerlesen. and is often glossed as such. . this “imperfect” affix largely acts like a present perfect. (I haven’t seen her. 48) v.güi. . month come-impfvn-neg ‘I haven’t had my period for . (xar. (1988: 99) (v–vii).güi bai.52 48. iii. bi uraglaagüi.’ Cf.san. That decide-impfvn-neg ‘He hasn’t decided (yet).san. He didn’t go out. ’ (p. (iii) clearly means ‘I haven’t gotten married. “-аа” with the negative particle [-güi] is used [-eegüi]. Otherwise . Minii örölög tseverl.’ (Tserenchunt and Luethy 2000: 62) Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 184f. however.32 chapter one And they offer the example (47). 128) Sentence (iii) is glossed there ‘No.aa. 70) ii.) that go out-pfvn-neg go out-impfvn-neg 49.” but given that (iv) is ‘Are you married?’. I’m not [married]’. Ta uraglasan uu? (p. Thus: i. sar ir. Bi gerleegüi. Ügüi.ee. Bid nom unš. We book read-impfvn-neg We news read-past ‘We didn’t read a book.na My room clean-impfvn-neg be-pres ‘My room hasn’t been cleaned. 49].güi.ee.iin temdeg . I didn’t see her. .güi.güi. .’ (p. the entries from Luvsanjav et al.san.) Ter gar. vii.iig xar. Are you married? Ta gerlesen üü? vi. We read the newspaper. which then indicates that the expected thing could still happen [48. (He hasn’t gone out. receive a past tense gloss (51): 50. aa..ee. as here. French elle est sur le point de manger). i.e.54 In this alternative theory. its sense (as in 52. 1988: 48) 33 yum. intermediate.’53 (Hangin 1968: 93) 53. Kikuyu. I this book-acc read-impfvn-neg ‘Ich habe dieses Buch noch nicht gelesen.güi. Instead. are tense systems in which grammatical tenses mark relative distance from the present time and usually include both more than one past tense and more than one future tense.55 and that in -jee a remote past. 53 Poppe (1970: 132) glosses ireegüi ‘has not come’. and distant.ee. sayiqan önggeregsen čaγ. Ter ire. What have sometimes have been called. French elle vient de manger) or immediacy in the future (she’s about to eat.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 51. what is purportedly involved is a kind of metric tense distinction or distinction of degrees of remoteness. The most comprehensive study to date is that of Botne (to appear).g.iig unš. however.aar xel. 53) is basically that of something which has not yet happened. metric tense systems and today are more usually called remoteness systems. In many languages without metric tense systems there are ways of expressing recency in the past (e. but not as having to do with the difference between the time spheres of past and present.güi. in which the distinction of the pasts is seen as temporal. 55 Hangin writes of the immediate past (1968: 99. she just ate. For example.’ (Vietze 1974: 84) ‘I have not yet read this book. 52. that come-past qp come-impfvn-neg ‘Did he come?—Not yet. ‘time not long passed’ (Beffa and Hayamon 54 . literally.’ (Luvsanjav et al. the past in -lee represents a recent or immediate past.güi I such thought-instr say-impfvn-neg ‘I didn’t mean that. in Mongolian sayaxan tögssön tsag. Metric (Degrees of Remoteness) Theories of the -jee and -lee Tenses As regards the pasts in -jee and -lee there exists an alternative to the two-tenses/two-aspects theory. a Bantu language. Bi tiim sanaag. Bi ene nom. ‘up to now has not yet [or ‘still not’] come.’ 2.v üü? — Ir. defined respectively as recent/immediate.4. copp With negation. as Hangin (1968: 93) and Vietze (1974: 84) state. has three past tenses and three futures. 1976: 17) and similarly Beffa and Hayamon of the parfait immédiat ‘immediate past’..’ So Ramstedt (1903: 26) glosses ireegüi ‘ist bis jetzt noch nicht [gekommen]’. aren’t you going?’ (Hangin 1968: 99) As has been pointed out by Hangin (1968: 99) and Wu (1995: 95). the -jee past is a distant or remote past. 1975: 82). . tere nidonon mori. Bold. (1982: 310) as saying that -luγa indicates “the recent past tense.’ Hashimoto (1993) generalizes this into a theory in which three of the four tenses differ principally in their relationship to the present time. amongst others. Wu (1995: 94f.) cites Nasunbayar et al.” Hangin offers the example (54).’ If -lee is a recent past. while the form in -jee is proximal. Oroi bol. 16) a past tense which is distal.34 chapter one Thus Kas’yanenko (1968: 20) writes that “the verbal form in [-lee] properly expresses past time concluded not long ago: garlaa ‘went out’. odoo yava.” Hangin similarly says (1968: 99).un mal neliyed ös. and takes as its scope the past up to the present moment.) cites the examples in (56) in criticizing this view.čei Bold-gen livestock quite increase-past ‘Bold’s livestock increased quite a lot. -lee can also be interpreted as a near or immediate future. now go-ifvn-neg qp ‘It’s getting late.” . as meaning ‘The signal for the army to leave is about to be given. depending on the context. .loo. which was presented by Nasunbayar et al. . 54. Wu (1995: 86f. “The immediate past denotes an action just completed.’ b.la army leave-ifvn signal release-past ‘The signal for the army to leave was given.x. The verb form with the -v ending represents (p. a.qu dokiya talbi. that last year horse-rp lose-past ‘He lost his horse last year.ban gege. čirig mordo. 1984: 310) Wu also interprets. The gloss ‘it’s gotten late’ would have been more appropriate to his comment that this form represents recently completed action.güi yüü? late become-past. Thus example (55) (from Nasunbayar et al.ǰei. cut off altogether from the present. (1984: 308): 56.’ 55. jee. main line build-impfc finish-past ‘They have just finished building a main sewer line 3 km.tai I just that-com ‘I just met him.. Street (1963) views the -jee form as a kind of present perfect. Baga Baga toirg. bi sayiqan tegün.. 122f. indicative of recent past time. or emphasizes the present result of a past action or of a state that existed in the past (and may continue into the future).. pointing out that. 57. A variety of English translations are required. to indicate a recent event. while the remoteness evident in (56b) is due to the adverb ‘last year’.j duus.ii water-gen töv šugam barigda.ǰai..’ aγulǰi. meet-past Indeed. long along the Baga Toirog.) that it “either has the meaning of a recent past.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 35 Present Past Future -v -jee/-čee -laa Diagram 1 the form in -lee adds to this the near future. (56a) says nothing of how distant the event is in the past. Diagram 1 above is after Hashimoto’s diagram (21). 87) that -jee can be used with an adverb of recent time.” He offers the examples (58–60): 58. out of context. 3 km 3 km boxir drain usn.’ . writing (p.oor Toirog-instr . Wu further observes (p. perhaps anticipating an analysis such as Hashimoto’s. Wu is critical of at least the traditional type of metric analysis. as in (57). . wealthy farm become-modc grow-past ‘.’ (Street 1963: 122) But examples such as (16. now ten xoyor two myanga thousand šaxam nearly mal. . “King Lear” “Gamlet” (1601).eer ir.” (Street 1963: 122: Street explains.degen this book-acc small-gen period-dat/rp ‘I read this book during my childhood. pace Street and Hashimoto.”) 60. .la read-past 56 No pagination is given here for quotations from Ujeyediin (1998). “Hamlet” “Makbet” (1606) “Macbeth” “Otello” (1604). 62.’ ongsi. . . this use is not unique nor the sole feature of the suffix. “Macbeth” (1606). Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 year-dat be born-past ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in 1906.üüd play-pl n’ the gar. which derive from a draft computer file.j üze.jee. “Othello” (1604). the suffix does refer to the recent past because the speaker is talking about what he has done just before the present moment of speech.ibi baγa. However. Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 on. “Othello” zereg sort jüjg.n xög.tai cattle-com bayan aj axui bolo. . the speaker uses the [-lee] suffix to express this sense.iig toir. . . 16. For instance. odoo arvan .d this period-dat “Lir Van” (1605). 61) show that -jee cannot. (simply) constitute a recent past. ene nom.jee.un üye. in [the examples in (62)]. if the speaker remembers them clearly” (Svantesson 1991: 193). . “King Lear” (1605). “the person has just arrived at the airport.’ Ujeyediin (1998)56 is critical also of the view that -luγa represents a recent past: In [certain] examples .x.čee. a.36 chapter one 59. Mongol country-acc tour-impfc see-ifvn-instr come-past ‘He has come to visit around Mongolia. but it is one of many uses the suffix expresses as pointed out by Chenggeltei (1981: 298) and there are cases in which “it can be used for situations that occurred a long time ago.000 cattle. has now grown into a wealthy farm with nearly 12. .d tör. Mongol orn. etc. . Ene üe.’ (Yatskovskaya 1976: 8) 61.. (Sodov 1967: 62) come out-past ‘In this period were produced the plays “Hamlet” (1601).jee. though this necessarily raises the interesting question of what distinctions in meaning or use.. Dementsprechend wird dieser Typ auch der Kernpunkt der vorliegenden Untersuchung sein zur Feststellung der funktionalen Eigenschaften der einzelnen Einheiten. Discourse Functions Clearly a “semantic” theory. A number of authors have made suggestions that characterize the various past tense endings. an “actual” present (p. and expressive of the .und 57 Bläsing (1984: 48. cannot provide an adequate solution to the puzzle of the Mongolian past tenses. 80) characterizes -jana as a present tense. 74) in opposition to the “general” present in -na.the problem of the mongolian past tenses b. Die meisten Romane und Kurzgeschichten sind -в-basiert. was eine sehr fein nuancierte Darstellungsweise gewährleistet und optimale Bedingungen für eine kontrastive Betrachtung bietet. Bläsing (1984: 47) distinguishes narration in the -v (his “-в” [-v]) past and that in -jee (his “-ж” [-j] past). including even Ramstedt himself. underlie these discourse-functional differences.un this article-acc ten year-gen ‘(I) wrote this article ten years ago. But there have been clues in the works of a number of scholars. since none of the past tense markers in Mongolian distinguish recent or remote past without the help of a certain context.i arban jil. während die relative Anteriorität durch die -ла-Form ausgedrückt wird.’ emüne before 37 biči. saying: Die -в-basierte Erzählung ist wohl der häufigste und am stärksten differenzierte Diskurstyp. in terms of their functions in discourse. 51. and distinguish them from one another. if any. For example.1. 71f. tos ügülel. To distinguish these past tense morphemes by the degree of the remoteness is a problematic solution. Soweit -сн. he concludes that degree of remoteness is derived from context and that the past tense marker does not by itself distinguish it. based on differentiating the various past tense endings by their temporal and/or aspectual meaning. Die Diskursebene wird neben der Basiseinheit -в durch die Segmente -жана.57 -на und auch zuweilen durch -дг vertreten.le write-past Accordingly. 3. Toward A Pragmatic Theory 3. that the correct solution involves essentially what is termed here a “pragmatic” theory. in ihm treten mehr oder weniger alle Inventareinheiten auf. 38 chapter one -ж-Einheiten vorkommen. Accordingly. in narrative time. more or less all inventory units appear in it. nacherzählenden Charakter verleiht. .) Die -ж-basierte Erzählung ist weniger gebräuchlich als -в-basierte Erzählungen. . Apart from the basic unit –v. . She offers (1991: 55f. As far as -sn. -na and also at times by -dg. später können die Märchen dann in einem anderen Diskurstyp (meist dem -в-basierten) weitererzählt werden. . while relative anteriority is expressed by the -la form. that is. (The -j-based story is less frequently used than the -v-based story. of the narrative proper. the discourse level is represented by the segments -jana.) We have seen above that Dugarova. She notes that -lee marks a superficial regress. as clauses headed by these forms form part of the background to the narrative and not part of the foreground.h. which ensures a very finely nuanced method of representation and offers optimal conditions for a contrastive view. . Dieser Diskurstyp tritt in erster Linie in Märchen. reproductive character. und scheint auch hier hauptsächlich auf die einleitenden Sätze und Passagen beschränkt zu sein. later the story can be continued in a different discourse type (mainly the -v-based one). Most novels and short-stories are -v-based. it roughly translates the present progressive. Through that comes a more stylistic nuance to the expression. and -jee a more profound one. this type will also be the quintessential point of the present investigation for the establishment of the functional properties of the individual units. . too. in der mündlichen Literatur auf .) an instructive example (63): “durative Aktionsart” (p. This type of discourse occurs in the first place in oral literature (folk tales) and appears also here to be confined mainly to the introductory sentences and passages. signalisieren sie eine postterminale Betrachtungsweise. Dadurch kommt eine mehr stilistische Nuancierung zum Ausdruck. which bestows to what is described first of all an emphatically fictive. die dem Geschilderten zunächst einen betont fiktiven. . they signal a post-terminal viewpoint. tsasn orjana ‘снег идёт. as in the example (i): i. . d. (The story based on -v is certainly the most frequent and most strongly differentiated type of discourse. relates temporal relations to discourse functions.and -j-units occur. As such. 68). . es schneit’ (‘it is snowing’). “is adjusting”] a tie of celestial color on the white shirt of Bardach.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 63.g hung blue sky tie-acc tsamts shirt tegšle. ‘поправила’) галстук небесного цвета на белой фанзовой рубашке Бадарча.j. “have been sitting”] beside the window and look [literally.iin dress-gen xurts bright önge. ‘смотря’) друг на друга. Neelttei Open baig.üül.ne.iin Badarch-gen Dulmaa Dulmaa xoër two ööd öödöösöö end-on tsagaan pansan white jaconet zuusen [sic]58 xex [sic]59 tenger zangia.iin nüür go-impfvn Badarch-gen face deer on tusa.iin autumn-gen 39 xongor pleasant tsaivar yagaan xošgii n’ whitish pink curtain the dervelz. on the unusually lively face of Bardach. adjust-past Tege. flutter-caus-pres Tsonxn.jee. “have been looking”] at each other. “is blowing”] in the open window and rustles white-pink curtains.ii window-gen suu. there appears a reflection of the bright red silk dress of Dulma and makes him even happier and more attractive’.laa.iin Dulmaa-gen torgon silk tuyaa glow deel. sit-past deer on derged beside Dulmaa Dulmaa Badarč. Should read xöx.101) ‘The gentle autumn wind blows [literally.eer window-instr sevelee.no.xe. ‘вея’) ласковый осенний ветерок и колышет беловато—розовые занавески. Затем на необычно оживленном лице Бадарча отражается 59 . gently blow-impfc namr.aa Badarč.iig that-acc ulam still more bögööd and č modp bayasaltai happy üzemtei attractive bolgo.tei colour-com ulaan red yer general busiin extraordinary xögjöötöi enlivened jav.aa be-impfvn salxi wind gegeevč. Badarch and Dulma sit [literally. make-pres (Tsog 1976 3.60 58 Should read züüsen.d Do thus-ifvn-dat Dulmaag. Дулма поправляет (букв. Около окна сидят (букв.x n’ reflect-ifvn the tüün. 60 The gloss is actually a translation by Michael Schonberg and Anatoly Oleksiyenko of Dugarova’s Russian gloss of the passage: В открытое окно веет (букв.n smooth-modc zas. Badarch Badarč. Dulma adjusts [literally. ‘сидели’) Бадарч и Дулма и смотрят (букв. Then. 40 chapter one About (63) she comments (p. 56): В приведенном фрагменте форма -жээ обозначает ситуацию до описываемых событий: мы застаем героев повествования уже сидящими рядом у окна, причем ситуация, обозначенная глаголом суужээ ‘сидели’, мыслится как имевшая место задолго до описываемых глаголами дэрвэлзүүлнэ ‘колышет’ и болгоно ‘делает’ ситуаций. Глагол в форме -лаа (заслаа ‘поправила’) относит обозначенную ситуацию также назад относительно ситуаций, обозначенных глаголами в презенсе, но представляет ее как имеюшую место непосредственно перед тем, как имеют место ситуации, называемые презентными формами. (In the preceding fragment the form [-jee] designates a situation before the described events: we find the heroes of the narration already sitting together at the window, [before?] the situation, designated by the verb suujee ‘they sat’, it is conceived of as taking place long before the situations described by the verbs dervelzüülne ‘flutters, flaps’ [transitive] and bolgono ‘does’. A verb with the form [-lee] (zaslaa ‘straightened’) conveys the designated situation also back relative to the situations, designated by verbs in the present, but represents it as taking place immediately before that, as they take the place of situations named by present forms.) The question, then, is what kind of functions differentiate the past tense endings, and how these functions relate to the meaning or meanings borne by the endings. 3.2. The Evidential If a number of authors observe distinctions of discourse functionality in the sundry past tenses, even more have commented upon different modal uses of the past tense forms. Even in Ramstedt (1902: 21) there are hints of a modal account of the “tenses,” though it is not clear just what Ramstedt meant by modi ‘modes’. As I noted in the preface, in the early 1990s, searching for simple labels for the past tense endings, I chose, based on such observations of modal uses, to call -lee the “evidential.” Although I had already отсвет ярко-красного дели Дулмы и делает его еще более радостным и привлекательным. Dugarova’s parenthetical observations are intended to convey the precise meanings of the various verb forms, as opposed to their translations in context. By using the present tense for the translations, Dugarova indicates that the passage is descriptive, not essentially narrative. Nonetheless the verb forms used are, with the exceptions of dervelzüülne ‘rustles’ and bolgono ‘makes’, not present tense forms. the problem of the mongolian past tenses 41 suggested an implicitly evidential characterization of this form (and a similar treatment of -jee as inferential) in Binnick (1979), as of 1994 I still had little evidence to support such a labeling. Meanwhile, the thinking of a few other writers was heading in the same direction. Although Street did not connect the tenses with modal functions, he did (1963: 129) use the term inferential, albeit in regard to the particle biz, offering the example (64): 64. Ter ir.sen biz. that come-past inferp61 ‘He must have come.’ In 1997 Song proposed a modal treatment and in 2002 further investigated comparisons with the system found in Korean. As has been noted above, Tserenchunt and Luethy (2000) contrasted the endings -jee and -lee essentially in modal terms, though without using the terms “evidential” and “inferential.” Nelson et al. (1998: 115, 118) did explicitly label -lee evidential (though treating -jee as unmarked for evidentiality, rather than as inferential, a term they do not use.) These terms, “evidential” and “inferential,” are familiar to Altaicists from the grammars of languages of the Turkic family ( Johanson and Utas 2000; Johanson 2003; Johanson 2006), for example Turkish, in which there are two different past tenses, obligatorily marking a distinction between evidentiality (65a) and inferentiality (65b).62 (The 61 The detailed gloss is my modification of Street’s. The Wikipedia article on evidentiality says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Evidentiality) that [Iranian, Finno-Ugric, and Turkic languages] indicate whether evidence exists for a given source of information—thus, they contrast direct information (reported directly) and indirect information (reported indirectly, focusing on its reception by the speaker/recipient). Unlike the other evidential “type II” systems, indirectivity marking does not indicate information about the source of knowledge: it is irrelevant whether the information results from hearsay, inference, or perception (however, some Turkic languages distinguish between reported indirect and nonreported indirect . . .). What is called “direct” here is what is usually termed the “evidential,” and “indirect,” the “inferential.” As in Turkic, the Mongolian inferential does not distinguish the types of sources, and thus includes all three sources noted above—hearsay (e.g., example i), perception (either recall, as in ii, or a fresh discovery, as in example iii below), and inference. In this last regard, Schlepp (1983: 38) says that -jee, what he calls the “distant past,” “signifies action in the past, often in the mood that it is a fitting or logical consequence, sometimes contrary to expectation,” as in his example (iv). 62 42 chapter one examples in (65) are from http://www.cromwell-intl.com/turkish/ verbs.html.) 65. a. Derviş.ler.i gör.dü.m. Dervish-pl-acc see-evidential past-first person singular ‘I saw dervishes.’ b. Derviş.ler.i gör.müş.üm. Dervish-pl-acc see-inferential past-first person singular ‘I saw dervishes (so they say).’ Traditionally, however, the grammars of the languages of the Mongolian family have not been viewed as incorporating a similar modal system, despite the presence of evidential/inferential markers in the Turkic languages, the Tungusic languages, and both Japanese and Korean.63 Nonetheless, even before the 1990s there had been indications in the writings of various grammarians that -lee might be some sort of evidential marker, and -jee equally some kind of inferential marker, for example the statement by Ramstedt (translated in the passage just before example 17 above) that -lee indicates the “firmness of the statement,” or that its use may arise from the “external situation” or a “logical consequence” of what has already been said.64 Ramstedt offers the examples (17, 66–68). 17. Üxe.lee. die-past “‘(er) stirbt schon’, od. ‘ist ja schon gestorben’” (i.e., “‘he is already dying’ or ‘you know, he’s already dead’”) i. Ter yav.čix.jee. That leave-čix-past ‘He has left already.’ (as I found out) ii. bi saqilaγa ügei keüked bayi-ǰai I discipline without child be-past ‘I used to be an undisciplined child.’ (“the speaker recalling something”) iii. Bill üxčixjee! ‘Bill’s dead!’ (Stivenson 1975: 28; chapter 5 of Treasure Island; described as immediately following “a cry of surprise”) iv. qarin čimadur ǰedkür oru.ǰuqui but you-dat devil enter-past ‘On the contrary, the devil has entered thee.’ 63 On Japanese, see, e.g., Itani (1994), Mushin (2001, 2001a), Tenny (2006), McCready and Ogata (2007); on Korean, Song (2002), Kim (2005), Chung (2006, 2007, 2007a). On Manchu-Tungusic, see Nedjalkov (1997), Malchukov (2000). 64 These suggestions of Ramstedt’s were apparently not pursued by later scholars, however. the problem of the mongolian past tenses 43 66. bol.loo become-past ‘has become’ or ‘enough!’ (‘es ist schon geworden’ od. ‘genug!’) 67. noya.d ir.lee prince-pl come-past ‘the princes have come’ (‘die fürsten sind schon gekommen’) 68. bid odoo xool idlee we now food eat-past ‘we have now eaten’ (‘wir haben jetzt gegessen’)65 Poppe (1970: 130) similarly says that the form “expresses an action which has taken place, and which has either been witnessed or is commonly known, and is therefore regarded as an indisputable fact.”66 This form may be used of present and future as well as of past events, as Ramstedt (p. 17) notes (as we have seen); in this case, too, the action in question is certain (Poppe 1951: 80). Poppe offers the example (69): 69. bi yav.laa I go-past ‘I’m going’67 Street (1963: 121) comments that the example below (70) might be said “as when one looks out a window and sees the person entering the building.” 70. ter ir.lee that come-past ‘he’s coming’ Hangin (1976: 17) notes that -lee “implies first hand knowledge on the part of the speaker. . . . It is possible for a narrator of a tale to throw in this form of the past to enliven his tale as if he himself were involved in the action.” 65 Sodnomdorj comments that this is incorrect; odoo ‘now’ renders the example future, not present perfect or past, and for the indicated sense, the modifier should instead be saya ‘just now’. 66 Cf. Street (1963: 121). 67 ‘Ich gehe’; Vieze (1974: 45) translates this example ‘ich gehe jetzt’, i.e., ‘I’m going now.’ 44 chapter one Chuluu (Ujeyediin 1998) similarly observes that Street (1963: 121) concurs that [-lee] is used mainly “when the speaker or writer has first-hand knowledge of an event or state described, or when he is otherwise willing to vouch for the accuracy of a statement.” This is revised in Binnick (1979: 5-6) to state that the suffix is used, “if the event is something the speaker is vouching for, or is information which is well-known and stated not to convey new information but for another purpose.” Recently, it is called “evidential past” (Binnick 1990: 53) and “indirect past” and defined as showing that the speaker has witnessed the situation himself (Svantesson 1991: 193). Schlepp (1983: 37) refers to the -lee past as the “past assertive,” since it “asserts matters of speaker’s experience or expresses contention, admiration or matter of fact: also signals coming into being of (a) new state or situation,” as in the examples (71–73): 71. (matter of fact) erte nigen čaγ-tur early one time-dat ‘once upon a time there was a master’ 72. ene edür neliyed qola this day rather far ‘we’ve gone rather far today’ 73. (change of state) nigen a bagsi master bü.lüge be-past yabu.luγ-a go-past ire.lüge! come-past ‘(he, she, it, etc.) is coming!’ As already noted here, the treatments of -lee and -jee in the textbook by Tserenchunt and Luethy and in the grammar of Kullmann and Tserenpil are especially suggestive in this regard. The former book (2005: 108) calls the -lee ending “the Known Past Tense” and notes that it is “mostly used to express something that happened in the recent past that the speaker observed,” as in (74).68 And as in this example, recency is often reinforced through use of the adverb saya, or of sayaxan ‘recently’. 74. Bat döngöj saya Bata barely just now ‘Bat[a] came just now.’ ir.lee. come-past 68 Kullmann and Tsedenpil (1996: 187f.) say similarly that “[t]his suffix expresses an action that one witnessed and that happened in the recent past.” bi marta. 122). Although in the more literary language this form may be negated with one of the negators ül (vertical-script ülü) or es (ese). i. in the colloquial language negation is expressed by the combination of a participle with -güi.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 145) The ending -lee is likewise uncommon in questions. as not consisting.sen. the former citing the form -sengüi (75a).plus the ending -lee. bus come-pfvn-neg ‘The bus didn’t come. synchronically. that go out-impfvn-neg be-pres ‘He hasn’t gone out.j bai. a. one would expect to find. however. Tserenchunt and Luethy. Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 82) point out that -lee is used only in the affirmative.’ (Tserenchunt and Luethy 2005: 108) b. the regular -lee form of bai.69 75.e. Here. was’. regarding bilee in examples like those in (76).the problem of the mongolian past tenses 45 Consequently.’ It contrasts with bailaa ‘is.‘be’.na. is possibly an example of what they have in mind here. This particle is commonly treated by others as a monomorphemic copula. of bi. some peculiar restrictions on its use. the example (75b). as indeed one does. It is not clear whether bilee is a unique formation that should be distinguished from examples in -lee.” . in discussing -lee. Jamts? who was I forget-impfc be-pres ‘Jamts? Who is it: I forget. Avtobus ir. In different contexts.güi. “When occurring in questions (as it does only rarely). For example.’ 69 Although Kullmann and Tserenpil don’t offer an example with -eegüi. the -lee form may tentatively (and approximately) be identified with the evidential past tense of Turkish. and involve the word bilee ‘was. Ter gar. is’:70 76.aa. Jamts? Xen bilee. The only interrogative examples cited by Street (1963: 122) are like those in (76). this particle implies personal involvement of the questioned in the matter being discussed. but the latter citing -eegüi (75b).na. taken from their discussion of -ee. Yuu bilee? what was ‘What was it? (the person wracks his brain trying to remember something)’71 b. a.güi bai. 70 Street. If the -lee form is some kind of evidential marker. 71 Street comments (p. and Kullmann and Tserenpil do not agree. offers numerous examples containing bilee (verticalscript bülüge). it is translated ‘is’ or ‘was. v uu? bread buy-past qp ‘Did you just buy bread?’ 78. and secondly to inquire into the meaning and use of the other past tense affix. Či ter sonin medee. In example (81) below. 2002: 149). although one usually witnessed the action.” and offer example (79). 77. say that “[i]nterrogation is only possible with the shortened form [-l] in colloquial language to express that one can’t remember. 3. regarding the interrogative.j üü? forget-čix-past say-impfc qp ‘You mean you don’t remember?’ (Street 1963: 121) If -lee is an evidential. the question particle üü/uu being retained (77).” for example by Song (1997: 193–204. an inferential counterpart.” the -v form is used. The former say (2005: 108) that “in questions about recent actions.46 chapter one Once again.3.v? You (plural) where-abl come-past ‘Where did you just come from?’ 79. -v. but also note that usually interrogation is with -sen. and “colorless” (Street 1963: 122). The Modality of -v The form -v has been called modally “neutral. Ta xaan. Či ter sonin medeeg sonsson uu? As one would expect of an evidential. too. -v and -jee.g sonso. it would seem likely that there is in Khalkha Mongolian and other Mongolic languages. mart. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 187).laa ge. however. In light of this presumption. first to inquire whether -jee does indeed constitute an inferential counterpart of -lee. Tserenchunt and Luethy do not quite agree with Kullmann and Tserenpil. it occurs within the scope of the quotative auxiliary verb geand hence is really a kind of quoted first person: 81. Talx ava.aas ire. it is rare with a second person subject. though be/ve is dropped (78). the next two sections take a look at the modality of the other two finite past tense endings. as in (80). though very common with the first. not with- . as in Turkish.čix.v you that interesting news-acc hear-past ‘Have you heard the interesting news?’ uu? qp 80. ” as in (83).d ter come-ifvn-dat that garga.j enter-impfc biye body n’ his yangina.sön bai.sn. he said that “alternating [-v] and [-lee] forms avoids repetition” and hence is stylistically preferable.72 72 Ramstedt’s transcription has been slightly modified.n ache-modc ire. be tired-impfc Namaig me-acc or. an emphatic form of the past tense of xii.’ (http://www. 20): “Like the preterite in many other languages. as Ramstedt notes (p. .4945.00.aas zürx.538–1–2874–12.aas bas put out-pfvn-abl also xet excessive ix great xet excessive sanaa thought tav’. he was experiencing heart pain from overexertion and stressful anxiety.538–1–2874–1.x. xīwǟ = xiivee.sn. like -lee.org/library/display/0. however.ee come-ifvn-dat-rp övd. Sodnomdorj has also commented that the difference between baiv and bailaa is “just stylistic.d. Tereer he ger.00.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 47 out reason.n övdö.” That is. When I arrived.t.” adding that in a certain text “baiv could have been [the] same” as bailaa. than Sodnomdorj’s comments alone suggest.lds. is whether -v is evidential or modally neutral. put-pfvn-abl heart-instr his feel pain-modc fall ill-impfc be-past (www.v. And regarding texts such as that in (82).org/library/display/0. and more interesting.html) ‘He returned to the house exhausted and in pain. The question.” while the “[-jee ending] cannot be replaced” by it.lds.xe. But then it is paradoxical to discover that -v “can replace only the [-lee] ending.eer n’ xatguula.č.‘do. make’.) 82. It is a question explored below (and which turns out to be considerable more complicated. the reason being that “for sure” “the written [-v] ending is used when the speaker observed the action. fall ill-pfvn be-past ix great xüč effort erge.laa.j return-impfc yadar.j bai.ee house-dat-rp ire. then. this preterite is also used in Khalkha in order to indicate a hypothetical fact [supponiertes faktum]. -v has a modal dimension.html) Even apart from evidentiality. -v would appear to be evidential.4945. ba aa! class-abl-rp be late-past emphp ‘Be careful. However.’ [Roughly.” He further notes (Ujeyediin 1998) that this “use of the suffix is only associated with the second person subject and it cannot be used with the first and third persons.qu siqa.” However. eŋgәs This way xīwǟ do-past u gor-ug ̜ ē. kičiyel. non-past-time uses of the -v past tense are in line with ones examined by James (1982) in a wide range of languages. he says. nara unu. the non-past -ne cannot in fact be substituted for -v..’ (‘if I do it this way. He offers the following examples (84–85): 84. ‘the sun setting is close. hypothetical states or conjectures about the results of certain actions that are felt by the speaker to occur in the future are usually marked with [-v].ba aa! you (plural) horse-abl-rp fall-past emphp ‘Be careful. unlike the hypothetical-future examples.ben qočor.48 chapter one 83. without working ‘mache ich es so.). Wu (1995: 102) points out a rarely-commented-upon future hypothetical use of the -v ending.ban qayaγda. mache ich es wieder anders. so geht das auch nicht. it doesn’t work. e. calling them “a form of warning. without working t’eŋgәs xīwǟ. and if I do it that way. you’ll be late for class!’ He draws (p. saying that the suffix: can also be used to indicate that something may happen at some time in the future. it also does not work. ta mori.) remarks on similar usages in Buriat and Kalmuck.ba sun fall-ifvn be close-past ‘The sun will set very soon. 103) also offers some examples (86–87) in which -v has future value without a hypothetical reading.ača. and points out that Poppe (1955: 266f. Here. you might fall down from the horse.’) Such modal.eče. He attributes such future meaning to the semantics of the auxiliary verb in each case.g.’ 85. that way do-past bas also u gor-ug ̜ ē. 86. 110) similar Dagur examples from Engkebatu (1985: 35) and Yellow Uygur ones from Bulchuluu (1988: 37f.’—rb] . Wu (p. so geht es nicht. ta sayin saγu-ba uu? you (plural) good stay-past qp ‘Are you keeping well?’ b.kü oyirta-ba that arrive-impfc come-ifvn be close-past ‘He will arrive soon. .’73 [‘His arrival is close. the speaker is concerned with whether or not you have finished reading the book that you are supposed . by implication.čü ire. ta amur ire-be üü? you (plural) peaceful come-past qp ‘Did you have a good trip?’ 89. a. Thus in (90a) below. . didn’t you?’. Thus in the -v sentences in (88). questions why you haven’t. to have finished reading . and. a. ta sayin sagu-γsan uu? b. the resulting sentences lack the meanings implied by the [-v] suffix as in [88]. .the problem of the mongolian past tenses 49 87.iyan ungsi. ta nom. with -v and -sen respectively. . or at least supposes. .’—rb] He comments upon different attitudes and intentions on the part of the speaker associated with the -v and -sen pasts. Therefore the proper translation should be something like ‘You finished reading the book. a. tere kür. saying (1995: 101) that a sentence like those in (90) is used when the speaker is mainly concerned with whether or not the event is accomplished and with indicating that he knows. that the event should have been done.ba you (plural) book-rp read-past ‘Did you read your book?’ uu? qp 73 Wu offers the literal glosses ‘the sun was close to setting or the sun is setting’ and ‘he was close to arriving’. . “the speaker [is] trying to be polite or wishing someone well. Although one can replace [-v] with [-sen] as in [89].” 88. ta sayin unta-ba uu? you (plural) good sleep-past qp ‘Did you sleep well?’ c. . ta sayin unta-γsan uu? c. ta amur ire-gsen üü? He then offers examples (90–91). . 90. be come-past üü? qp qari.4.iyan you (plural) yourself-instr ‘Did you come by yourself ?’ c.γsan uu? b.50 chapter one b.γsan uu? [‘Did you read your book(s)?’] [‘Did you come alone?’] [‘Did you return home?’] Before looking further at -v.” 92. but rather on the acquisition.ba return-past uu qp Examples like those in (91) lack such an implicit meaning and are simply normal interrogatives.tegen you (plural) home-dat rp ‘Did you go back home?’ ire. . expresses an action which took place in the past and of which the speaker has now become aware. “as I found out. ta nom. 3.” He comments on the example (92). ta γaγčaγar.jee. There clearly is far more to the “colourless” -v than most grammars have indicated. and the differences between them.čix.74 91.gsen üü? c. a. and the stress is not on the inferentiality. it would be natural to expect the -jee past to be something similar to the Turkish inferential. The Inferential If the -lee past is evidential. not necessarily directly through observation. ta ger-tegen qari. . But the meanings attributed to it can only be called “inferential” to the extent that they represent knowledge acquired in various ways. Tserenchunt and Luethy (2005: 92) note that “the [-jee] ending can be used by anyone who is just now recognizing something that 74 Questions formed with -v and -sen. are discussed in chapter II.iyan ire. let us turn to -jee and the issue of whether it forms the inferential counterpart of -lee. “The past tense [in -jee] . ta ger. Thus Hangin says (1968: 114). ta γaγčaγar. That left-čix-past ‘He has left already. Ter yav.’ Similarly. Scholars emphasize the coming into awareness.iyan ungsi. . the short form of -jee. as in (81.laa ge.‘say. mart. and that “This kind of question is used when one is sure that the person being asked can know the answer. 93–94). think’.j üü? Forget-čix-past say-past qp ‘you mean you don’t remember?’ (Street 1963: 121) 93. Ir. Hangin states (1976: 17) that “[The -jee form] usually indicates that an action which took place in the past was not necessarily witnessed by the narrator. it is inferential. when it has this meaning. bi čamaig xülee. it would explain why the first and second person are uncommon—speakers are relatively unlikely to be surprised by anything concerning themselves or their interlocutors.j üü? I you-acc wait-pres say-past qp ‘Do you mean I am going to wait for you?’ (cf.” Tserenchunt and Leuthy (2005: 92) offer a similar example.” That is. Street 1963: 124. Poppe 1970: 131).the problem of the mongolian past tenses 51 happened in the past. similarly.” They gloss their example Bat yavčixjee ‘Oh.” Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 185) similarly say that “[it’s] always used for actions that one hasn’t observed. nearly all the examples cited in the literature involve the complement-marking verb ge. intend.j üü? Come-pres say-past qp ‘Sagte er. The ending -jee is indeed rarely used in the second person. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 185) present example (95). even there.ne ge. though they flatly state that such questions in -j. to express an event which the speaker has just realized.” Tserenchunt and Luethy call it the “unknown past tense. and Wu (1995: 93) the example (96). “a past action that the speaker did not observe. are only possible in the colloquial language and in the third person. However.čix. and observe that this affix is often used with -čix. In line with the concept of “coming into awareness. too: ter xödöö yavj uu? ‘Did he go to the countryside?’.ne ge.” by which they mean. . except in questions. daß er kommt?’ (Poppe 1951: 80) ‘Did he say that he is coming?’ 94. Bat[a] has left’. and hence are really a kind of quoted first person: 81. however.” If this “coming into awareness” is indeed the core “meaning” of this suffix. Bi nom. particularly with the verbs martax ‘forget’ (99) and untax ‘fall/be asleep’.j(ee). I book-rp forget-čix-past ‘I forgot my book.ǰi you (plural) yesterday come-past ‘Did you come yesterday?’75 üü? qp The -jee past occurs more rarely in the first person than in the second (97–98): 97.c. 96) “practically impossible. we book read-past ‘We read a book.čix.j orxi. however.č uu? today-gen newspaper go out-past qp ‘Was today’s newspaper released?’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 186) 96. ta öčögedür ire. while a Google search for irj üü found 169 examples. 2008) that “this example is practically impossible. 98.52 chapter one 95.ǰai.’76 75 Tserenchunt comments (p. a search for öčigdör irj üü found none. bi öčögedür ire.” This may reflect a dialect difference. On the other hand. bi anduur. . October.” Again. bid nom ungsi. yag marta. Tserenchunt and Luethy (2005: 92) say that in the first person -jee is used for unplanned actions. ex.ǰei. I yesterday come-past ‘I came yesterday. Önöödr. too (cf. 76 Tserenchunt declares this sentence.iin sonin gar.. 99. this may reflect a difference between dialects.čee I be mistaken-past ‘I was mistaken’ (Hangin 1968: 14).’ Wu (1995: 93). offers declarative examples in the first person that do not involve these verbs (100–101): 100.oo mart.’ 101.jee just forget-impfc do completely-past ‘I just completely forgot’ (Street 1963: 123). ” but that in Galsang’s interpretation. 93-4) that this restriction is not distinctive to -jee. baγa bayi.jai be-past 104. in certain declarative sentences.qu.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 53 As regards the restrictions on the second person in declarative sentences. Wu argues (pp. “the event time expressed in the sentences is certainly quite distant from the time of speech act. not on the past situation. Galsang (1981: 13) views -jee as involving “the speaker recalling something or someone. while in others (4) any of them may be: {} ba la jai you (pl) book read-past ‘you read a book’ (Wu 1995: 94) 4.” Reported by Chuluu (Ujeyediin 1998).dü small be-ifvn-rp I music-dat ‘I really liked music when I was a child.” He posits partial correctness for the hypothesis that -jee has “the meaning of suddenly acquired knowledge of a past or unexpected past 77 78 The asterisk indicates an unacceptable. as the adult is recalling something in their childhood.’ bayi. bi saqilaγa ügei keüked I discipline without child ‘I used to be an undisciplined child. none of the past tenses may be used (102).daγan bi kögčim.”78 Examples include these (103–104): 103.’ yeke very duratai like bayi. *ta77 nom ungsi- öčögedür you (pl) yesterday ‘you came yesterday’ ire- { } be le come-past Accounting for some first-person examples essentially in terms of coming-into-consciousness. “sentence. ta 102. Here -jee is preferred: “other past tense markers seem not to make any difference in terms of the remoteness or of someone’s recalling a past event.ǰai be-past Ujeyediin (1998) comments that in these examples. ungrammatical. the emphasis is on the speaker’s recall. . ’ b. As regards -lee. it is this which has led scholars to see the ending as expressive of “a sudden occurrence or unexpected action. in [b] the speaker has just found out who took the book.ged bi tabu alda. and in [c] Dorj’s coming is news to the speaker). Chuluu’s Critique Wu (1995: 96) is critical of modal characterizations of the endings -lee and -jee.lee that come-past ‘he’s coming’ (as when one looks out a window and sees the person entering the building”).” which he sees as “ not the only function that it has but a part of its various functions. He prefers. He cites examples such as those in (106). nom abu. in which “[t]he verbs in the [-lee] form are in an indirect quotation.” By Galsang’s account.γsan kümün Dorji bayi.” 69.” noting that the ending “expresses an action which took place in the past and of which the speaker has now become aware” (citing Hangin 1968: 114) or “an event which the speaker has just realized” (Binnick 1990: 52). the speaker has only now discovered that he made mistakes. to characterize it as denoting.54 chapter one event.5. where they refer to the event stated not as the speaker’s first-hand knowledge but as acquired either . or how many he made. a.’ 3.’ c. [otherwise] [-lee] can be understood in other ways. Wu says. in Galsang’s terms (Galsang 1981: 13) “an action that took place without being known by anybody or an event that has been done mistakenly.ǰei Dorj come-past ‘Dorj came. čegeǰi.γad yabu.” 105. Dorǰi ire.ǰai heard-instr writing write-pfc I five lost-past ‘I made five mistakes when doing a dictation. the examples in (105) involve a lack of prior knowledge on the part of the speaker (in [a]. ter ir. he says that the “evidential” reading of examples such as (69) “needs the [context] which shows the condition given in the brackets. however.ber bičig biči.ǰai book take-pfc go-pfvn person Dorj be-past ‘The person who took away a book was Dorj. ‘hear’.’ bayi. . Therefore. the fact that the subject of the verb sonus. and the utterer of that clause is. the subject of the ire-le clause is tanu-u aqa-yi ‘your elder brother’.čai that hear-past ‘I heard that your elder brother came back home. Nelson et al. take this to be the main verb of the embedded clause. Rudnev’s view that -lee or the “decisive form” is used “when speaking of already known facts or when the perfect is expressed.ǰu that abroad-dat go out-past that boast-impfc ‘He boasted that he had been abroad.’79 b.(and utterer of the sentence) could not have witnessed the return of the brother is evidence that -lee here is not evidential. the speaker is simply the subject of the verb sonus. gejü is equivalent of the English complementizer that. Wu seems to take the position that -lee in (106a) cannot be evidential because the speaker is in no position to have witnessed the return of the older brother. affix /-jee/” may require some explication. Whatever the syntax.la geǰü surugči. which in turn governs its own complement clause. (1998: 119) are quite correct when they respond that in example (106a) “the interpretation of the verb with /-laa/ is evidential in that the event in the lower clause is interpreted as having been witnessed by someone who saw the elder brother returning. On my analysis. .u I you-gen aqa.” Their statement (idem) that “[t]he first person speaker is actually the syntactic subject of the matrix verb sonus. while [-lee] is used to indicate a well-known past event. tan-u . on Nelson et al. what is heard.du yabu.yi Kökeqota.” He cites in this regard A. .presupposes a source for the information “that your older brother came home. . if I understand them correctly.” 106. . bi tan. Semantically. ire-le ‘your elder brother came home’. the verb sonus. a. gejü. .du γaru. . . not the embedded verb.γsan say-impfc be-past ‘The students said that you had gone to Huhhot. . D.tegen home-dat rp ire. tan-u .ǰü bayi. understood to be the subject of ge.‘say’.’s analysis.” while the 79 Nelson et al. is expressed by an embedded clause.” In either case.” and further claims that if -lee were replaced in these examples by one of the other past tense endings.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 55 through somebody else or through other means and about which he is uncertain.γsan be-past He is equally critical of the view that -jee “is used to refer to suddenly acquired knowledge of a past or unexpected event.’ c. there was a presumed witness.yi older brother-acc ger. However. and whether we take gejü to be a verb or a complementizer. tan. from whose point of view the evidential -lee is justified.la geǰü čalči. which is inflected with the . tere γadaγadu.le come-past geǰü sonus. “the sentences would lose the uncertainty which is implied by [-lee]. .nar you-acc Huhhot-dat go-past that student-pl kele. The object. Although formally a possessive. tere urǰinun yeke surγaγuli.” Further. a. 81 .ǰei Batu-gen elder brother-possessive81 yesterday come-past ‘Batu’s elder brother arrived yesterday. Quite to the contrary. Poppe (1954: 93) remarks this suffix is used when the speaker indeed claims to have witnessed the action and the use in this sense is still found in some dialects of modern Mongolian. emphasizing the present result or referring to the indirect past is. based on the speech of a Khalkha Mongol informant. batu. and the plain form is a possible alternative in most contexts. the [-jee] suffix is not used to indicate a past situation inferred from the present result of a past action. .” 80 Chuluu is a native speaker of an Inner Mongolian dialect. a dialectal variant or even personal preference. depending on whether or not the speaker wants to stress how he obtained his knowledge of the situation. The Street (1963) and Svantesson (1991) studies are based on Khalkha Mongol data. Once again. or has heard about it from someone else. he is critical (1995: 90) of the characterization of -jee in Svantesson (1991) as inferential or quotational: . See the following examples ([107]). Svantesson’s explanation has something to do with the result of a past action. 107.yin aqa. . Ultimately.ni öčögedür ire.’ b.80 Furthermore. although he distinguishes the past tense morphemes.56 chapter one -jee or “accidental” form is used for “a sudden occurrence without expectation. as indirect past ([-jee]). direct ([-lee]). For instance. we suspect. after analyzing the classical Mongolian data. but it is the direct knowledge of the speaker derived from his past experience and thus the suffix expresses the meaning of the direct past. Wu (1996: 19) analyzed two sentences in which the speaker has direct knowledge of past situation. this marker functions here as an indicator of definiteness. Svantesson (1991: 193) concludes that the speaker prefers to use the [-jee] suffix when he speaks of a past situation which he has not personally experienced but has witnessed its consequences and infers what has occurred.du oro. and the plain ([-sen]) Svantesson (1991: 193) notices that the use of indirect and direct past forms are not obligatory.ǰai that year before last big school-dat enter-past ‘He entered university year before last.’ He claims that “[i]n the above examples. aqa-čini c. tende nige mori c. “the examples in ([109]) . . But in (b) and (c). bayi-ǰai 108. previously observed by Street (1963: 122) and Chenggeltei (1981: 294).” He offers the examples in (110): 110. a. . He connects this use in narration with the first person subject: “when someone makes a statement about what he has done in the past. yabu-γsan b. namely that there was a horse there. it is this additional information which is most important. he says that in (108). the speaker is calling attention to the existence of a horse or of an animal that might be a horse. that is.’ He also observes (Ujeyediin 1998) a preference for -v in narrative. “the speaker confirms a known fact to the listener. bi tabun nom ǰigele.tu nom. yabu-ǰai 109. But in (109b) and (c). what part of the sentence conveys the most important information. Contrasting the examples in (108) and (109).” noting that “according to [his] own speech.’ sang. he finds a difference in discourse function between the various endings. and specifically one having to do with focus.ba go-past . these are not the focus of attention.be I five book borrow-past ‘I borrowed five books. yabu-ba older brother-your leave-past ‘Your older brother left. bi doloγan čag.du treasury-dat oči. bayi-γsan b. may differ as to how appropriate they are in discourse which focuses on elements other than the action itself.’ a. he says.” { } { } a. Accordingly.” He expresses doubt that this use is a “distinctive characteristic of the suffix. (109a) “indicates only the fact of the brother’s having gone” and if adverbial qualifiers such as the destination are added.un I seven o’clock-dat book-gen ‘I went to the library at 7 o’clock. preference is in fact for the [-v] suffix when narrating something [he has] done in the past. bayi-ba there one horse be-past ‘There was a horse.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 57 In some cases.’ b.” Similarly. he tends to choose the [-v] suffix instead of the others. du odi. since it leaves questions about other possible uses of the suffix unanswered. and how does the value for each parameter enter into the calculus of choice? Or again. pace Wu (1995). it leaves significant questions unanswered.” concluding (Ujeyediin 1998).” 83 Literally ‘book-gen treasury-dat. what those meanings might be.gsen Dorj five book borrow-past ‘Dorj borrowed five books. ta doloγan čag. when the speaker or writer is confronted at a given point in a discourse or text by the need to make a choice of one of the four past tense endings. not an explicit distinction of the suffixes. while his work introduces several new perspectives. But he sees the choice as “just a matter of preference. he finds that with other subjects (as in 111). that Chuluu is wrong.” and is insistent on the role of context: “the meaning of the suffix is not the only consideration.’ He argues (1995: 107) that “the attempt to make a separate definition for each form of the past tense suffixes is inadequate.” Thus his work.un sang.58 chapter one Correspondingly. “instead of having one core meaning [each].ǰai you (plural) seven hour-dat library-dat83 go to-past ‘You went to the library at 7 o’clock. and pragmatics. leaves unanswered the question of whether the sundry endings do have unique meanings. In particular. “the distribution of the four past tense affixes in Khalkh Mongol is determined by systematic differences in style. (1998: 117).”82 111. they may have meanings that vary in different contexts. and on what basis does the listener or reader do so? The present work argues. what different inferences does the listener or reader draw from the past tense endings at particular points in discourse or text.’s conclusion (1998: 117) that. how does the speaker or writer do so? On precisely what factors is the choice based. and if so. instead context becomes a major factor in describing function. and that the interpretation of verbs with these elements is to a certain extent predictable out of context. Dorǰi tabun nom ǰigele. with Nelson et al.tu nom. a. semantics. however interesting. that the occurrence of the various past tense verb forms 82 We share Nelson et al. As he himself recognizes.’ b.’ . preference is for one of the other past tense endings. such broad characterizations are far from adequate in an account of their meanings and uses. but depends by and large on the inherent meaning of each particular ending. he is correct in writing (Ujeyediin 1998) that “[i]n practice. the distinction between these past tense morphemes is vague and difficult to apply with any degree of precision.” At the same time. The discourse functions of the forms are further argued to follow from their modal uses. . it is clear that while terms like “evidential” and “inferential” serve as convenient labels for categories into which to put the endings.” but it is questionable that it does “not lead to clearly distinct categories. but that they have no clear basic or core feature.the problem of the mongolian past tenses 59 in different contexts is not in principle optional. . is not just that there is great variation in meaning in contexts. as is argued in the next chapter.” Nor is it necessary to accept his counsel of despair to the effect that “[t]he real problem with the use of the morphemes . To be sure. . . remain to be specified. even if the Mongolic languages do exhibit a distinction of evidential and inferential. or in questions. despite the claims to the contrary in many books. when the speaker or writer must (or can) use -v (or -sen). Even if it is indeed the case that -v is modally neutral (at least as regards evidentiality and inferentiality). . But it remains to specify the differences in use and meaning between the two 1 Tserenchunt. it is less easy to say under what conditions evidentiality and inferentiality are optionally or obligatorily marked. “I completely agree with your conclusion about the inferential and evidential past tenses in Mongolian as in Turkic languages” (personal communication. and on the contexts in which it is either optional or obligatory with the meaning of -v (or any other past ending). a native speaker. The usage of -sen raises several questions. Mongolian has at least three.2 In Mongolic languages. writes. there is much more that needs to be investigated regarding the meaning and use of the Mongolian past tense endings. and especially of -lee and -jee. 68. and that -sen is. Cf. too (if this is regarded as a past tense ending). -sen baina is nearly synonymous with -jee. For while Turkish has just two past-tense forms. that is. Evidential and Inferential 1. Yet a further question concerns the difference in meaning or use between predicative -sen (112) and -sen with a copula (113). The Opposition of Evidentiality and Inferentiality At this point. 2007). it seems fairly well established that Mongolian makes a distinction of evidential and inferential. note 14 on p. While -sen regularly replaces both -v and the other endings within the scope of negation. as opposed to either -lee or -jee. Conditions on its use in both positive and negative statements. June 1. 2 Apparently.CHAPTER TWO USE AND INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST TENSES IN THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE 1. it does not invariably do so. these are not synonymous.1 However.1. son bai.” 4. in evidentiality).2. particularly where the verb is concerned. would it make if (112) ended with unšsan baina.62 chapter two constructions: for example. ta nom ungsi- . there are significant differences between spoken and written Mongolian. for example by Street (1963: 122–4). as regards the meaning and use of the past tense endings. example (4): { } ba la ‘you read a book’ (Wu 1995: 94) jai 4 Tserenchunt and Leuthy comment (p. The remainder of the present work is devoted to attempting to provide an adequate account of the meaning and use of the past tense endings in both colloquial speech and written language. 92) that -sen and baina “together . as we shall see. Thus while it is a starting point to recognize that the Mongolian past tenses principally differ not in tense or aspect. and one can cite in this regard numerous aspects of both English and French grammar. We book read-past ‘We read a book. That auto win-pfvn be-pres ‘He has won a car. which also serves as the present perfect (‘she has sung’). if any. create the sense of just now finding out about a past action.na. Inferential -jee The -jee ending has been characterized as a perfect as well as a past tense.’ (Tserenchunt and Luethy 2000: 62)3 113.g. Ter mašin xoj. Bid nom unš. .san. Not only may Mongolian similarly utilize different forms for the same meaning in written and spoken language.. as in the notorious case of the French perfective past tense.’4 (Tserenchunt and Luethy 2005: 92) Complicating such questions is the fact that. . who says that it “either has 3 Cf. it is only a starting point. Significant differences between the grammatical systems of spoken and written languages are certainly not unknown. but the same form may have different uses in the two types of language. or (113) with just xojson? 112. but rather in modality (and specifically. 1. what difference. which uses the simplex passé simple in writing (e. elle chanta ‘she sang’) but the complex passé composé in speech (elle a chanté). 7 Hangin (1968: 114) notes that it expresses a past action “of which the speaker has now become aware. past of the imperfect (Poppe 1970: 131). where the -lee ending has been identified with the present perfect tense or as a recent past tense. die sich plötzlich und unbeabsichtigt ereignet haben. or emphasizes the present result of a past action or of a state that existed in the past. Hangin notes its narrative use (1968: 114. and unobserved. Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 82) say that “[c]e suffixe indique qu’il s’agit d’une action commencé dans le passé.” in his 1976 book (p.past tenses in the spoken language 63 the meaning of a recent past.” Poppe (1951: 80) similarly characterizes it as a recent (nahe) past. say-impfc wrestler’s-jacket wrestler’s-pants-com come-past ‘les deux combattants sont arrivés avec leur costume de lutter aux jeux (au Naadam)’ (‘the two combatants have come with their fighting suits to the games [to the Naadam]’) Vietze’s (1974: 45) urgelmilsen is apparently a typo for ürgeljilsen. Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 83). Vietze: “Ereignesse.tai ir.j zodog šuudag. But for most grammarians.j. It has also been connected with extension.iin dundaj öndör Mongolia-gen whole country-gen middle height 1550 metr a. Grønbech and Krueger (1955: 36) say it is “objective about the state of affairs. sometimes with extension to the present.” . This ending has also been defined in both discourse-functional and modal terms.iin büx nutg. possibly quite distantly so. that is. 17) he says it indicates 5 As was noted in connection with examples (12. sometimes with extension over time in the past. hence the label Präteritum imperfecti (Ramsted 1902: 24. . xoër two 6 7 baildagč combatants naadam. At the same time.5 Hence the Mongolian term öngörön ürgeljilsen tsag6 ‘past extended time’ (Beffa and Hayamon 1975: 82) and Kas’yanenko’s (1968: 20) Russian equivalent prošedšee dlitel’noe vremya. cf.jee. . 1550 metres be-past ‘l’altitude moyenne de toute la Mongolie est de 1550 mètres’ (‘the mean altitude of all of Mongolia is 1550 metres’) 13.’ 12. the -jee ending has been connected with an action or state which is completed in a past time removed from the present. .x wrestle-ifvn ge. Poppe 1951: 80). in contrast. et qui se prolonge ou se répète dans le present”—‘this suffix indicates that it concerns an action begun in the past and which is prolonged in or is repeated in the present. Mongol. 1976: 17) and calls it the narrative past (1968: 114).d Naadam-dat barilda.” Bosson (1964: 73) and Vietze (1974: 45) refer to unexpected or sudden. occurences. 13). he was with me. and to what extent the facts cited here hold likewise for Kalmuck and for such more distant relatives of Mongolian as Dagur. are interesting. he just left. 115).” The ending -jee is just as clearly described as non-evidential. they must use [-lee].” On ter javčixlaa: in uttering it.” Vietze (1974: 45) writes that one of the uses of the form is for “generally known facts. “In the near past. Certainly. etc. its meaning would seem to be the unmarked member of the opposed categories indicated by -lee and -jee.” c) Ter javčixjee. that is.64 chapter two a past action which “was not necessarily witnessed by the narrator. of speakers of other dialects of Mongolian. Monguor. as regards modality. Native speaker intuitions support these rough definitions of the two endings. May 31. the speaker is indicating “I saw it. In particular. who is a native speaker of Khalkha. But in an evidential/inferential system of the Turkish type. as the non-evidential. questions. stress is on the recency of discovery. In regard to examples (114. the non-evidential is simply the inferential. 2007). and to what extent his judgments would be shared by other speakers of Khalkha. 9 . native speaker judgements (usually presented in italics and in quotes) are those of Sodnomdorj Gongor. Non-witnesses could use either. in many cases. if “he left when I was here and I saw it. considering -jee as they do from a number of different points of view.9 Thus -lee is described in terms of evidentiality: a) Regarding witnessing: “Witnesses can’t use [-jee]. the speaker is a witness or has to definitely know. “He has already left. Except where otherwise noted.” b) Орчихлоо ‘left’. it might best be considered. but at the present time open.. Whether.” (Hangin 1968: 114) This would be used “if [the speaker] wasn’t here and didn’t know [the subject had left]” and that yavčixsan would be used by the speaker instead. Tserenchunt has commented (personal communication.”8 Descriptions of the form are obviously much more diverse than in the case of -lee. 8 “allgemein bekannte Tatsache”. in contrast to -lee. as in example (116). in the kind of statement given in (117). .’ (Stivenson 1975: 45). 114. I New York city-dat be born-past ‘I was born in New York City. Another example: last night when you were sleeping it snowed and you just woke up and see the snow and you say: Uengursun shuenue tsas orjee (orchixjee).jee. B.’ (Stivenson 1975: 85). Flint die-čix-past ‘Flint is dead. and accordingly the -jee form cannot be used.” Because of the inferential nature of -jee. The pirate did not observe the action. for example. it is a fact already known to the speaker. Sodnomdorj similarly has remarked that the use of -jee in example (114) is not due to the death being recent.past tenses in the spoken language 65 I’d like to try to explain the difference between ‘uexchixjee’ and ‘uexchixsen’. this form could not normally be used. but rather that it “has just now been discovered. Flint üx. Bill die-čix-past ‘Bill’s dead. Even though the fact that the addressee. but he is realizing now that past action. However. However. Uengursun shuenue tsas orjee represents öngörsön šönö tsas orjee ‘last [passed] night snow fell’. Bill üx. So the pirate uses ‘uexchixjee’.jee. 116.10 In the first case [example (114)] the pirate just realized that Billy Bones [had died]. That is not any more new information for Jim.čix. In the next case [example (115)] Jim says: Flint ‘uexchixsen’ because Jim already knows that Flint is dead. When you say ‘orchixjee’ your emotion of surprise is expressed. it cannot readily be used with the first or second person.čix. Bi Nyu-York xoto. an amnesiac who cannot remember the circumstances of his or her birth can use the -jee form when learning about themselves from their birth certificate.’ 10 The transliteration here utilizes the kind of orthography widely used when writing Mongolian in the Latin alphabet. was born in Mongolia (and therefore could be expected to know something about the country) is a new fact in this context. A. 115. Uexchixjee = üxčixjee and uexchixsen = üxčixsen.sen.d tör. 66 chapter two 117. A: —[I don’t know anything about Mongolia.] B: —Gevč ta tend tör.sön But you (plural) there be born-past ‘But you were born there!’ šüü modp dee! modp In support of a modal analysis of the Mongolian past tense endings, Song (2002: 158f.) cites restrictions on the co-occurrence of verb endings and the various persons of the subject,11 noting that cross-linguistically, languages do not exhibit incompatibilities between tense/aspect and person (“e.g., where the past tense or the imperfective aspect is unable to occur with the first or second person”) but that such incompatibility is often found in the case of modality, especially evidentiality: It was seen in section (2) that Mongolian has three past suffixes differing in their evidential meaning. . . . Among the three past suffixes, the Indirect Knowledge Past -jee is hardly used with a first person subject (Jae-mog Song 1997: 193–204). Examples (34a and 35a) with a third person subject allow all the three past suffixes. By contrast, examples (34b and 35b) with a first person subject allow the Direct Knowledge Past -laa and the Neutral Past -v, but not the Indirect Knowledge Past. . . . It is self-evident why the Indirect Knowledge Past suffix -jee is not used to refer to these situations. The event of [the speaker’s coming to Prague] in (34b) and that of [the speaker’s making a phone call to Dorj] in (35b) cannot be outside the speaker’s direct knowledge, unless he was unconscious at the event time. Interestingly, Mongolian also has exceptions to this subject restriction. Verbs like unt- ‘sleep’, sogt- ‘get drunk’, mart- ‘to forget’, and uxaan ald- ‘to lose consciousness’ allow the Past suffix -jee with the first person subject, as exemplified in (36–38). They refer to situations about which the speaker may not be in the position of having direct knowledge. Though the speaker went through the situations himself/herself in examples (36–38), he/she was not aware of the situations at the event time. The speaker finds himself/herself having been in those situations later on. The speaker was not a conscious participant in the situations, therefore the first person subject is allowed with the Indirect Knowledge Past -jee in (36–38). Examples (34b and 35b) with the suffix -jee, which are labeled as unacceptable, may become acceptable when the speaker is an amnesic patient who has heard about his past event/situation from someone else. 11 The analyses accompanying Song’s examples are as in the original publication, except the ones in square brackets, which are mine. past tenses in the spoken language 67 (34) a. Bat öčigdör Prague.d ir.lee/ev/jee. Bata yesterday Prague-[dat]12 come-past ‘Bata came to Prague yesterday.’ b. Bi öčigdör Prague.d ir.lee/ev/*jee.13 I yesterday Prague-[dat] come-[past] ‘I came to Prague yesterday.’ (35) a. Bat öčigdör Dorj.d uts.aar xel.lee/ev/jee. Bat yesterday Dorj[-dat] phone-[instr] speak-[past] ‘Bat made a phone call to Dorj yesterday.’ b. Bi öčigdör Dorj.d uts.aar xel.lee/ev/*jee. I yesterday Dorj-[dat] phone-[instr] speak-[past] ‘I made a phone call to Dorj yesterday.’ (36) Bi öngörsön šönö I pass-[pfvn] night ‘I slept deeply last night.’ nam deeply unt.jee. sleep-past (37) Bi öčigdör niilleg deer uxaan ald.jee. I yesterday party in mind lose-past ‘I lost consciousness at the party yesterday.’ (38) Bi öčigdör surguul’ deer malgaig.aa I yesterday school at hat-[rp] ‘I forgot my hat yesterday at school.’ mart.jee. forget-past While restrictions on the use of the various past tense endings with the different persons do support the evidential analysis, what Song says cannot be quite correct. For one thing, the -jee ending does occur with the first person with verbs other than those cited, one example being (118). And there are restrictions on its use with the second person, as we shall see. 118. Tuxai.n üje.d bi guravdugaar angi.d Occasion-gen time-dat I third class-dat ‘At that time, I was in the third grade.’ (http://mongol.cri.cn/21/2007/04/20/[email protected]) bai.jee. be-past Because of the inferential nature of -jee, it cannot readily be used with the first or the second person: “[You] can’t use -jee with the first or second person, nor in questions [with first or second person subjects].” This 12 Song calls this the “locative.” An asterisk before a form indicates that it is unacceptable (“ungrammatical”) in the given sentence, assuming the given meaning. 13 68 chapter two claim is something of an over-generalization, and it is only under certain conditions that it fails. For example, in the sort of context found in the case of example (116), in the case of the amnesiac learning details about him- or herself from a document such as a birth certificate, -jee is certainly possible with the first person. But when someone who has forgotten details of their own experience recalls them, in which case it might be argued that the information is a new discovery on their part, the speaker nonetheless cannot use -jee (119) to talk about their newly recalled personal experience. 116. Bi Nyu-York xoto.d tör.jee. I New York city-dat be born-past ‘I was born in New York City.’ 119. A:—How long did you live in Mongolia? B:—I don’t recall. [Thinks.] Oh, I remember now. I lived [*am’darjee] there for three years. But this is clearly a matter of nuance and depends on the specifics of each situation, for while Sodnomdorj rejected -jee in (119), he accepted it in (120), commenting that the speaker “forgot and now [realizes or notices]” the fact.14 120. Bi baga.d.aa ene nom.iig I small-dat-rp this book-acc ‘I read this book when I was small!’ unš.jee. read-past One type of situation, however, in which a speaker may use -jee to relate their own experience is when they are in effect commenting on it, as if offering a third-person opinion. Some examples include these (121–124): 121. Busad üje.d bi parazit bai.jee. for another thing time-dat I parasite be-past (http://otgonpurew.blogspot.com/2006/08/21.html) ‘For another thing, at the time I was a parasite.’ 14 Of unšsan baina, Sodnomdorj commented that it has “almost the same meaning” as unšjee. past tenses in the spoken language 69 122. Bi tedn.ii l negen adil bodo.j yav.jee. I they-gen modp one like think-impfc continue15-past (http://www.unen.mn/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=336 2&catid=53; at the present time no longer available on-line) ‘I thought as if I was one of them.’ 123. Bi tege.xe.d I do thus-ifvn-dat ööriigöö er myself male xün.d person-dat tootso.j yav.jee. consider-impfc continue-past “That time I considered myself a strong man.”—“Talking about oneself to another.” 124. Vasya bi čamaig buruu bod.jee. Vasya I you-acc wrong think-past (http://www.ulaanbaatar.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie w&id=134&Itemid=218) ‘Vasya, I had the wrong idea about you.’ (‘I got you wrong.’) Interestingly enough, any of the following forms (in 125) seem to be acceptable here (in 124), except *bodson. 125. Vasya bi čamaig buruu {bodoj baisan baina/bodoj baisan/bodoj baina/ *bodson}. ‘had been thinking/was thinking/am thinking/*thought’ Like Song, Tserenchunt has noted in regard to certain verbs, “One interesting example of the usage of this tense is the verbs martax [‘forget’] and untax [‘fall asleep’]: the speaker uses [these] verbs with [the] jee/chee ending even about him or her self ” (personal communication, June 1, 2007). As has been noted above, Tserenchunt and Luethy (2005: 92) connect use of these verbs in the first person and -jee with the reporting (as in 100) of unplanned actions. 100. Bi nom.oo mart.čix.jee/mart.čixa.j I book-rp forget-čix-past ‘I forgot my book.’ 15 Literally, ‘go’. 70 chapter two The following example of this usage occurs early in the play Xuvia Bodogčid by L. Vangan (Vangan 1967: 8) (126): 126. Boldoo— Xüüxd.üüd.ee bi yum mart.čixa.j. Child-pl-rp I thing forget-čix-past ‘Children, I forgot something.’ (“I just realized I forgot something.”) In the second person, -jee may be used in reminders (127). 127. Tiimee 11-r Yes 11th sar.iin month-gen 17-nd 17th gej that ta zöv you (plural) correct bod.jee. think-past (www.inforadio.mn/html/pages/hotlogchid/ichinhorloo.htm)16 “Right, you have calculated correctly that it is the 17th of November.” Two conclusions follow from these facts. First, -jee is indeed some kind of marker of inferentiality. But second, the uses of the inferential past tense marker -jee are numerous and complex, and require to be delineated with further precision. 1.3. Evidential -lee As a first approximation to a definitive characterization, -lee is simply labeled the evidential past tense, in contrast to -jee, which serves as the inferential past tense.17 In contrast to -jee, the main issue in regard to -lee arises not from what the speaker can be expected to know, but rather the addressee. Third-person subjects, as we have seen, are quite acceptable and normal, as in (70): “waiting for someone, you see him coming.”18 16 No longer available. Nelson et al. (1998: 126) note that -lee “is the only past tense morpheme in Mongol which consistently encodes evidentiality.” We argue here, however, that spoken -v is essentially the form -lee takes in ordinary interrogative sentences and hence is evidential, as opposed to written -v. 18 Tserenchunt (p.c., October, 2008) comments that “ ‘Ta irlee’ is acceptable” and offers the example (i). I suspect that this and similar examples do not constitute a counter-example to the claim, since they are probably examples like (120) and following, in which the first person is permissible with -jee because there is content which is new; with the second person, there is content which is new to the addressee. 17 Wonderful modp You come-past ‘I needed someone to help me.lee.past tenses in the spoken language 71 70.lee that come-past ‘he’s coming’ In contrast.) 128.)” 130. The reason. we come-past ‘We came. and či irlee found just ten. Nadad To me tusla. the second person strikes the native speaker as unacceptable. copp .’ ir. That does not mean. A search for the phrase či irjee ‘you came’ did not find any pages. however.” as.lee. Bid ir. and can be assumed to know (in regard to that situation) what the speaker knows. that the addressee knows (or experiences) everything that the speaker i. ter ir. (This is not completely true. is (130). is that the addressee is in the same speech situation as the speaker. Wonderful! You came. it’s true. ‘I’m already here. I come-past ‘I came. presumably. Ta ir. 129. presumably. found 258 examples containing the phrase bi irlee ‘I came’.h [tusla.x] help-ifvn hun [xün] someone heregtei [xereg. -lee cannot readily be used with the second person. Bi ir.’ bai.’ “You can see the group of us. but just one with bi irjee.” The -lee ending can certainly be used for the first person more readily than can -jee.lee. Because of its evidential nature.’ “Better than [ta irlee].lee. however. A Google search on the World Wide Web. of course. we all came here. for example.san be-pfvn yum. come-past The first person is better: (129) is “better than [(128)].’ (You see me. (128) evoked the comment from Sodnomdorj that he couldn’t “see any situation where you’d say this” and that “for sure” you can’t use it in this way.tei] necessary Ashguei [ašgüi] dee. Ta You (plural) ‘You came. regarding the addressee. only serve to underline the evidentiality of the form.. . .” [I. Divaasambuu guai.” since it occurs in the first set of utterances—in fact. stating something that (presumably) the addressee has forgotten. the “reminder” is either preclusory or simply “for the record.mongolianoralhistory.net/forum) “Observation: you came when we needed you. it obviously cannot freely be used in such a case. Person 1. Ta zövšöör. -lee may be used to make observations (132). 132. as in (131). You (plural) agree-past ‘You agreed. These are things that the addressee presumably does not know. at http:// www.e.xml) Similar to the use of -jee to make comments about oneself. In this particular instance. or is ignoring.” 19 Or ‘a’? . You agreed. and they function in discourse in some respects very much like reminders. a sentence in -lee is telling the addressee something about themself or -selves.—RB] 133. (sonin. Dortmund. we are now in your home. Since the whole point of such a sentence is to bring the matter to the attention of the addressee. and other expressions of the speaker’s feelings. apart from certain unusual exceptions. These exceptions.org/samples/translations/EN060402. near the Gandan monastery.mn) One bad small organization that you (plural) say-past “You said that it is one19 small bad organization. For example. at a difficult time for Dortmund. or the like. the form may be used in a reminder. The interviewer starts by saying “Well.mongolianoralhistory .d ir.org/samples/transcriptions/ TR060402.iin xünd xetsüü üye. .xml.löö. it is the second sentence—of the interview.” 131. and/ or may need to have brought to their attention. the translation is at http://www. but with a second-person subject.lee.’ (TR/EN060402—Gandan Interview. Neg muu jijig baiguullaga gej ta xel. however. Dortmund-gen difficult difficult time-dat come-past (http://sport-tsonh. Mongolian Oral History.72 chapter two does. complaints (133).lee. we came with an intention to interview you. . say-past Nor can the -lee ending be used in second-person questions: there it is replaced by -v (“the question form of [-lee] is [the -v] ending.K. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 187) offer -sen as an optional alternative to -l. But the speaker is either informing them for the first time that it was fortunate that they came when he or she had not been waiting for a long time.. if he asked someone else gev [would be] O. ge.K. Another function of the -lee ending with the first person is to situate the speaker in the event being reported. the short form of -lee. Neg ödör manai naiz Gavrilaš One day our friend Gavrilash (Sadovyanu 1967: 13) ‘One day our friend Gavrilash said. Azaar Fortunately xüleeg.d be-ifvn-dat ta you (plural) ir.lee.lee. you came while I was not waiting a long time.” says Tserenchunt).güi wait-impfvn-neg bai.. . . but in the reply the addressee-turnedspeaker uses the evidential -lee (137): 20 Tserenchunt.past tenses in the spoken language 73 Where the focus is not on the occurrence of the event as such but is on some modifier expressing some aspect of the event that the addressee is unaware of. in the case of (135).20 as in (136). 2007.. come-past ‘Fortunately. For example. such as ta irlee ‘you (plural ) came’. June 1.’ The addressee(s) know(s) very well that he himself/she herself/they themselves came. consider (134).” 134. which is “O.ee.. Many textbooks and grammars have examples of -v questions in the second person with -lee replies in the first person.’ . as in (i): i.xa. .. Ta šuudan {javal/javsan} uu? You (plural ) post office go-past qp ‘Have you been to the post office?’ . or else the speaker is commenting on this. but few comment explicitly on the issue. For example. p. or reminding the addressee of it. “Gavrilash asked the writer. even expressions which in another context would be odd or unacceptable.” 135. are perfectly fine. *gejee [is unacceptable] (manai naiz requires -lee). because they don’t know how long I’ve been waiting.c. and most likely know they came while the speaker was waiting. . ’23 21 Sodnomdorj offers as the proper form in this question irlee. Father go-past ‘Father went. and commented that Bi xaanaas irlee could only be used under special circumstances in which the speaker had been unaware while traveling. either irlee or irev may be used.ee med.’ An interesting question involves the use of the various endings in firstperson questions.html) ‘I didn’t know how to name [it/them/etc. Ta {xezee.lüü ?21 ire.san. -sen in speech The ending -v occurs in written language in contexts in which it is not found in speech. 23 Thanks to Tserenchunt for providing the correct translation. A Google search for questions such as Bi xen bailaa? ‘Who was I?’.lee. however. and both positive (140–141) and negative (142) questions— these record.].v come-past } 137.com/2007/11/blog-post_17. speech. Yuu ge. and while -sen also occurs in writing. . Bi xaanaas irlee? ‘Where did I come from?’ failed to find any examples.x. 22 The occurrence of the -sen baina complex.blogspot. and competes with -v in all contexts—in positive (138) and negative (139) statements.74 chapter two 136.j nerle.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 78) 139.sen. or imitate. as when they had been asleep and therefore were ignorant of the route taken. Bi delgüür.4. 1.ees ir. what say-impfc name-ifvn-rp know-past-neg (http://hawk87. Sodnomdorj judged Bi xen bailaa impossible. xaan. is a different matter.güi. though there is a preference for irlee when the occurrence was long ago and irev when it is recent. Aav yav. where-abl} ‘When/from where did you come?’ { *ir.22 138. I store-abl come-past ‘I came from the store.aas} You (plural) {when. He comments that irlüü (the short form of irlee combined with the question particle) is used in “verification” questions such as Ta Ulaan Baataraas irlüü? ‘You came from Ulaan Baatar?’ In “real” questions with question words. aas where-abl med.com/) ‘Do you know?’ (i.taig.php?action=namtar) ‘B. These minutes evoked the comment that here -sen would “not [be] good. ‘Mandaliin Biibish me-dat converse-past (Luvsantseren 1972: 14) ‘Mandaliin Biibish spoke to me. as many comments reveal (viz. those below on 143–144).” 143.ii Narantsetseg topic marker 1965 year-gen 10 sar.sen be? know-pfvn qp (http://www.” Such comments are not incompatible with Kullmann and Tserenpil’s (1996: 184f.san.d yar’. Ta You (plural) manai our sait.aa yav. .sen üü? know-past qp (http://medsenuu. and Agriculture25 consists of a series of statements in -v. at the present time no longer available) ‘My daughter. a segment of which is reproduced in (145).) observation that the -sen “suffix . ‘have you learned?’) 142. because [it is] a spoken form.mn/index. is clearly the most commonly used past tense suffix in colloquial language.san.php?name=Surveys&pollID=5) ‘Where did you learn of our site originally?’ 141. -sen seems a spoken form and -v a written one. Narantsetseg was born on the 24th of the 10th month in the year 1965. .org.toi Baljin surname-com Narantsetseg n’ 1965 on..sön.d tör.naraafoun-dation.com/ modules.biirbeh. Environment.’ “[-v would be] too written a form.com/modules.” “-sen [is] not good because [it’s] a spoken form” 24 25 Again.güi yuu? My girl classmate-com-rp go-past-neg qp (http://www.blogspot. Minii oxin angiinxan.. didn’t you go with your classmates?’24 To the native speaker.php?name=News&file=print&sid=1 481. The minutes of the January 7th.e. Baljin ovog.’ “-sen [is] spoken style. thanks to Tserenchunt for providing the correct translation. Mandaliin Biibiš nada.iig site-acc anx beginning 75 xaan. 10 month-gen 24-dat Ulaanbaatar city-dat be born-past (www. At the present time this is no longer available on-line. Med. Food.” 144.biirbeh. 2003 meeting of the Mongolian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Nature. .past tenses in the spoken language 140.iin 24-nd Ulaanbaatar xoto. d hall-dat 7–n.iin I China-gen xotn. open-impfc attendance xeleltse.d ir.4%.j.ii 7–gen 10 minuta. be born-impfc 8 8 Čefü Chefu sar. selections from long autobiographical accounts. Environment.ii 1897 year-gen tör.d zagalmailuul.v. 2003 (Tuesday) meeting of the Standing Committee on Nature. as in (146–147). Gungaadorj. Gungaadorj nee. irts. 17 member come-impc 94.ii 2003 year-gen (Myagmar garig) Tuesday tör.j. .iin xögjl.d 8th-dat Šandun muj. 17 of the 18 members attending.x Xuraldaan.v.iin month-gen tendx.v.vel meeting-dat come-condc asuudl.d 10 minute-dat exle.nii committee-gen ödr. present-past gišüün. church-dat baptize-past (Нэрт монголч эрдэмтэн Николас Поппегийн дурадгал 26 The whole text of (145). (Example (147) forms part of example (320). chairperson of the Standing Committee. and Rural Development began at 10:10 in Hall “B” of the State House. Baigal’ orčin.iin day-gen 2003 on. Bi Xyatad. begin-past Xuraldaan.iin of there-gen Angli English süm.iin 1 st month-gen xuraldaan meeting V “B” baingiin standing 10 tsag 10 hour tanxim.iin Shandong province-gen 1897 on.ii palace-gen 1 dügeer sar.x 18 be fitting-ifvn 18 taniltsuula.ees member-abl 17 gišüün ir. with analysis. Š.iin nature environment land-gen development-gen xoroo.) 146.4 individual attendance-com be-past ‘The January 7th.nii darga Š. 94. opened the meeting and presented attendance and the agenda.oo city-rp 8-n.iig baingiin xoroo. attendance was 94.iig agenda-acc zoxi. oral autobiographical accounts regularly utilize instead the -sen form. is example (321) below.’26 Despite the fact that -lee is evidential and therefore generally used in first-person statements.san.tei bai. xödöög.76 chapter two 145. Gungaadorj meeting-acc standing committee-gen chairperson Š.4 xuviin irts.iin state-gen ordn.j. For example.san. .php?option=com_ content&task=view &id=2533&Itemid=127) ‘I was born in Chefu city in Shantung province of China on the 8th of August of [the year] 1897 and was baptized in the English church.org/samples/transcriptions/ TR060101B.iin Süxbaatar-gen neremjit named deer to Ter that oč. .xml) ‘On 23 August. .mongolianoralhistory. . .ii That-gen “Ofitsyer.’ 147.” Version (b) is 27 ‘Memoires of the famous Mongolist scholar.maranata.j say-impfc Baruun tal n’ xoyor west side its two züün east Tüün.. Nicholas Poppe (chapters 1–4)’. there is the Construction College now.’ (http://www. two 23-d 23-dat n’ the ge. davxar.mongolianoral history. be-past zaxiral xurandaa Erdendamba ge. faced with the example (148).iin now-gen baig.org/samples/translations/EN060101B.aa. . . That school was situated in recent-time Gandan. -sen often contrasts with -jee. 1943 . odoog. When they do. be-past (http://www. . Its director was [a man named] Colonel Erdenedamba. Sodnomdorj declared that unšsan was “the best form. There was a two-story building on its right and there were two-story and four-story pinkish buildings on its left. Barilg.iin officer-gen surguul’ school Gandan deer. storey davxar.ii year-gen 8 8 Süxbaatar. aa .oor uh . storey tend there bai.mn/index. . -jee is inferential and -sen is evidential. . .. 1943 on.san..son. . go-past odoog.j director colonel Erdendamba say-impfc xün person bai. Gandan in .iin month-gen dörvön four baišin building . . Construction-gen sar.iin . .past tenses in the spoken language 77 [1–4-р бүлэг]. be-impvn tal n’ side its iim such xoyor two yagaan pink surguul’” school aa . today-instr Texnikum College xoër. Ingeed So . .27 http://www.. 1942 I went to the School of Officers.xml) In speech. . jee.san. Sodnomdorj rejected am’darjee even in the case where the speaker replies that he or she can’t recall.aa small-dat-rp ene this nom. the form is again garčixsan. 120): 62.iig book-acc { a.laa. 148. Bi tend gurvan jil am’dar. 15.” to reply that he or she lived there for three years. it is likely that that there are contexts in which am’darjee could be used to recount the speaker’s own experience.degen ongsi.la this book-acc small-gen period-dat rp read-past ‘I read this book during my childhood. nar gar.} read-past. if the speaker actually witnessed the sunrise but the occurrence is distal. ‘I read this book when I was small.” But in light of other examples we have seen of bi with -jee. examples (62a.’ 120. according to him.d. a.ǰee.’28 In the case of Poppe’s example (15). I there three year live-past ‘I lived there for three years. I remember now! I lived there for three years.aa ene nom. 149. Bi baga.’ 28 Cf.b. but presumably only if they were not previously aware of it.d. the speaker will say (149). unš.78 chapter two possible. as the experience is distal and.ibi baγa. thinks a moment. if “I forgot and now I realize/notice” the fact. unš. “Oh.č sun rise-past ‘the sun rose’ (Poppe 1970: 131) If asked “How long did you live in Mongolia?. and then exclaims. with -sen. ene nom. naturally. witnessed. If the speaker witnessed the event but it occurred just now—it is proximal—the form used is garlaa. I small-dat-rp this book-acc read-past ‘I read this book when I was small!’ .iig unš.un üye. Bi I baga. He declared version (a) impossible. aas Aimag-abl namaig me-acc ire. equally important is an opposition of distal and proximal. or physically close to the speaker. conceptually. The apparent evidentiality of spoken -sen raises three questions: • is evidentiality merely an option. The difference is a question of perspective and discourse function. The example (150) elicited the comment that “he had already gone.d come-ifvn-dat Bold Bold ax younger brother bai. insofar as “/-laa/ signals that an event is temporally. the speaker did not witness [his going].” that “the tense system of Khalkh Mongol .past tenses in the spoken language 79 If someone is asked when a meeting was held. and could be translated ‘had gone’. (1998: 122).php?name=news&file=article&sid=182) ‘When I came from the aimag. the verb is literally past tense (javjee = ‘went’) but is interpreted as pluperfect. encodes a degree of metricality. and does it differ from -lee? 2. or is spoken -sen always evidential? • does -sen when used in writing work the same way it does in speech? • if -lee is evidential. they will use bolčixjee or bolčixsan baina.san.biirbeh. . Distal and Proximal 2. 30 Nelson et al. Distal and Proximal If the opposition of evidential and inferential is a primary distinction in the “tense” system of the Mongolian verb. and replies that apparently the meeting was yesterday.’ It would appear that in speech the ending -sen can be used as an evidential past tense. .com/modules.” Here we interpret proximity rather differently.30 29 As in English. Aimg.1. claim. and would argue that if Mongol has a metric tense system. But we shall have to be careful here about using these terms. looks on a schedule.xe.jee.” with both yavav and yavlaa ruled out in this context. he went29 to the centre. which easily lend themselves to various interpretations and hence confusion. my older brother Bold wasn’t there. it is not limited to .güi. 150. töv rüü yav. be-pfvn-neg centre towards go-past (www. why is -sen used as an evidential past. however.e. so that this form has often been called by some variant of Hangin’s (1968: 99. for the system found in the Bantu languages. as a present to what is still occurring. is proximal.e. Here we term the quality of immediacy borne by -lee “proximality” and call it the proximal past tense. and is not a metric tense system (i. as illustrated in diagram 2.. But. the time of utterance). there is no gap between the eventuality and the present. Similar characterizations occur in Russian (Kas’yanenko 1968: 20: vyražaet nedavno zaveršivšeesja prošedšee vremja ‘it expresses past time completed not long ago’) and Mongolian (sayaxan öngörsön tsag ‘time just passed’ in Beffa and Hayamon 1975: 82. Thus.80 chapter two UTTERANCE TIME (“now”) Tom eats time Diagram 2 The primary distinction between -lee and -jee is that of evidential and inferential. and has not obtained or occurred in the immediate past. and as a future to that which is just about to occur. in that the nominal (and normal) use of each is to mark a situation as removed from (distant from) the present—as a situation which ended at some time in the past. (151c) is used when the speaker “just came” -lee. As a past tense it refers to something that has just occurred. while the contrasting quality of -jee we term “distality” and call -jee distal. in any case to something which is not completely sundered from the present situation. odoo tögssön tsag ‘time finished [just] now’ in Vietze 1974: 44). there is a gap between the past eventuality (e.” while (151b) is “better if [the speaker] has just arrived”. What we mean by these terms is a difference in temporal distance from the deictic centre. as. 1976: 17) immediate past or Beffa and Hayamon’s (1975: 82) parfait immédiat. are all distal.. for example.g. The past tense endings. . many accounts of the -lee past tense centre on recency or immediacy. that is. system of “degrees of remoteness” from the time of utterance) as that term is usually used. with the exception of -lee.. as we have seen. Thus (151a) is “better in the past. that is. The ending -lee. from the time of the speech act (i. that reported by Tom ate) and the present. ’ {*bai. With öčigdör ‘yesterday’ (152a).’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1995: 43) With adverbs that refer to times that are in the past and therefore wholly separated from the present. be-pres. proximality accords with evidentiality and distality with inferentiality. -sen is more acceptable than -lee. uulzsan ‘met’ “sounds better” than uulzlaa. I England country-abl come-past ‘I’m from England. which does not assume such recency.” Regarding (153). { } a.’ öms. Bi Angli. I fiery wagon-instr come-past ‘I came by train. nor are either -sen baina or -sen yum acceptable (152c). 152.tei uulzsan Yesterday/today I that-com meet-past ‘Yesterday/today I met with him.” while ömslöö means that “he was putting it on while riding.eer b.tei uulz.” With önöödör. Ter xün savxin tsamts.past tenses in the spoken language 81 and in a setting such as an airport to which the speaker has just arrived. Today I that-com meet-past c. I England-abl come-past ‘I came from England.as ir.aas ir. Compare (151d). Öčigdör bi tüün.laa. he’s [still] here. but the reverse is true with önöödör ‘today’ (152b).sen Bi galt terg. ir. a. Öčigdör /Önöödör bi tüün. or “now. put on-past It would appear that while quite often. for example. perhaps even in general. *yum}.” 153. ir. saravčtai malgai That person leather shirt visored hat (Baast 1962: 9) ‘That person put on a leather shirt and a visored hat. he commented that ömsjee means that “he already had it on.’ c.sen. the .lee . Yesterday I that-com meet-past b.san.lee. Bi Angli uls. 151.tei uulz. Önöödör bi tüün.na.’ d. Uulzlaa invites the inference that “I just met with him.löö. copp Sodnomdorj consistently contrasted -jee as referring to “long ago” (or in the distant past at a given time in the past) with -lee as “just now” or “just recently” (possibly at a given past time). ) Thus where an English-speaker says I think that . -ne removes the situation from the immediacy of the present. thaw-pres ‘Toward the end of spring the snow melts and the ground thaws. which are intended to perform a speech act. the Mongolian-speaker says Bi .31 Thus “present-tense” butsana is used as a future in (154). . (Performative utterances are those.na.32 but “present-tense” gesne ‘thaws’ is generic in (155). It is usually called the infinitive or the future verbal noun: Ramstedt (1902: 31 One difference between the languages is that performative utterances in English generally employ the simple present tense. . but rather are to some extent independent of one another.’ (Viz. While it is possible. .aar month-instr tsas snow xail.. 2. for example ones denoting actions or processes. 32 Cf. just like non-performative utterances. like I agree. in a way remarkably similar to the simple present tense of English. with other types of predicates. I tomorrow return-pres ‘I’m returning tomorrow.ne. Future -lee Even in its present and future uses -lee contrasts with the presentfuture (non-past) ending -ne. to use the present tense with stative predicates in an actually present sense (so that medexgüi in ter mongol xel medexgüi ‘he has no Mongolian [language]’ [Altangerel 1998: 197] means ‘doesn’t know’). as a future. but not as an actual.82 chapter two two oppositions are by no means co-dependent. Altangerel 1998: 483). . Something should be said here regarding this latter form. in contrast with both -lee in its future use. as in English. 154. it can only be generic or future. .2. . gej bodoj baina ‘I am thinking that. Bi margaaš butsa. which is essentially distal in that even when used as a present tense. in this case that of agreeing. .j melt-impfc gazar earth ges. Xavr. Street (1963: 120). it principally functions as a generic. rather than simply to communicate information.. .’ (Street 1963: 120) And. present. and the predicative participle -x. whereas in Mongolian they use the progressive.’ (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1995: 70) 155.iin Spring-gen süül tail sar. just as in English. Poppe (1970: 130). ” But Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999: 25) have an example. Odoo xii.iig mede. though it does in questions (160–163).’ (Vietze 1973: 57) (‘I don’t know. Bi yava. is suggested. and following him.x.) 34 .x. Kas’yanenko would seem closest to an accurate description. it is interpreted as a present with stative expressions (156–157).güi.x ajil bai. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 147) call it the future participle. Kas’yanenko (1968: 22) calls it the pričastnaya forma nastoyaščego-buduščego vremeni ‘the participial form of present-future time’.x. Kullmann and Tserenpil also point out (p. The Mongolian equivalent is ireedüin tsagt üilt ner ‘participle [“verbal noun”] of the future’ (Vietze 1974: 56).x uu? You (plural ) here be-ifvn qp ‘Will you be here?’ 35 Poppe (1970: 135) similarly has bi irexgüi ‘I shall not come.33 for example under negation (156–158).’) 157.’) 158. I this-acc know-ifvn-acc ‘Ich weiß nicht. as Kullmann and Tserenpil point out (1996: 147).’ Ramstedt (1902: 29) has bi yavax ‘ich werde (soll ) gehen’—‘I will/shall [should] go’. i. 160–163): 156. and substitutes for it in syntactic positions that do not allow the finite endings. Like the -ne ending. but rather a non-past. Poppe (1951: 82). 147) that it requires some kind of copula and does not appear (in statements) as the main predicate without one. I go-ifvn-neg ‘Ya ne poyedu. (Vietze 1974: 57) Now do-ifvn work be-ifvn-neg (Kullmann and Tserenpil [1996: 147] gloss this example as ‘Now there is no work to do. Bi üün. while Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999: 25) call it the present-future verbal noun. Semantically.güi. Ta end bai. it is equivalent to the non-past -ne.past tenses in the spoken language 83 29). (i). use the term nomen futuri.34 but as a future with active and eventive predicates (158. amongst other things. by the fact that it also replaces the present progressive (159). with a stative predicate that is nonetheless glossed as future. That it is not simply a future.güi.’)35 33 As Kullmann and Tsrerenpil (1996: 147) say: “it replaces the [future tense -ne].’ (Kas’yanenko 1968: 22) (‘I shall not go. x.” I suspect that what was intended originally was the futurate sense of the English present progressive.x.’36 (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 147) 160.x ve? You now do what-ifvn qp ‘What will you do?’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 147) Kullmann and Tserenpil (p.c. Ta tsai ū. 2008) comments that this “is a strange sentence. Bi xödöö yava. a.’ 36 Tserenchunt (p.ū You (pl) tea drink-ifvn-qp ‘werden Sie Tee trinken?’ (Poppe 1951: 82) (‘will you drink tea?’) 163. Bi odoo biči. copp ir. but it is difficult from their glosses to discern quite what it is. They are clearly indicating a modal difference.güi My friend delay-ifvn-neg ‘My friend will come soon. Ongots xezee ire. come-prfut 165.’ ire. I countryside go-ifvn copp ‘Surely I’ll go to the countryside.x. I’m not writing that letter” or statements about arrangements such as “I’m not leaving till June.84 chapter two 159. corresponding to the future sense of the non-past participle.ne. The present continuous negative would be [‘bičeegüi baina’]. October. Minii naiz uda.” 37 Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 148) gloss the same example as ‘Do you know when the plane will come?’ .x uu? Take-ifvn qp ‘soll ich [er. one) take [it]?’) 162. Či odoo yaa.x yum. something similar to refusals like “I don’t care what you say. Ava.x come-ifvn yum.na.x Airplane when come-ifvn-acc you (pl) know-ifvn ‘Wissen Sie. 147) try to convey something of the difference between the two futures by their glosses for (164–166). man] nehman?’ (Ramstedt 1902: 29) (‘should I (he. wann das Flugzeug kommt?’ (Vietze 1973: 57)37 (‘Do you know when the airplane is coming?’) üü? qp 161.’ b. Minii naiz uda..x. I now write-ifvn-neg be-pres ‘I’m not writing. a. That is. 164.x.güi bai.güi My friend delay-ifvn-neg ‘My friend will really come soon.iig ta mede. like -ne.ne. Bi ter I that nom. It is important to note that while -lee connects the future eventuality with the present situation. and I’m going to leave at noon are usually statements of something already scheduled. with unšna.na.laa. on the contrary.’ b.x. go-pres 166. Či uda.. the addressee’s promise “I will read the book.” it does not function quite like English be going to.” Example (168) might. Či uda.’ xüre. e. I’ll leave at noon could be a prediction or statement of intention. marks the future. temporally separating the event in question from the present. a.güi xorin nas You delay-ifvn-neg 20 age ‘Soon you’ll be twenty. but I leave at noon. even the simple present and progressive present in their future use. was translated as (168).aa. 39 This example actually translates as ‘I will read a book (or books). copp xür. book-acc read-past39 168. the speaker “can’t use [-lee] here.x reach-ifvn yum. book-acc read-pres-emphp Tentatively. while -ne is distal. Bi ter I that nom.n.x. planned or arranged. so that often it can be translated with “be going to. .] I will read it” and described as being used “when someone offers a book.” However.iig unš. form part of the response to the question “have you read that book?”.iig unš. is going to. is about to. it is -lee which is like the English futurate38 construction be going to in connecting a future situation with that of the present. for example. Bi xödöö I countryside ‘I’ll go to the countryside.’ 85 yav. Although the example is glossed with going to. Futurate expressions generally presuppose or implicate that the future occurrence is already under way or is already certain. -lee is a near or even immediate future. Example (167) is glossed “[leave it with me.g.’ A marker of definiteness is required to convey the sense of ‘the book’ or ‘that book’. 167. is to. It simply indicates nearness 38 Futurate expressions are those which refer to future time but are semantically present. I’m leaving at noon.güi xorin nas You delay-ifvn-neg 20 age ‘Soon you’ll really be twenty years old. First.” in the situation in which someone offers it on condition that the addressee read it. though -lee is not always to be translated be going to. reach-prfut While -x. the data suggest two differences between the two.past tenses in the spoken language b. An interesting contrast is that between (167) and (168) below. they gloss as ‘the day is almost over’.loo. In the latter case. 187).’ (Luvsanjav et al. there is no question of intentionality (notwithstanding the fact that gex often conveys intentionality). Či You b. mom. the addressees may have given evidence of their imminent departure. Since this example concerns natural phenomena.mn/read_book.40 It is not inherently indicative of intentionality. Za eej. the form of the sentence does not say so. 171. 1988: 87) Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 188) emphasize the immediacy conveyed by -lee by glossing (171a) as ‘are you leaving [now]?’ (their square brackets). as when the waker utters (169).j bai. Duu. 169. a. But. but (171b) as ‘Are you going to go?’ In both cases the sense is that the going in some sense is already in progress: in the case of (a). pass-past yuu? qp uu? qp 40 From http:// mycolorfulworld. the actual going may be well in the future. I’ll get up in just a moment. However.ee. Ta You (pl) c.löö. but the speaker has reason to believe that the addressee has determined to go. the “almost” simply emphasizing the immediacy of its ending.x go-ifvn öngör.tai boroo oro. nominal immediacy.elibrary.86 chapter two to the present. such as putting on their outdoor clothes and going to the door. Example (171c) (p. in the case of (b). If it is to be immediate. as (170) shows. Noise-com rain enter-ifvn say-impfc be-pres ‘There’s going to be a thunderstorm.. Cf. odooxon bos. Ödör Today yav. Za za odooxon bosloo at http://www.x ge.K.php?bid=66&page_id=24. though in (169) it does imply an intention. the future use of -ne can also translate be going to.wordpress.’ 170. there is likely no immediate evidence of imminent departure.com/ 2007/02/14/Шар-шувуу/.na. OK mom-rp just a moment get up-past ‘O. but the sense is simply that the prediction is based on the present conditions. .laa go-past yava. past tenses in the spoken language 87 The second difference has to do with contingency. “Be going to” in English conveys that the determining conditions are already met, and the future event is represented as planned, scheduled, or certain. The sun is going to rise tomorrow in the east; Christmas is going to be on December 25th; I’m going to finish this book, no matter what. But the will/shall future is contingent, and depends on future events. I can’t say at this moment that we’re not going to see the sun tomorrow, but if it’s very cloudy, we won’t. God willing, I will finish this book. That Christmas will be on December 25th is due to a number of preconditions, and if any one of them changes, Christmas may well be on some other date. One can think of a number of extremely unlikely events that would have such an effect. For example, if the calendar were so changed that December had just 21 days and the rest were tacked on to January, Christmas would be on January 4th. If we examine future sentences with -lee and -ne (172), we observe a difference in contingency and dependency on the current state of affairs. In (172a), the particle biz suggests some basis for likelihood, or at least possibility; it is a little like the question “so you’ll come back soon?.” Nonetheless, this is essentially epistemic modality: there is a basis for believing that the event will occur, but the event itself remains open, and may or may not occur. The example (172b) is different, in that presumably there is reason to believe that the event itself is more than possible—it is probable or even certain, all other things being equal. Perhaps the train is scheduled to leave in a few minutes, or perhaps there are all the signs of a train on the verge of departure. Finally, in (172c), both in the Mongolian and in the English translation, the future serves a kind of modal function. Neither the polite, interrogative form, nor its rather impolite and imperative declarative counterpart, you will put me through to 375, indicates certainty, and, as with any other request, it is open to the addressee to refuse (“no, I won’t”). The sense of will here is not quite that of the volitional will and not quite that of the future will. What these three disparate examples share, however, is the nature of the contingency in question. The future events are contingent, but if they depend on the present situation, they only do so indirectly. 172. a. Ta udaxgüi ir.ne biz dee? you (plural) soon come-pres perhaps particle ‘I hope, [sic] you’ll come back soon.’ (Luvsanjav et al. 1988: 155) 88 chapter two b. Odooxon xödöl.nö. just a moment depart-pres ‘The train’s leaving any minute now.’ (Luvsanjav et al. 1988: 156) c. Ta 375-d zalga.j you (plural) 375–dat connect-impfc ög.nö üü? do for someone else41-pres qp ‘Will you put me through to 375?’ (Luvsanjav et al. 1988: 226) Whether used for past or non-past occurrences, -lee is tied to the speech act situation, fundamentally a marker of proximality and evidentiality. But neither proximality nor evidentiality is objectively given. It is a subjective decision—albeit an unconscious one—on the part of the speaker how to view the situation in question, and hence which ending to use. 2.3. The Pragmatics of Immediacy The determination of when to use a distal (non-immediate), and when a proximal (immediate) form is up to the speaker, but is subject to a number of pragmatic factors. The judgement that “[-sen] is quite distant, [-lee] quite recent, and in midperiod they overlap” leaves open the question, for example, of how the choice of ending is made when the situation described is neither obviously immediate nor nonimmediate. Very likely, the choice is dependent on the discourse-functional purpose of the utterance, similar to the choice of tenses in metric tense systems. Thus what is immediate, or “distant” varies from context to context. The dichotomy of distant and recent, or non-immediate and immediate, is not dissimilar to the distinction of past and present perfect in European languages. Right after eating, the speaker uses the perfect: I’ve eaten. Hours later, the past is appropriate: I ate. But inbetween, the choice depends on the context of the utterance. If talking about the present situation resulting from the earlier eating or noneating, the present perfect is appropriate. “Have you eaten?” receives the reply “I have” or “I haven’t.” But if talking about the past situation, the past is naturally normal: “Did you eat when the others did?” receives the reply “Yes, I did” or “No, I didn’t.” 41 Literally, ‘give’. past tenses in the spoken language 89 In a similar way, -lee is used if the past event is directly linked to the immediate situation, and cannot be used otherwise. Bi irlee ‘I came’ can be said by someone who has just stopped, or been stopped; otherwise bi irsen is better. Thus “what country are you from?” is ta yamar ulsaas irsen be? (Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi 1995: 43), but, as we have seen, a question such as “where have you come from?” elicits an answer in -lee, like (151b). 151. b. Bi galt terg.eer I firey wagon-instr ‘I came by train.’ ir.lee. come-past Besides recency, descriptions of the form have also centred on present relevance, and it has consequently been called, inter alia: • Perfect assertive (Schlepp 1983: 37) • Perfect tense (Ramstedt 1902: 24; Grønbech and Krueger 1955: 36; Chinggeltei 1981: 87) • Present perfect—Praesens Perfecti, perfektnyj prezens, present of the perfect, etc. (Ramstedt 1902: 17; Poppe 1951: 80, 1955: 265, 1970: 130; Sanžeev 1964: 88) The present perfect in some cases is proximal like the -lee past in that the event or process in question continues into the present (173a), is imminent (173b), or is in the immediate past (173c). 173. a. I’ve {been awake/worked} all night. b. I’ve almost finished. c. I’ve {finished my chores/caught a chill}. But in other cases, the present perfect does not report on a eventuality in the immediate past. In the right context, for example, the situation illustrated in diagram 2 above, in which there is a gap between the past eventuality and the present time, could be reported using the present perfect, as Tom has eaten. Affecting the use and interpretation of the present and other perfect tenses are a number of pragmatic factors, including the context, the point of the utterance, and the nature of the eventuality itself. Thus a sentence with an activity verb like work (174a) would normally be interpreted as an experiential perfect referring to an indefinite time in a perhaps quite distant past when 90 chapter two associated with a characterization like as a fireman, but as a continuative perfect referring to an immediate past up to and including the present when associated with a temporal expression like all night (173a), while (174b), with an eventive verb like go (to the store) would most likely be interpreted as a resultative perfect, reporting a relatively recent event. Furthermore, the temporal frame affects the interpretation as well. Example (174c) would likely be interpreted as an experiential perfect because walking across the Sahara takes a long time, but (174d) as a resultative perfect, because walking across the room does not, and hence is more likely to be both immediate and relevant to the present state of affairs. But the context plays a role as well; if (174c) is a news item, it is likely to be “hot news” and hence recent, if not immediate, while in the context of discussing reasons for, or the circumstances surrounding, walking across the floor, (174d) might be experiential and non-immediate. 174. a. b. c. d. Tom’s worked as a fireman. Tom’s gone to the store. Tom has walked across the Sahara. Tom has walked across the room. In some cases of the resultative perfect, to be sure, the “present” is interpreted not as the time of utterance, the time of the speech act, but as an “extended now” defined by the relevant state resulting from the past event. For example, in the case of “Mother has gone to visit Uncle Matt,” the speaker’s mother may have literally just gone, may indeed still be en route. But it is equally possible that she went some time ago—hours, days, or even months—so long as her absence, and her journey and subsequent visit with Uncle Matt, endure without break. The meaning of “just” and its Mongolian equivalent sayaxan is variable and dependent on a number of pragmatic factors, as shown by such English examples as those in (175), and Mongolian examples like (176–178). In (175a), the commuters may have gotten off seconds ago, or minutes, but presumably have not been waiting long; in (175b) the sign had presumably not been put up in the last few minutes, but likely at least hours, and probably days, before; and in (175c), we are explicitly told that the hotel had opened days earlier. Having just gotten off a train is evidently a different matter from having just put up a notice or having just opened a hotel. past tenses in the spoken language 91 175. a. Commuters, who have just come off the train, waiting for the bus to go home, Lowell, Mass. (caption on photo; http://www.flickr.com/ photos/library_of_congress/2178248615/; at the present time no longer available) b. I have no idea if the man had some sort of political or cultural agenda (TVUUC had just put up a sign welcoming gays to the congregation), or if it’s just some lunatic acting for no reason at all. (http:// www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6288) c. He explained the hotel had just opened a few days ago. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ showthread.php?t=667994; at the present time no longer available.) 176. Blog.iin tör.sön ödör sayaxan bolo.v. Blog-gen be born-pfvn day just become-past (http://www.yes.mn/blog/?mb_id=ternaoda&id=455; at the present time no longer available.) ‘It was just the blog’s anniversary.’ 177. Xarin am’dral.iin maan’ anxnii xair sayaxan ir.sen. But life-gen our first love just come-past (http://www.setguul.mn/index.php?str=news-data&newsid=74) ‘But the first love of my life has just come.’ 178. Sayaxan id.sen öndög namaig zovoo.j Just eat-pfvn egg me-acc bother-impfc bai.na uu be-pres qp daa particle (www.sport-tsonh.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34& t=435&start=25&st= 0&sk=t&sd=a; at the present time no longer available.) ‘The egg I just ate is bothering me!’ Similarly, proximal -lee can be used in a wide range of actual time depths from the present (68, 179), depending on a number of pragmatic factors. The “present situation,” “speech act situation,” or “context of utterance” is not a given, but varies from situation to situation. The speaker is at liberty to represent one and the same past eventuality as either distal or proximal, just as the English-speaker can use the past or the present perfect tenses for the same event (180), and with greater or less distance of the eventuality from the present (181), depending principally on the purpose of the utterance, but also on a number of other factors. It would be wrong, however, to say that the choice of the ending is an option of the speaker’s, that the speaker is free to use whatever ending matches the way the speaker views the situation. The context affects the interpretation of the tense ending, so that, relative to the intended purpose of the utterance in the particular discourse 43 dax’ uls Guinea Bissau42-d xöl tav’. Has any native of Connecticut been president of the U. Tom has already eaten lunch. Hangin (1968: 24). it is not often used in the colloquial language. but in questions it occurs quite frequently with the interrogative particle [-üü]. Poppe (1951: 82). Poppe (1951: 80).loo fashion 2008 show begin-ifvn-dat ready become-past (http://www.? 2. Poppe writes43 “Als Prädikat mit der Verneinung ügei (-güi) bildet diese Form eine negative Entsprechung des positiven Präteritum perfecti auf -wa. which prefers the verbal noun of the perfect .”). a. Spoken -v and the Past Tenses in Questions In speech. 68.. Furthermore.com/?p=658) ‘The “Fashion 2008” show is ready to begin. . Guinea Bissau. if any.”) Beffa and Hayamon (1975: 81) specify this as a postposed negation. and the same is reported by Street (1963: 122). Poppe writes. Bush has been president of the U.laa.’ b. b.92 chapter two or text. Of the -v ending itself. “ГОЁЛ 2008” naadam exle.44 42 43 44 In the Latin alphabet in the source. b. “In statements.S.d belen bol.suuder. 43rd country Guinea Bissau-dat foot set-past (http://www. -v occurs principally in questions. Kas’yanenko (1968: 20).S. for seven years. choices of tense ending.” (“This form does not appear with a negation. refer to the verbal noun in -ee. a. the speaker or writer may have few. George W. a.” writes Poppe (1970: 131). “Mit einer Negation kommt diese Form nicht vor.xe. bid odoo xool we now meal ‘we have now eaten’ id. and Vietze (1974: 44).mn/archives/1877) ‘We set foot in [our] 43rd country. .” (“As a predicate with the negation ügüi (-güi) [the form -sen] forms a negative expression of the positive ‘past of the perfect’ in [-v]. 181. .’ 180.amai.lee eat-past 179. Tom ate lunch at noon. and alongside -sen as a substitute for -v.4. echo question like 182) or an intention. Та ünexeer 1900 on. and functions simply to verify something unexpected by.” (http://urts120.html ) . for example. it is unlikely to occur in “normal” questions like “did you leave?” or “where did you come from?.sön ge. i. respectively.” Regarding (183–184) they 45 Nelson et al.past tenses in the spoken language 93 From what Poppe and others say. Over break. the hearer (as in i) or which is not clear or not intelligible (as in ii).) offer up questions in -l (the short form of -lee) with present perfect meaning as alternatives to questions in -sen (183–184).ling.php/Echo_ question). interrogative -lee is restricted. or surprising to. Traditionally grammarians have observed that all of the indicative endings can co-occur with the question particle uu/üü (thus.d tör. I ended up visiting my (unintelligible).upenn. 1970: 130. It generally lacks the characteristic word order of real questions. in the colloquial language -sen is the form -v takes under negation or in the absence of interrogation. (1998: 118) point out that -v and -sen “are largely confined in their distribution to written and spoken Khalkh Mongol. 187) that such questions as (185–187) “express that one has good reason to believe that the action will take place.46 By the very nature of the inferential ending. Street 1963: 120).edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook/box-questions .de/glottopedia/index. and also offer similar questions with the full form of -lee and with non-past meaning as alternatives to questions in -x (185–187). But questions in -jee often involve gej (-j is the short form of -jee used before the question particle) and are used to verify either a statement (as in a verifying.” Interestingly enough. for example. there is reason to believe that in speech -v is actually a form of -lee. Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 187f. there seem. I just returned from Ulaanbaatar. the kind that seek (new) information. 182.” 46 “An echo question is a question that directly takes up (or ‘echoes’) part of an uttterance made before.j üü? You (plural) really 1900 year-dat be born-past say-past qp ‘Are you really saying you were born in [the year] 1900?’ “not believing [what you said]” Similarly. Kullmann and Tserenpil note (p. Poppe 1951: 79. It may repeat all (i) or part (ii) of a preceding utterance.—You just returned from Ulaanbaatar?! ii.uni-trier. to be no examples of -jee questions in either the Sanders-Bat-Ireedüi phrasebook or the one by Luvsanjav et al. it would seem that -v and -sen are in complementation. though perhaps not as restricted as -jee.—You ended up visiting who? (http://www.45 However. the context requires the same ending as in the question. although one witnessed the action.c. One indication that questions in -j(ee) and -l(ee) are not “real” questions is that the response to such a question never seems to employ the same ending as used in the question.’ ‘sonsson bil uu’ [sic]. Či 186. Či ter sonin medeeg news?’ 185. Ta 187. however. Thus a response such as tiimee ‘yes’ or ügüi ‘no’ is appropri- 47 Regarding examples (183) and (184). 48 Their alternative examples have the subjects či and ta respectively in (185) and ta nar and ta respectively in (186). October. the ‘yaval uu’ and the ‘sonsol uu’ are contraction[s] of ‘yavsan bil uue? [sic]. if a past-tense answer is appropriate. Ta šuudan { } yaval yavsan 184. where such matching of endings is quite common. It is not the ‘lee’ ending. The failure of “echo” questions to elicit such a response is due to the fact that the answer is not intended to be informative. Či { { { yavlaa yuu yavax uu untlaa yuu untax uu } } } uu? ‘Have you been to the post office?’47 { sonsol sonsson } uu? ‘Have you heard that interesting ?48 ‘Are you leaving (now)?’ ? ‘Are you going to sleep (now)?’ bosloo yuu ? ‘Are you getting up (now)?’ bosox uu One can hypothesize that the difference is due to the different functions of the two types of questions. requests for confirmation. “In these examples.. especially as regards bilee. ‘Bilee’ and ‘bil uu’ [sic] are used when the speaker [does] not remember the past action and he or she just wants to recall [it]. but merely confirmatory. but as far as I can tell. This is in contrast with questions in -sen and -v.” In other words. 183. this is just a typo. clearly further research is indicated. . Tserenchunt comments (p. to make sure if the action had happened before.” I’m not sure how how much of the account presented here this would affect. and of course the answer to a WH question (one containing a question word like what or where and seeking information.94 chapter two comment such questions are used “in colloquial language to express that one can’t remember. not real requests for information. rather than an answer of “yes” or “no”) may contain a verb. like -jee questions. “Yes” and “no” are often signaled in Mongolian by repetition of the verb. they are. 2008). in either case. At the same time. though only -sen occurs with ve (195. the character “Ulaan deelt” (“Red-robed”) replies simply “Ügüi”—‘No. apart from questions explicitly or implicitly in the present tense. as I read it. In fact. the past tense (190). (Questions in -v.” or “Yes. “Tsaad јоlooč čin’. I would say that the -v ending refers to the recent action.49 49 Tserenchunt comments (p. Hangin 1968: 24.. I do. that.” “I do. but not where the echo question is seeking to confirm a statement containing törsön. . there are questions in -sen as well: “[q]uestions are often expressed with this suffix” (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 184). or the present perfect. that -sen replaces -v in statements. As regards these specific examples and what I have to say about them. Or -v. when the character Baldan asks (188). .past tenses in the spoken language 95 ate. at least. is not in conflict with the general conclusions of the present work. is he squealing on you?’ uu?” qp Though in colloquial speech -v is largely restricted to questions (Street 1963: 122. questions in -sen may be the most common type.” There is quite a bit that could be said about this comment. in “Tamiriin ber” in Vangan’s volume Jiriin xümüüs (p. can occur without any question particle. the question of precisely what time spoken -v ranges over relative to both its use in questions and the use of both -lee and -sen in statements. I must let the discussion in this volume speak for itself.” and not “I know him” or “I know the Dalai Lama. depending on the context. the present in (199). just as the appropriate response to an English question like “You know the Dalai Lama?!” is usually “Yes.c. but then so can -sen. and both occur with uu/üü (189–194). or more than one of these (191). which. as in (197)).” It is predictable. Vietze 1974: 44). as is said. accordingly. “in the examples 189–200. for that matter. while the -san ending refers to the fact in past no matter if it is recent or distal action. 2008). and the past in (200). They are certainly more common than questions in either -jee or -lee.ј other driver your you-acc denounce-past ‘That there driver of yours. is by no means settled and evidently calls for further research. čamaig mata. . in questions they compete. October. . 196). which is translated by the present perfect in (198). 83). Though it appears.’ 188. an answer such as törsön ‘was born’ would be appropriate where the question is “what happened?” or “he did what?” (clarifying an unclear statement). -v may be translated using the present tense (189). In speech. not xaana.aa züdre.v üü? You (plural) this book-acc see-past qp ‘Have you seen this book?’ or ‘Did you see this book?’ (Street 1963: 122) 192.php?type=N&item_id=4965) ‘Where did you come from?’ 50 Sodnomdorj comments that this should be either xaa or xaašaa.mn/show.öör You (plural) vacation-instr ‘Did you go on vacation?’ yav.geocities.” The source had axa instead of ax.d yava. I have found only one other Web page with xaana in this construction. qp religion worship-ifvn freedom-gen for (http://www.cgi) ‘Where did [the/your/my] brothers go?’ ve? qp 196.’ Yaagaad pilgrim. at the present time no longer available. at the present time no longer available. Či am’draliinxaa utga učr.php?table=news&id=16.iig üze.jp/yz_0084/light/light.v üü? You (plural) way-dat-rp tire-past qp ‘Are you tired from your trip?’ (Street 1963: 122) 190. ‘Why did the Pilgrims come to America? To gain religious freedom.ineehuu. Či xaan.mn/forum/ index.com/print.x erx čölöö.com/blog/view/id_806/) 197.son uu? you one’s own life’s meaning-acc find-past qp (www. Ta ene nom.aas ire.čuud (anxdagčid) Amerika.d irsen why pilgrim-pl (pioneers) America-dat come-past ve? Šašin šüte. Ta zam.d. with xaašaa the “most correct.php?Uildel=ShowThread&TiD=1979&P= 0. Ta gantsaaraa yav.v uu? That school-dat go-past qp ‘Did he go to school?’ (Street 1963: 122) 191. ax nar xaana50 yav.) ‘Did you go alone?’ 193. Ter surguul’.san younger brother pl where go-past (cgi.96 chapter two 189.) ‘Have you found the meaning of your life?’ 195. Ta čölöög.harp.tsahimurtuu.nij tölöö.san uu? You (plural) alone go-past qp (http://www.naizuud.v? You where-abl come-past (http://www.san go-past uu? qp 194.iig ol. raising questions about the writer’s command of at least written Mongolian. . mn/index. and none with either xot ruu or xotruu.m?p=29).) There are numerous such examples in the Sanders-BatIreedüi phrasebook (e.aa.mn/weekend. That person Darxan city-dat go-past qp go-past ‘Has he gone to Darkhan?’52 ‘Yes. Ta al’ xot. In contrast to questions in -jee and -lee. one with xot (quoted from another phrase book). Who go-past Father go-past ‘Who went?’ ‘Father went. 52 My transcription.lamongols. This would seem to support Sodnomdorj’s native-speaker intuition in regard to this example. xot. Ta You (plural) Ügüi.’ (Sanders-Irredüi 1995: 48) I marry-impfvn-neg 200.sen. it is instructive to consider the rather different uses the two endings in question are put to.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 78) In this context.’ (Sanders-Irredüi 1995: 44) 51 Sodnomdorj comments that this should be either xot or xot ruu. No uragla. plays.mongolnews. (202–204). . Bi . . or Web forums.san? Aav yavsan.oos ir. .san uu? Yavsan.php?n=1466). 201.’ (Sanders-Irredüi 1995: 28) 199.php?post_id=39656). . but there seem to be no similar examples in phrasebooks. .d51 yav. .net/post. Kullmann and Tserenpil pair one question in -sen (207a) with an answer in -lee (207b). I . Immediately preceding ruu yavsan uu on these pages were the unsuffixed nouns or nominal expressions. ‘No. 199.. (Ter xün) Darxan xoto. and one with an answer in -v (208). the phrasebook by Luvsanjav et al. nomiin san (mongolhel . mod (zuud. and the textbook by Kullmann and Tserenpil (200. (Recall that the usual negation of -sen is not -sengüi. .banjig. or at least the tense.com/content/view/3366/39). I’m not. . 206). I found 32 Web examples. interviews. the responses to those in -sen (also -sengüi) quite often involve a repetition of the verb.güi. xoyor uul (www. town-abl come-past ‘I’m from the town of. For ruu yavsan uu.blog. Afganistan (www. Xen yav.past tenses in the spoken language 97 198. 198.g.san marry-past uu? ‘Are you married?’ qp bi uragl. 205. but instead -eegüi. etc.sen be? You (plural) which town-abl come-pfvn qp ‘Which town are you from?’ b. 201).blog. a. I found no Web pages with xotod in this construction. (he has).oos ir. san uu? You what-gen meat take-past qp ‘What kind of meat did you buy?’55 b. . Minii aav gol ruu yav. Ta zax.sen...’56 (p. Ta xeden on. a. 2008) says that uu here should be be.d tör. a. he uses ‘avlaa’.98 chapter two 202. Their gloss is ‘Where did your father go last night?’. My father river towards go-past ‘My father went to the river. They can add some new information or emotions. 56 Tserenchunt (p. the person who answers the question refers to the action he just has done. 55 Tserenchunt (p. . Činii aav xaašaa yavsan be? Your father to where go-past qp ‘Where did your father go?’54 b.sön. I cow-gen meat take-past ‘I bought beef.san. 1998: 214) uu? qp 203. 1998: 42) be? qp 205. 1998: 254) 204. a. .sen be? That what towards stone throw-past qp ‘At what did he throw stones?’ b. Ter yuu ruu čuluu šid.’ (Luvsanjav et al. Bi üxr. of course. So.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 99) 206. Take-past take-past ‘Yes.iin max av.sen. See-past ‘Yes. which doesn’t match their example.’ (Luvsanjav et al.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 99) 207. a. . . October.d tör. Av. .c. Či yuu. October.iin tasalbar av. Because in real interaction people do not follow the [form in the] question. Ter tsonx ruu čuluu šid.” There is an artificial quality to many 54 .san You (plural) market-gen ticket take-past ‘Have you got a market ticket?’ b. a. 80) 53 A traditional Mongolian folk dance.san.sön You (plural) how many year-dat be born-past ‘When were you born?’ b.nii max av. That window towards stone throw-past ‘He threw stones at the window. a. 2008) comments that “In this example. Bi 1930 on. I 1930 year-dat be born-past ‘I was born in 1930.laa. Ta biyelgee üzsen üü? You (plural) biyelgee53 see-past qp ‘Have you seen the body-shaking dance?’ b.’ (Luvsanjav et al.c.san av. Üz. however.son be? Dorj-acc what-instr elect-pfvn qp ‘As what did (the people) elect Dorj?’ b. Thus immediately following example (188) above.iig yuug. In the play “Xuvia bodogčid” in Jiriin xümüüs (on p. ‘yes’. a. a.v.iig ang. thank you. Sain yav.past tenses in the spoken language 99 208. 90). to judge what is most natural in a given context. to which Jamts begins his reply as in (213b). an on-line Chinese/Mongolian phrase-book (http://www. but in a different form and in a different context. but the reply is simply sain irlee. Dorj.qingis.ј ire. but. Šine new darg. contrary to what the grammatical tradition would suggest about the relationship between -v and -sen. (211b). Dorj. not only is -v not used (since it is not an affirmative form in the colloquial language).ј ir.iig leader-acc üze. Similarly.aar songo. 12) the question (210a) appears immediately above the statement (210b). but in this case. .lee.’ (p. ‘yes’ is expressed by üzlee.htm) gives the question (211a) just above what is clearly intended as the proper response.aar songo. 58 In “Tamiriin ber” (p. the question (212a) elicits the response (212b). (p. In an interview on a Web page.com/monggolkiril. Here the verb is repeated. 211). Sonomxand asks (213a).’ examples given in textbooks and phrase-books.iin axlagč. 57 In examples (210–213) the corresponding forms are underlined. Nütsgen deelt (“bare-robed”) asks (209) (‘did you see the new leader?’). the character Sambuu asks the same question. when the verb is repeated in the answer. to which “Red-robed” replies. 209.v üü? Well go-impfc come-past qp ‘Did you have a safe (pleasant) journey?’58 b. -v is replaced not by -sen. 94) In the case of -v questions. which is clearly intended as its response. But the -lee form teglee seems to be a reflection of -v in the same way as irlee is a reflection of irev in (210.57 210. It is almost impossible for the nonnative-speaker. 28).v see-past üü? qp In the phrase book by Luvsanjav et al. but by -lee. however. Sain yav. Well go-impfc come-past ‘Yes. Dorj-acc class-gen leader-instr elect-past ‘(They) elected Dorj as class president. ’ (http://nutag.le try-past ‘I tried them. 60 . 214.lee.v You just come-past ‘Did you just come?’ b. ‘Yes. 63 The whole text of (214) (and of 215) is in the Latin alphabet in the source. — Saixan šinel. ü is represented as v.100 211. — Ta saixan šinele. 214.mn/forum/viewtopic.v üü?61 run around-impfc try-past qp ‘Did you try sports?’62 — üz. . Often in Cyrillic script.g. come-past üü? qp 212. However. a.’ üü? qp üü? qp There are many examples of -v questions in forums on the Web (quite often presented in the Latin alphabet. 61 The front vowels transliterated in the present work as ö and ü are generally represented in the Latin alphabet on the Web as oe and ue respectively.lee.. 62 I was unable to check the context before this page disappeared. Toglox has a very wide range of meanings. — chi video. in -lee (as in 214).j üze. but I suspect something like ‘playing sports’ was the intended meaning.v You (plural) fine “renew”59-past ‘Did you have a good New Year’s?’ b. Sain Well chapter two ire. and nearly all the responses to these questions are. a. Či saya ire. a. as o and u. occasionally. Fine “renew”-past ‘I did. .lee60 .g ni üze. as here and in the next example.php?start=105&t-1836)63 215. at least one uses -sen (215). Sain Well b. as we would expect. the original orthography is copied here.’ = ‘I did.v you video-acc the see-past ‘Did you see the video?’ 59 üü. . . And example (216) parallels üzev (in an embedded question) with üzsen. e.’ (guitar. Literally ‘did so’. — toglo.mn/content/view/820/1/) 213. .v come-past ir. and sometimes in the Latin. 215). Teg. . qp The reference is to celebrating the new year. com/a/1846/2ki.t house-dat üze.edu/etext) Apparently. everything be-impfvn-acc see-pfvn copp (http://gospelgo.g what-acc ögüülrüün. verb form. . Baatar this book-abl 2nd chapter-acc read-past ‘Baatar read the 2nd chapter from this book. except in the pages of Kullmann and Tserenpil’s grammar.iig unši.v? Baatar this book-abl what-acc read-past ‘What did Baatar read from this book?’ b.d Xijxie n’ see-past say-pfvn-dat Hezekiah topic marker Ted they n’ topic marker minii my ger. .oos 2-r büülg. .’ (2 Kings 20:15 in King James version.com/forum/loftversion/index. saying: činii your ger. 87) The fact that responses to -sen questions generally employ -sen suggests that the responses to -v questions should likewise repeat the verb. see-past ‘I saw it.gaa. All the things that are in mine house have they seen.t house-dat xamag bai. That -v normally elicits a response in -lee.’ = ‘Yes.sen.oos yuu. Baatar ene nom. no responses to interrogative -v use -v . a.virginia.’ (p. at the present time no longer available. Baatar ene nom. and none of these is accompanied by a reply in -v.’ (www.64 217. . 2Kings 20:15) ‘What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered.html. .g unši.asiafinest. where the question (217a) is matched with an answer (217b) using the same.lib.) 216. they are likely not readily used in speech.past tenses in the spoken language 101 — üz.v. . .php/t75847. and must occur under quite restricted conditions.htm. That -v questions are appropriately answerable with -lee shows that such questions 64 I have been able to find few WH questions with a -v verb-form. If answers like (217b) occur at all. http://www2. since both endings are used to ask “real” information questions.sen bui. and that -lee is not used to form information questions. . -v. Ted they n’ topic marker yuu. .v ge.sen . argues for -v being the form -lee takes in information questions in the colloquial spoken language. .g üz. Similarly. and that marked by -jee the “indirect knowledge past. The endings -v and -sen.” since it is restricted to questions. spoken.” He calls the -lee past the “direct knowledge past. belong to the anaphoric tenses.. for example. 2002: 149). It is to this reference time. they appear to be neutral. Deictic and Anaphoric 3. or otherwise communicated). though -v may be proximal in presupposing an eventuality closely linked to the speech act situation. as described. not the utterance time itself. But what of the past tenses in -sen and -v? In evidentiality. who writes of the -v ending that it “doesn’t indicate whether the situation was known directly or indirectly to the speaker. written. it is inadequate to fully capture the range of—and the restrictions on—the uses of these markers. . the other distal and inferential. which serve to directly relate the time of the “eventuality” or “occurrence” (the time of the event or situation reported) to the time of the speech act (the “utterance time” at which the sentence is “uttered”—i. the question is phrased using -sen and it receives an answer in the same tense form.65 While this picture is correct and insightful as far as it goes.” something newly discovered.e. the pluperfect tense of European languages (as in Tom had eaten) locates the state or event at a time earlier than “now.. the speaker. i. the one proximal and evidential.e.” is described as “relatively colorless” (Street 1963: 22). even witnessed by. Where the context is such that the speaker makes no such presupposition. spoken -v cannot be accounted “evidential. on the contrary. Reference Times The past tenses marked with the endings -lee and -jee are polar opposites. The past tenses marked by -lee and -jee belong to the deictic or absolute tenses. their relationship to this deictic centre being mediated by a reference time. by Song (1997: 184. that they directly relate the time of the occurrence. In particular.” something known to. 3. a further contrast must be pointed out. proximal answer. However.102 chapter two presuppose a recent. which relate the time of the eventuality only indirectly to the time of utterance.1. without specific modal value. The -v or “neutral past.” but it 65 The glosses and terminology have been slightly altered to bring them into conformity with those used in the present work. In (219). but it is also prior to some presupposed time which is itself in the past. e. Young men began to grow their beards in a show of unpretentiousness. presupposed in context. induced in this way by the context. referring expressions—including those with temporal reference—are generally interpreted as relevant to their context. as opposed to Tom ate lunch. The reference time may be implicit. many Muslims abandoning their European fashions for a more modest and traditional garb. young men and women in the second sentence are understood as referring to those in Egypt. That is. Egypt became considerably more conservative. presupposes some reference time other than the utterance time. daraagiin ödör ‘the following day’ is understood to refer to the day in December.iin Uotertaun xölög ongots . (http://viviansalama.g. . In the case illustrated in diagram 3. In that illustrated in diagram 4. Compare diagrams 3. by dint of placing the occurrence at a time that is itself prior to a reference time which is already in the past. succeeding a day implicitly referred to in the earlier sentence (since ‘in December of 1924’ entails ‘on a day in December of 1924’). month-dat America-gen Watertown ship . 1924.. since the preceding sentence concerns that country. . it is also in the past..past tenses in the spoken language 103 time Tom eats UTTERANCE TIME (“now”) Diagram 3 time Tom eats REFERENCE UTTERANCE TIME TIME (“now”) Diagram 4 does so only indirectly. 218. . Tom’s eating is in the past..wordpress. 1924. in (218).d amyerik. com/2005/08/27/the-future-of-the-muslim-brotherhood-2/) 219. more women began veiling their hair. 12 sar. 12 1924. In a discourse (by which term we mean here written text as well as oral discourse). a sentence like Tom had eaten lunch. 4 above. Temporal references likewise may be implicit. ’ (http://www. out of context. The following day. Tom ate dinner means simply ‘Tom has eaten dinner before now’. Some temporal adverbials always refer to the time of the eventuality itself. perhaps most. Sentence adverbials typically refer to the reference time. Verb-modifying adverbials typically modify the time of the eventuality.php?t=4105&postdays=0 &postorder=asc&start=15&sid=7327ed038c37b709ec6e47e5ab802ebe) As it happens.. the sentence Tom ate dinner means ‘Tom ate dinner at the time that the rest of the family sat down to lunch’ and we may diagram this sentence as in diagram 5.d.j go-impfc bai.. Reference times may be rendered explicit within a particular clause or sentence by an adverbial or other expression.aa be-ifvn-dat-rp . . ‘In December of 1924.. But in (221) (possible in North American English). but many... as in diagram 4. .mn/forum/viewtopic.x.ruu New Orleans-towards yav. Every one else is ravenous. Example (222d). is confusing. He [already] ate dinner. three points in time.. . in principle. and others always pertain to the reference time. following day the .104 chapter two Šine Orlean. . but which coincides with the time of the eventuality. 220. when the American ship Watertown was going to New Orleans. as in (222c).. . Daraagiin ödör n’ . When it came noon. though (as in diagrams 5 and 6) two of the three points may sometimes coincide. 221. he been up for eleven hours and it had been six hours since his last real meal. since Reichenbach (1947) the mainstream of thought has increasingly viewed the meaning of even a simple tense like the preterite (simple past tense) as involving. The rest of the family sat down to lunch.. Tom’s schedule was out of synch with the rest of the world. . and may strike one as a little odd. adverbials may do either. Tom ate dinner. they may thereby create ambiguity. Thus (222b) seems more normal than (222a).. and thus.. many uses of the simple past tenses of European languages—indeed of all languages—actually presuppose a reference time that is different from the utterance time.. Although traditionally the simple tenses are analyzed by grammarians as involving only two points in time. as shown in diagram 6. But Tom isn’t. with its reference-time-marking already and ambiguous at noon.. Thus in a context such as (220). .monstudnet. . as in diagram 3. as in (224a). but in (224) today. it was not the case that John had time for lunch. what is called here anaphoric) and indefinite (deictic) tenses.66 In (223) it was not the case that at noon John ate lunch. d. Deictic. since the reference time is the same as the time of the eventuality. and Anaphoric Tenses In the case of a deictic past tense. a specific reference time prior to the time of the speech act. or implicit. John never ate at noon. . Thus temporal adverbials can refer to the reference time as well as the time of the occurrence. the time of the eventuality is simply prior to the present. Tom had already eaten lunch. a. and the utterance time is a given. Temporal adverbials apply to the time of the eventuality. b. there is no other time for them to refer to. Thus (223) means that in the past. At noon. whether explicit. obtained at. 3. c. Tom had eaten lunch. as in the second sentence of (224b). 66 It was Barbara Hall Partee (1973) who pointed out the differing interpretations of negation with definite (that is. And negation can have narrower scope than a temporal reference. At noon. Definite. Negation has wider scope than any temporal expression. Tom ate lunch at noon.past tenses in the spoken language 105 time Tom eats = REFERENCE TIME UTTERANCE TIME (“now”) Diagram 5 time Tom eats REFERENCE TIME = UTTERANCE TIME (“now”) Diagram 6 222. Tom had already eaten lunch at noon. But in the case of an anaphoric tense the assumption is that the eventuality occurred or.2. En 1947. c’était la France. .” It is the definiteness of the -sen past that Tserenchunt and Luethy are referring to when they say (2000: 62) that it “is used to talk about an action that has taken place at a set time in the past (e. as in some modern literary fiction that (as it were) throws the reader immediately into the action. Today a whole load of work landed on John’s desk.asp) ‘For Piaf wasn’t [imparfait. (http://www. b. Consequently deictic tenses have been called “indefinite. like the imperfective past tense. 225. The habitual past tense of English is another example of a deictic tense (225). Le problème: il était marié. the latter invites the question “when are we talking about?. He didn’t have time for lunch. At noon. all that (222b) says that there was a time at which Tom ate lunch.com/siteFr/biographie/biographie_8864. (http://www. 226. . and (227c) likewise invites the question of “when?”. John didn’t use to eat lunch at noon.rfimusique. Piaf. The perfect tenses are indefinite.. which has both deictic (227a) and anaphoric (227b) uses.’ . perfective] the love of her life: the boxer Marcel Cerdan. Piaf.106 chapter two 223. Out of context.’ b. a. past (passé) of French is purely anaphoric. elle a rencontré l’amour de sa vie: le boxeur Marcel Cerdan.g. imperfective] France. 226) an example of an anaphoric tense. He would soon leave home. . she was [imparfait. . 224. Car Piaf n’était pas seulement Piaf. which refer to specific times. Edmonton used to be inexpensive. she met [passé composé. b. perfective. .htm) ‘In 1947. but it neither asserts nor presupposes what time that time was. of French. imperfective] only Piaf. and the conditional (future-in-the-past. the reader must assume such a time. When there is no presupposed reference time. . imperfective] married. a. I walked home yesterday).” while anaphoric tenses are “definite.” The preterite tenses of European languages have often been contrasted with the present perfect as definite or absolute tenses. the imparfait. The simple past of English is neutral in this regard. 222. Tom had already eaten lunch.de/~swessin/paris/piaf. 227. The problem: he was [imparfait.” but the former doesn’t.on-luebeck. Today John didn’t have time for lunch. But the simple. a past reference time. jusqu’à son décès en 2003. was [passé composé. was seems to characterize Pompeii as a whole. To some extent the interpretation depends on the temporal properties of the predicate expression (as well as those of the topic of the sentence).C.org/histoire/edith_piaf. Edmonton was inexpensive. Quelques mois après être devenue Rosicrucienne. implies that Edmonton is no longer inexpensive. chanson composée par Jean Dréjac. Thus the sense of was in (228d) is closer to the imperfect tense of French (était) than it is to the simple past ( fut).R. Edmonton used to be inexpensive. f. b. perfective] a member of AMORC until his decease in 2003. 225. which is not necessarily in contrast with the present situation. . but they require special contexts like the one in (228h). which renders was in the second sentence definite. Pompeii was a popular resort. c. normally has no such implication. jusqu’à sa mort. if it is understood to refer to ancient Rome. perfective] a member of AMORC until her death. elle chantait Soudain une vallée.O. Sentence (225). assuming as it most likely does. since it claims only to speak of the situation at a certain time. Expressions that refer to permanent properties invite indefinite uses (228f). e. Notice the ambiguity of (228e). which is interpreted out of context as indefinite.html) ‘Edith Piaf.) However. a été membre de l’A. rather than at a certain point in its history. That is not to say that alternative interpretations are not possible. When she was young. imperfective] Soudain une vallée. 228. qui lui aussi fut membre de l’A. out of context. there are contexts in which the past tense receives a sort of indefinite interpretation. who also was [passé simple. those that refer to temporary situations. popular French singer of whom one speaks regularly in the media.C.R. for example. Edmonton was inexpensive. whereas (228a). Edmonton was inexpensive when we vacationed there last year. Edith Piaf (1915–1963).’ To a great extent the interpretation of the past tense depends on the temporal properties of both the subject and the predicate of the sentence. chanteuse française populaire dont on parle régulièrement dans les médias. A few months after becoming Rosicrucian. a song composed by Jean Dréjac.past tenses in the spoken language 107 c. out of context. d.O.M. she was singing [imparfait. (http://www. definite ones (228g).rose-croix. (Compare 228b–c. as in (228d). but as definite if it applies to modern Rome. Rome was the centre of Italian life. a.M. Tom was a redhead. or just about to happen in the speech situation? The claim that something is proximal would generally seem to presuppose awareness. on the contrary. while -v and -sen. and the inferential distal. in which one characteristic has priority over another. and deicticness are filled by -jee and -lee. -lee is evidential and proximal. Likewise use of an inferential form presupposes a lack of awareness. In the case of the Turkish vowel system. which is defined by the distinctive features of backness. that still leaves a fair amount of redundancy in the system. in ancient Greek. In normal situations that would clearly indicate an occurrence “then. and rounding. Three oppositions yield 23 = eight possibilities. The proximal is naturally evidential. But where the Mongolian tense system is concerned.108 chapter two g. that is. an implicative hierarchy. whereas -jee is inferential and distal. as shown in figure 1 below.” not “now. Tom was in a good mood. 3.” and “there.3. while Mongolian has but seven of the eight only because back /ɨ/ merged with front /i/ in most members of the Mongolic language family. it would seem that figure 1 is not the most revealing way to diagram the tenses. however. in effect. An examination of figure 1 reveals something peculiar about the way we have organized the Mongolian tense system. distality. Sue was in for a shock. Given this redundancy. Both are deictic (indefinite). distinctions of voicing and . is happening.” not (typically) “here” (at least not lately). in the sense that features lower on the street automatically imply features higher up. are anaphoric (definite). When Tom returned from the hairdresser’s. and which forms. all eight possibilities actually occur. distality. An Implicative Hierarchy The tenses differ in evidentiality. a hierarchical structure. One reason for this is that oppositions may be neutralized. height. that is. It would seem better to represent them using a tree diagram. How could the speaker be unaware of what has just happened. and deicity. To some extent this is to be expected. h. only two of the eight positions defined by the three oppositions of evidentiality. eliminated. Distance correlates with evidentiality. and even if we consider -v and -sen to fill four of the remaining six places. Tom was a redhead! In summary. For example. The more members a set has. and the same is true.past tenses in the spoken language 109 evidential proximal -lee non-evidential distal -jee deictic anaphoric -v/-sen Figure 1 aspiration of stem-final stops are lost in certain positions. so that /p.ac. so that they function as if variants 67 Example from http://users.‘rub’ pemp. it must obviously be the case that there is an opposition in the first instance to be neutralized. where both morphology—word structure—and semantics are concerned. ph. the more features are required to distinguish the members from one another. b/ all appear as p:67 trib.pdf. . for example. under certain conditions. third person singular forms ( gegraptai. For an opposition to be neutralized.‘send’ graph. means ‘[it] has been written’). The forms in the righthand column are perfect passive indicative.ox. since -ne is in complementation with -x. Mongolian has (in effect) only one present tense.‘write’ te-trip-tai pe-pemp-tai ge-grap-tai It is not uncommon in phonology for distinctions in the sound system to be neutralized. certainly only one present tense affix.uk/~sjoh0535/Phonology12. If we don’t care about proximality. . -sen and -jee can interchange. any of the tenses can be used.110 chapter two non-past -ne past proximal (can only be evidential) distal -lee evidential -sen inferential -jee Figure 2 of one and the same affix. If a tense is inferential. But it is evidential. and if we don’t care about time. why not simply leave it at proximal and distal? The reason we need one more feature is that -sen. and to do so we need only say that it is non-past. The claim that -v is anaphoric is at odds with the observation made earlier that in questions. it is distal. But Figure 2 leaves -v to be accounted for. any of the past tenses can be used. Since proximal tenses can only be evidential. But the past tenses require more than one feature to uniquely identify each of them. or at least non-inferential. the first distinctive feature under pastness is that of proximality. it is past. further distinctions are irrelevant to distinguishing -ne from the past tenses. Since there is only one present tense. This problem opens a Pandora’s box of questions regarding the categorization of the tenses. too. is distal. But given the correlation of distance with modality. it serves as the counterpart of (the deictic) -lee. If we don’t worry about inferentiality. If we mark it as distal. Figure 2 would seem then generally to capture the potential neutralizations and their implications. That leaves inferentiality to distinguish -jee. and their relationship to use and interpretation in the spoken language.past tenses in the spoken language 111 To deal with those issues. . to the past tense in -v. thereby creating pitfalls for the unwary who simply refer. and shows that there are important differences between the two. chapter III discusses the use and interpretation of the past tenses in the written language. for example. . the former (‘went’) could simply be replaced by yavav or явав. they do differ. If written Khalkha and written Buriat are different written languages. In other words. whether in the Cyrillic or the vertical-Mongolian script.CHAPTER THREE USE AND INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST TENSES IN THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE 1. or indeed with the equivalent written forms. when Ramstedt writes (1902: 19) jawɒw (which today we would put in phonetic. Competing Grammatical Systems Up to now the discussion has principally concerned the spoken language. But while the three differ relatively little in their syntax or morphology. constitute completely different spoken languages. that the difference in media has no consequences for grammar. The grammatical tradition tends simply to speak of the modern Mongolian language. written language simply is the representation of speech in a visual medium. and that things like Ramstedt’s phonetic transcriptions or Poppe’s phonemic ones can freely be replaced by the transliteration of the corresponding written forms. It has implicitly been assumed that.1. and the latter (‘knew’) by medev or мэдэв. though this differs less than do Khalkha in the Cyrillic script and Inner Mongolian in the old vertical script. this fact may have a number of implications where grammar is concerned. The two written languages certainly differ in their spelling conventions and in their vocabulary. though much of the evidence has been drawn from written sources. or the Khalkha language. Spoken and Written Language 1. borrowings than either Cyrillic Mongolian or Buriat. the latter of which has many more Chinese. while written Khalkha presumably does not differ essentially from spoken Khalkha. each with its own grammar. and many fewer Russian. except insofar as written languages tend to resemble the . issues of vocabulary apart. but may not. square brackets) or Poppe writes (1970: 131) /medәb/. insofar as the spoken dialects underlie two different written languages. the inherent differences of written and spoken language apart. and over time. and especially since the break-up of the Manchu empire. and have little or nothing more to say on the subject. Not only do languages vary from place to place. using a version of the Cyrillic alphabet. southern. producing different stages of the language—such as Middle Mongolian and Modern Mongolian—but in one locality at one time there may be differences in the speech of different sociologically-defined groups. we should not be surprised to find some strong differences in vocabulary and syntax. Such variation is principally on the sociolinguistic level. where the written language is largely based on the spoken language of centuries ago. more formal registers of the spoken language than they do the lower. at the very least. producing geographic dialects. For that matter. traditional accounts assume. on this view they are to be attributed largely to dialectal differences in the spoken language. the language of one and the same speaker 1 Although Nelson et al. if not in other aspects of language. But little consideration has been given in the Mongolistic literature to variation within a delimited linguistic community such as Khalkha. By now it has become a commonplace in much of the linguistic literature that a label such as “English” covers a very wide range of linguistic phenomena differentiated by all sorts of sociological variables. that written Khalkha is simply the representation. or between different forms of written language corresponding to the same spoken language. Given the rather different histories of the northern.1 That is. and central Mongols since the break-up of Genghiz’ empire.114 chapter three higher. and sometimes there are stark differences between spoken and written language as well. they seem by this simply to refer to the difference between written and spoken language. which is very nearly the case with Kalmuck in Cyrillic script and Oirat in vertical script. of the corresponding spoken language that is the modern development of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia. as for example between spoken and written Inner Mongolian. If there are grammatical differences between these three written languages. in essence. just as Mongolian in Inner Mongolia is considered the written counterpart—using a modernized version of the old vertical script writing system—if not quite the written representation. more colloquial ones. . which in turn is simply the modern development of older Mongolian in most of what used to be Outer Mongolia. of spoken Khalkha. (1998: 117) cite “markedness for style and register” as one of the differences between the past tenses. so that.past tenses in the written language 115 may vary. In French and these dialects of other languages. Below we shall argue that (Khalkha) Mongolian. but the imperfect (imparfait) as well. and that this is very much the case in particular where the past tenses of the verb are concerned. but even in this present work. . In the present work. Written French per se can reveal little reliable information about the use of the past tenses in spoken French. is drawn from written sources. the present perfect form is theoretically ambiguous. which has present-tense and perfective uses in the colloquial spoken language that are unknown to formal grammar. and this is true not only where the two passés are concerned. the old preterite (simple and/or perfective past tense) has been replaced in colloquial speech by the present perfect. though generally written languages tend to be standardized and formal. while spoken language is at best a semi-tamed beast. ranging from highly informal to almost as formal as the written standard. and ‘I sang’ is je chantai. appropriate to more formal contexts. and less formal. is a language with competing grammatical systems that distinguish spoken and written language. the reader will have noticed that much of the evidence for spoken language used not only by the older grammarians. as in classical Latin. more colloquial (lower register) forms appropriate to less formal contexts. but between more formal (higher register) forms. which (ironically) descends from the Latin perfect tense. If written Mongolian really does use the tenses in a rather different way from spoken Mongolian. and Spanish. for example of Italian. too. but of colloquial and formal language. the past tense continues to be represented by the historic simple past (passé simple). German. Thus in spoken French j’ai chanté means both ‘I sang’ and ‘I have sung’. we are specifically interested in competing grammatical systems. In written French. In some other languages the distinction may be one not of spoken and written language. at least out of context. A classic example of this sort of thing is the past tense system of French and of dialects of a number of other Western European languages. First. is this justifiable? What does it say about the validity of the written evidence used here (and elsewhere) in arguing for analyses of spoken language? The example of French is not encouraging in this regard. not only between their written and spoken languages. as it is in French. however. The claim that the past tense systems of spoken and written or colloquial and formal Mongolian differ creates a couple of complications here. The -v past tense and that in -sen differ from both of these. They are neutral in evidentiality. are polar opposites. This. to represent speech. discourse structure. . not deictic. less “standard” (lower-register) language. the other colloquial. we shall see. on the whole. and not only in the case of transcriptions of speech. how do we tell the variants apart? When is it appropriate to disregard the difference. there is no question that the past tense endings are distinct both in meaning and use. raises at least two further questions: are there only two versions of Mongolian. or even just of Khalkha. perhaps. one formal. pragmatics. standard.2. written language (Mongols are. Such things as e-mail and blogs routinely use what is essentially a written form of spoken language. say. The endings -lee and -jee.116 chapter three The second problem is that the distinction in Mongolian is only partly between spoken and written language. and usually written. though neutrality in this case means. 1. writing is used. and largely spoken? And second. Thus sometimes we are justified in utilizing written data. This. more “standard” (higher-register) and more colloquial. and sometimes it is not. but is independent of it. Only in distality do they truly resemble either of the two. Their opposition in distance from the speech act situation and in evidentiality affects their interpretations. and when does that difference matter? Here sociolinguistics. and restrict elements of their co-text. . as we have shown. such as subjects and adverbials. and philology meet in a complex consideration of just what we are claiming when we speak of this or that feature of the modern Mongolian language . . highly educated and literate people). but rather because they specifically intend (albeit. non-evidential. is an issue particularly in regard to the relatively ephemeral language of the Internet and the World Wide Web. effectively. For one thing. of course. The Non-equivalence of the Written Tenses Why do we claim that there is such a wide gap between the tense systems of spoken Mongolian and written Mongolian? In the spoken language. They are anaphoric. sometimes. unconsciously) for their writing to represent speech. non-standard. that they occur with. and not necessarily because the writers are ignorant of the standard. no matter how many Mongolic languages there may be. of spoken and written language. the contexts and genres in which they occur. but is also partly between more formal. for example whether it referred to all the past tenses being interchangeable. it has long been observed that it is far from clear how. the various past tenses differ. This is not what the results of the Intuition Test revealed (table 5 below). all other things being equal. and he was asked to fill them in. Table 5. we would expect. this would be a striking difference between the written and spoken languages. explaining the total of 12. Sodnomdorj has said there there is “no difference between the endings. Summary of Intuition Test results 3 Original\Replacement -jee -jee 11/12 (92%) -lee 3/11 (27%)3 -sen 2/5 (40%) -v 2/3 (67%) 11 2 -lee 3 1 1 -sen -v -ne 1 6 3 2 2 2 I am not certain about precisely what he meant by this. that any ending would have a roughly equal chance of being substituted for any of the others or replaced by any of the others. that there would be no preference for any particular ending relative to the original one. The first question then is whether the past tense endings in the written language are differentiated or not. cannot be taken as definitive. [-sen] can be used in place of [-lee].”2 Tserenchunt and Luethy (2006: 108) write. More recently the claim has been made that at least some of the written tenses are freely interchangeable. Though this casual. and is used for past actions only” and “[i]n many cases. or even if. “The [-v] ending can be used in place of the [-lee] ending in writing. involving a very small sample of data and only one test subject. We have seen that the early Western students such as Ramstedt commented on the difficulties of this issue.past tenses in the written language 117 But in the written language. informal test. it nonetheless is strikingly suggestive. even given the limited nature of the questions it was intended to answer. 3 Sodnomdorj found -lee and -v equally possible in one case. To test this. . Sodnomdorj was given a set of written passages drawn from the Internet from which the past tense endings had been removed. If the claim was correct that the past tense endings are freely interchangeable. so the example was counted towards each.” If true. the “Intuition Test” was used. but -lee was used only once. Even more interesting are the results for -lee: in 4 of the 11 cases (36%). whereas -lee itself was the sole choice in only 2 of the 11 examples (18%)—half as frequently.ii 9 sar. constituting precisely 25% of the 12 choices). her opinion on was not the same as the version at the time of writing ( July 27. These results would seem to call into question the claim that the endings are freely interchangeable.d. To be sure. Fascinatingly enough. and the remainder would be distributed roughly equally over the remaining choices.wikipedia. Also supporting non-equivalence of the endings is the following observation by Tserenchunt Legden (p. (In the version of the article current on May 18.118 chapter three Most notably.4 4 The version of the article that I solicited. whereas the one nonoriginal replacement of -jee was by -v. but some of the content. we would expect the correct ending in about 25% of cases.aar 1939 year-gen 9 month-gen 1st-dat Adolf Hitler and Nazi party-instr . May 26. there were a total of 17 sentences ending in -lee. and received. has been preserved. despite the distal.) i.e. 2008). the only one of the endings to be so replaced. and (b) that in the one case in which it was not. And in one case. These both have -lee-form main verbs. factual context. Clearly this ending is distinctive and likely cannot simply be substituted for by one of the other endings. but these numbers are interesting.. -v was substituted for -lee. -lee was substituted for by the non-past ending -ne 3/11 (27%) of the time. the number of examples was too small in and of itself (only 3) to draw a conclusion from this result.org/wiki/Дэлхийн_хоёрдугаар_дайн). 1939 on.e. 92% of the time). The other ending in which a majority of examples were replaced by the original ending was -v.iin 1–n. the test involved too few samples to reach any statistically significant results. But other evidence suggests that it was no accident (a) that 2 out of 3 examples (67%) were correctly identified. -sen was correctly filled in 40% of the time (i. including such sentences as (i–ii). 2011. in 2 of the 5 cases).c. -jee and -v were stated to be equally possible. -jee was replaced by -jee in 11 of 12 examples in the text (i. The endings -sen and -lee were replaced by themselves only in a minority of cases. Adol’f Gitler ba Natsist nam. But while -lee does occur for itself very close to this 25% of the time (in fact. and -v not at all. However... especially as -jee was filled in for -sen as often as the original -sen was. 2008) regarding the Mongolian Wikipedia article on the Second World War (http:// mn. the replacement was -lee. But if replacement were truly random. . .past tenses in the written language 119 I just took a look at the Wikipedia article. strike the native speaker as incorrect on the pragmatic level.iin 30-n.san marry-pfvn exner Eva Braun. more or less—since he often commented on the (in)correctness of example sentences. .loo. And Sodnomdorj’s view that the tenses are interchangeable must be taken as referring to their semantics—after all. his intuition that the various past tenses are pretty much the same as one another.. However. invaded Poland .aa xamt amia xorlo. Sodnomdorj’s comment. with the intention of taking back the land lost in the First World War.loo..j . Eva Braun.’ . Hitler in his underground bunker on the 30th of April in the year 1945 committed suicide with his new bride. if a Mongolian language teacher takes a look at this article. on the one hand. Hence there is not necessarily a contradiction between. If the choice of a past tense were truly random. if a native speaker reads this article.d ald. In other words.ii year-gen 4 4 bairan. This article kind of shows a tendency of some languages that pragmatics and grammatics (not semantics) might not coincide. . the Germans.d šineer month-gen 30th-dat newly suu. Poland towards attack-past ‘On the 1st of September of the year 1939. and on the other. Pol’š ruu dovtol.j turn-caus-impfc ava. the results of the “intuition test.taig.” or any other term of approbation by which linguists save a sentence from being marked by an asterisk and teachers withhold their “red marks.” “grammatical.aa homeland-dat-rp Delxii world negdügeer dain.san gazar first war-dat lose-pfvn land erg. it would be impossible to declare such tense usages incorrect. In my opinion. many of the [tense] usages are not correct. the problem lies with what is meant by “acceptable. it would have quite many red marks.üül.x take-ifvn ge. and are largely freely interchangeable.” Tserenchunt’s comments on the tenses udirduul. usually from a pragmatic point of view.t. As Tserenchunt says in her comments.” The Wikipedia article contains sentences that while informative and hence not semantically ill-formed. given that everyone has some kind of background about the World War II. intend-impfc . . directed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.” or “correct.’ ii. Yag ene üye. . they are all past tenses.d Gitler gazar doorx Precisely this period-dat Hitler land under 1945 1945 on. wife E v a Braun-com-rp together with suicide commit-past ‘At precisely this time. he/she will get the information about the World War II. .d.aa residence-dat-rp sar.san Germančuud lead-pfvn Germans nutg. which is what initially prompted the query that evoked her response. b) do. but instead is pragmatic (they are used in different ways. whatever the grammaticality of (230c). Sodnomdorj accepted all of the altered forms.’ (http:// www.” In this test. the two endings can occur in the same contexts. but (230c) is of dubious acceptability. baiv is used because the author “[has] been talking about them. Thus the sentences (230a. they do not mean different things). and interpreted differently. Dos-gen prince Senlon be-past ‘The prince of Dos was Senlon. and mean pretty much the same thing. while in the sentence following it.jee.120 chapter three of the Wikipedia article. and the speaker was asked to check the passage for unacceptable forms. and. Donsar.” not previously introduced into the text (in fact. this is the first sentence of the story). In the Appendix. failing to note any unacceptable sentences. neither (230c) nor (230d) means what (230a. which appears to tend to support Sodnomdorj’s claim. Dos. at least in part. This is the “Reversal Test. Tense forms that differ in use and interpretation.v. This in turn suggests that their difference. (229b).5 and such comments by Sodnomdorj himself as that in (229a) baijee is used because the places named in the subject of the sentence are “new things.iin noyon Senlon bai. Lin gurvan otog uls bai.” 229.biirbeh. at the present time no longer available.) b.’ Interesting in light of the results of the Intuition Test reported above are the results of a second test. is most likely not semantic (that is. the original forms are in parentheses following the underlined changed forms. and Lin.com/modelues_php?name=News&file=print&sid= 1131. but not in meaning as such. Ter tsagt Dos. b) are both acceptable. can compete in the same context. relative to a given context). if any. a. Donsar. . That time-dat Dos Dongor Lin three nation be-past ‘At that time there were three nations. What the Reversal Test seems to show is that at the very least. 5 Many of the tenses in the article contradicted the predictions made by the present work. Dos. the endings -jee and -lee were replaced (in a series of short passages extracted from Web pages) by each other. uses. in that the speaker cannot say bi irjee. She was working until midnight and I was in bed listening to music waiting for her. in most contexts. and the same is true where evidential modality is concerned.past tenses in the written language 121 230. and the choice of one or the other is determined by factors that belong to sociolinguistics. and vice-versa. and saying bi irjee when one means bi irne. She worked until midnight and I was in bed listening to music waiting for her. (marcusaanna. had worked music waiting for her. If je chantai is a true sentence. without (potentially) triggering false inferences. But each is appropriate in its own range of contexts. while pragmatics has to do with the use and interpretation of linguistic expressions by a speaker and a listener. A difference of tenses or aspects could be either semantic or pragmatic. Since we are principally concerned with intentions.com/2007_01_01_archive. interpretations. c. in particular contexts. there is no difference where the two are concerned between their representations of extra-linguistic phenomena. reflected in the modality of that statement. then so is j’ai chanté. or writer and reader. they are both preterites. would work She until midnight and I was in bed listening to d. The difference between the French passé simple and the passé composé in its past tense use is not one of meaning. (In the same way an Englishspeaker who says I have read the newspaper when they mean I read the newspaper is likely.) But it is not the fact of the speaker having come that is at issue. Semantics has to do with the representation of non-linguistic phenomena. There is a big difference between saying bi irjee when one should say bi irlee. a. In a sense. the past tenses of Mongolian differ in their semantics. if he or she just arrived. and the like. that is. the meaning of which latter sentence really does bear a semantic difference from that of the former sentence. { } A comment is in order at this point on the terms “semantic” and “pragmatic.html) b. to the applicability of linguistic expressions to aspects of reality.blogspot. and not with differing . that is. past in tense and perfective in aspect. and to pragmatics. The difference is essentially stylistic.” Here semantic has been being implicitly identified with tense/aspect and pragmatic with modality. it is their attitude towards that occurrence. between the spoken and the written language. but not to semantics. This is of course not necessary. to stylistics. to lead the listener to the false inference that they have just or recently read the newspaper. our account of the tenses belongs in the realm of pragmatics. which are e-mailed. as in public addresses and other scripted speech in various media. and the like. organizing. But especially interesting from this point of view are the impromptu texts. non-governmental organizations. First. more informal and colloquial. we must be careful to specify what we mean by “spoken” and “written” in this context. unedited speech. written with little or no planning. text-messaged. writing may employ informal. 1. The Language of the Internet and Levels of Usage Because we are claiming that Mongolian is a language with distinct spoken and written grammars. forums. and more or less as spontaneous as speech. news items. not that of semantics. Further. While there are pages. writing may be the representation or transcription of spoken language. more or less like . The speech of the individual speaker in theory contains different levels of usage. chat-room dialogues. editing or re-writing. corporations. either for the purposes of seeming to be speaking. there are also pages that incorporate or consist largely or entirely of more or less spontaneous.3. For all intents and purposes the former are as much examples of written language as are print materials.) that approximate written documents and may incorporate or even consist of previously written and edited material. and pages of information posted by organizations (government agencies. more “spoken. or otherwise communicated. as in dialogue or quotations. and a bit of elaboration and explanation is in order. Such texts tend to be characterized by the lower. at least where the past tense system is concerned. This last case is frequently exhibited by the writing that appears on the Internet. colloquial language approximating spoken language. sometimes speech represents written language.122 chapter three real-world situations. the “abuse of language” (abus de langage) involved in equating semantics with distinctions of tense and/or aspect and pragmatics with distinctions of modality should occasion no confusion.” registers. such as Wikipedia articles. So long as that is borne in mind. or because there is no concern with formality or the rigid conventionalities of written language. and sometimes posted on the World Wide Web in blogs (especially their associated “comments” sections). while the latter are essentially examples of spoken language. etc. We have sampled here numerous examples of both. and conversely. Thus when we speak of the written and spoken languages we must be careful to bear two points in mind. more informal registers. more formal registers of speech. possibly “ungrammatical” (from the point of view of the standard language) language characteristic of the representation of colloquial speech in writing. but their colloquial spoken dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible. reflecting different registers (so that the same person might say cannot on one occasion and can’t on another). some Scots speakers speak a dialect of English in formal settings (perhaps at work or in school ) that is mutually intelligible with English English dialects. we should also bear in mind that just as the language of one and the same individual. lower-register. chatting casually with an intimate tends to discourage use of highly formal language and encourage that of colloquial language. non-spontaneous language is most apparent in Web-based materials. formal language. and appropriate to different contexts. and of colloquial. the written language tends to be similar to the higher.. a particular text or discourse may not represent a “pure” type of language. For example.past tenses in the written language 123 the standard. A quick. First. but may combine features of both higher and lower registers. International languages such as English. spontaneous writing such as hasty notes. are fairly uniform as standard. standard language generally characteristic of written texts and spoken discourses in the higher registers. spontaneous communications via e-mail. In general. speech in actuality. but it exists in . Portuguese. but Swiss German is in general not mutually intelligible with Standard German as spoken in Germany. oral language to graphic. written languages. what we really mean by “written language” is the formal. blog-commentating. Spanish. German. or written and spoken language. and by “spoken language” the informal. and the like. text-messaging. even if a monolingual—a speaker of one dialect of one language—contains a range of different usages. informal note or message in Swiss German is possibly written in a very different language from Standard German. Second. while casual writing is more like the lower. and which also may characterize informal. For example. and addressing a public group on a formal occasion has just the opposite effect. especially where the lower registers are concerned. etc. and of quick. Swiss German uses standard German as its written language. The gradient from spontaneous. In extreme cases the higher and lower registers are literally different languages or different dialects. but in informal settings speak a dialect which is not mutually intelligible with them. The Mongolian version of Cyrillic contains two letters found in few if any other Cyrillic alphabets. is as chaotic and anarchic as the Internet itself. period. have had a considerable impact on the language used on the Web and to a lesser extent in printed materials. not normally used in Mongolian. that is. This is not surprising. on-the-fly publication. instantaneously. or written by the children in Aldridge’s epistolary novel The Magnificent Mongolian. for dialogue in realtime. or even by <э> or <e>. The only really distinct feature of the Net is the ability to publish— and to respond to published—materials more or less instantly. indeed. is representative neither of the population-as-a-whole. These are not always readily available in hardware (such as keyboards) or software (such as fonts). . the Latin alphabet is surprisingly common in Mongolian Internet usage. and this is especially the case where Mongolian is concerned. even in real time. It is interesting to observe the language of the Internet. omniscient narrator (as in Wells’ Invisible Man) writes a rather different language than is “spoken” by Stevenson’s narrators. They allow for both spontaneous. Characters in a play or film can speak a decidedly non-colloquial language. unlike both speech and writing. which is also already used in Mongolian. and characters in a novel are capable of speaking a very colloquial language. so as a result <ѳ> is often replaced by <є>. The neutral. In some regards it is a third type of language. Most noticeably where Mongolian is concerned. though Internet use is much more widely distributed amongst the Mongolian population than in most other Asian countries. or very occasionally by Cyrillic <y>. <ү> is generally replaced by Latin <v>. for Web pages mix characteristics of both writing and speech. Expatriates have naturally been active in using the Internet and in creating a new Mongolian language for electronic communication. namely <ѳ> (ö) and <ү> (ü). but also for preparatory or remedial editing. indeed the population forming their authors. which are. Many of the peculiarities of Internet language do not touch on grammar. It allows the immediacy of speech to be approximated in writing. most countries. but they also allow for the recording and preservation of speech. nor of writers-ingeneral. principally English. The language situation on the Internet. For a language standardly written in a Cyrillic alphabet. but even in Mongolia itself foreign languages. and not only where Mongolian is concerned. and quite as rich and creative. or by <ї>. And the purposes of their authors. They may allow for conversation.124 chapter three print materials and recorded materials as well. orthography is innovative and informal. e.6 These adaptations are natural. the former MPR). but. including extensive use of abbreviations (like bna for baina and blaa for bailaa).past tenses in the written language 125 particularly in blogs. here č. or ue. One obvious effect of the influence of English and other European languages is the use of European and American words and names. both <ий> and <ы> generally become ii. the terminology of the entertainment (film and music) world (alternative. IP. and the like. phrases. and both <и> and <й> are i. It is hard to find a Web page in Mongolian with any contemporary reference that fails to contain at least some English—whatever language or script the rest of the page may be in. The transcriptions used are quite different from standard transliterations (such as the one used in this book): for example. where we would represent Cyrillic <x> by x. and (248) below. <ш>.. in either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. some might transcribe it as kh. The letters that combine the yod sound with a vowel—<я. ё>. based presumably on the phonetics (IPA [h]). forums. <ж>. representing IPA /x/. On the whole they represent a valiant effort to adapt the Latin alphabet (sans diacritics) to a language with a somewhat different phonemic inventory from English. especially those that follow the practices of textmessages. and the partial loan-translation поп од ‘pop star’). becomes u or ue. as here. and <ю> are represented usually (as in the present work) as y + vowel. Internet or Интернэт). Nonetheless. but it is also often represented as h. Best Original Song. u. <ү>. as here.7 commercial business terminology (ATM and banking or 6 For texts in the Latin alphabet with non-standard orthography (i. is oe. given the unschooled and ad hoc nature of the representations chosen. chat rooms. Umlauts and other diacritics are generally not used—<ч>. world wide web. but sometimes zh. here š. is j. though over time we should expect such representations to converge on an emerging standard and there is some evidence that that is indeed in the process of developing. Common words are those from computer jargon (computer. e is often simply represented as e. е. <ѳ>. (231g). becomes sh. the major current influence today on language in Mongolia (the Mongolian republic. However. astronomical sense. to the literate Mongolian eye such passages must appear somewhat uncouth. (231c). low angle shot. our ü. компютер—also компьютер or компъютер. transliteration). or even fuller expressions. 7 Od originally meant ‘star’ in the literal. our ö. . becomes ch. see especially examples (231b). Billboard). and consequently may approximate speech closely. etc. minii ‘my’. And sometimes the foreign term is glossed— or vice-versa: томьёо appears alongside term on that same page.. za in 231a–b. šüü (Cyrillic in 231f. One genre in which this kind of pseudo-oral language prevails is the blog. Commonly written in the first person. and pragmatic particles like dee (231d–e). In addition. such as Korea or Japan) than in a text written in Cyrillic (and in Mongolia). . films and other works of art (Citizen Kane). is more likely to occur in a text in Latin alphabet (often written and posted by an expatriate Mongolian in an English-speaking country or a country where English influence is great. corporations.. for example..com/2008/02/03/ alternative-rock-music/. Apart from first-person-centred references such as bi ‘I’. blogs generally adopt a spoken style. end ‘here’. RKO. bid ‘we’. and countries such as UNESCO. as алтернатив appears.wordpress. Макс Вебер ‘Max Weber’. and deictic temporal references such as önöödör ‘today’ and odoo ‘now’. which is more likely to use компьютер. Texts may also include emphatic forms. repeated). Such features serve to lend lend a personal. on the page http://musicstreamnsongs. ene ‘this’. as well as alternative. the language adopts features of speech such as interjections (e. sometimes. such as bolnoo in (231h) and tiimee (231i). and even where the blog itself has some pretensions to a literary style. and computer. though sometimes transliterated or transcribed into Cyrillic (Лив Тайлор ‘Liv Tyler’.126 chapter three банкинг). as well as second-person ta ‘you’. individuals (Liv Tyler). rather than impersonal. the names of foreign publications (e. Many Web pages are deliberately written in a colloquial-seeming style intended to read as if the writer were speaking to the reader. Sometimes both versions appear on the same page. Latin shuu in 231b).8 8 The translations in (231) are those of Tserenchunt Legden. and the like. as in 231c. quality to texts.g. and companies (Credit Suisse) are often presented in the Latin alphabet.g. especially as regards its deictic quality. tanii ‘your’. and US. the associated section of comments rarely does. Нью-Йорк Таймз ‘New York Times’). The glosses are mine. and abbreviations for international organizations. and šüü dee (231g). showing the interpretations of the passages by a native speaker. Many of these have Mongolian equivalents. Ингэ.ie [xüs. За асуулт.com/badaa/index.гүй л дээ. I hope there is no such thing.deg say-habvn shig [šig] like sana.x. It does not come through our website.php?id=zaluus&page=59&sn1= &divpage=1 &sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=hit&desc= asc&no=21) ‘All right.j grasp-impfc magadgvi possibly bai.uud.past tenses in the written language 127 231.bolor-toli. ge. be-pres modp (http://bolorcms.html) ‘It was written like this. I am sorry if I am misunderstanding.j grasp-impfc byryy [buruu] wrong tvi tvi9 phooey phooey bai.na shuu [šüü]. OK question-pl-dat your answer-vol Dölöö (http://bolorcms.j think-pass-impfc bai.iin] fool-pl-gen dund among .’ d.bal [bai.com glosses tüi as ‘faugh’ or ‘pshaw’ (= phooey or phui).ж ир.php?/archives/31–OpenOffice .’ b.x.аар ч Do like this-impfc write-past our site-instr modp ор. Za nuguu [nögöö] Choinom guai..дэг.’e].ууд.güi] be-ifvn-neg bi I bailgvidee [bailgüi dee] likely-modp byyryych [buruu č] wrong-modp xerbee [xervee] in case oilgo. .[‘request pardon’ = ‘apologize’] (http://mglclub. Maybe I am misunderstanding.ъя Дѳлѳѳ.’ 9 The on-line English/Mongolian dictionary www.net/xvv/2008/1/10956/Санал%20нэг%20байна.j be-impfc oilgo.html) ‘Dölöö! Let me answer your questions.php?/archives/31–OpenOffice . a.’ c... enter-impfc come-habvn-neg modp modp (http://blogmn. . Za za iim balai myyxai [muuxai] um [yum] OK OK such stupid bad thing bai.ад чинь хариул.com/data/view.-gen Teneg. pardon request.gda.üüd.iin [Teneg.com/badaa/index.ж бич.gvi [bai.n OK that Choinam Mr.жээ манай сайт.val] be-condc uuchilal xvc.html) ‘It seems like Choinyam’s “Among the fools”.. html) ‘I agree. Тийм11 шуу.оо. marrow.аад improve-pfc явдаг running тохиолдол ч бай.html) ‘Our people also do not improve and develop further when they invent something. бусда.вал бидний ирээдүй.com/2007/04/blog-post. oneself. be all right’.html) ‘Yes.php?/archives/31–OpenOffice .чих. It usually means ‘also’ or ‘the same’. Here the intended meaning is perhaps the sense of ‘the very thing.н.’ 12 ‘Become’ also means ‘be becoming.д мѳн finish-čix-condc our future-dat very10 ч их modp very хэрэгтэй дээ. Тэгээд ч манайхан нэг юм гарга. point. .php?/archives/31–OpenOffice .12 use-impfc become-pres-emphp (http://oluul.вал really do so-imp other-dat useful become-impfc be-conc ашигла. 11 Tiim and tiimee are often used simply to mean ‘yes. necessary modp (http://bolorcms. be proper. being.’ f. pith.html) ‘If we work together and finish this project then it will be really beneficial for our future.аад all unite-pfc энэ this нэг a томоохон big тѳслийг project-acc дуусга.х.’ h. go ahead.’ 10 Mön is difficulty to interpret (and to translate) here.ж бай. Бугдээрээ хамтр.128 chapter three e. self.com/badaa/index.аад Do thus-pfc modp our people a thing bring out-čix-pfc сайжруул. nature.чих. essence. kernel. modp (http://bolorcms.blogspot. the heart of the matter’ that it has in the expression mön čanar ‘anima.com/badaa/index.php?/archives/31–OpenOffice .com/badaa/index. You can use it if it is useful to other people.гуй шуу occasion modp be-ifvn-neg modp дээ.’ g. spirit’. soul. тэгээ тэг.ж бол.д хэрэг бол. So modp (http://bolorcms. php?task=read_content&content_id=1129. yosoor 13 This particular source is no longer available.ээ чи!!!!!! What qp-emphp you ‘Who do you think you are!’ (http://enhbaatar. the postposed pronoun.mn/) While the language of Web pages does exhibit some grammatical— specifically. 232.past tenses in the written language i. to some extent these simply follow from characteristics inherited from speech. they can’t own the word Pad either. Probably an example of this sort of sentence is this sequence from example (320). the emphatic vee. ofitsyeriin surguul’ gedgiig.dot. 71. a run-on sentence consists of sentences and/or sentence fragments loosely glued together in some way.ээ. These can achieve considerable length in speech. all mimic speech.com/all_marketers_are_liars/) In a largely hypotactic language like Mongolian. bagšiin surguul’d orox xuviar aa . . Юу в. Thus on the one hand we find sometimes a sequence of short. . verbless style.html)13 ‘Yes! Yes!’ In the following example (232). the laconic.mn/index.ehealth. for example: And. Bi ter üyed. So-emphp (http://bolorcms. (http:// sethgodin. just as Apple blew it with the word ‘book’ (Powerbook led to Macbook because they didn’t own the word power—IBM made them change it when the processor was changed—which led others using netbook. a characteristically spoken style. syntactic—peculiarities. here with a rough translation: Bagšiin surguul’d xuviarlagdaad1 baij2 baital3 ter üyed Bügd Nairamdax odoo Mongol Ulsiin said nariin tušaal garč4. or the equivalent of a run-on sentence. or (231c) above. but examples with this utterance are readily available on the Web—for example (as of May 20. or transformed into verbal nominals headed by a verbal noun.php?/archives/31OpenOffice . In a generally paratactic language like English. sentences. somewhat disjointed. as in example (i) in note 18 on p. which they don’t own at all).com/badaa/index. on http://www. so long as the structuring is not too complex. the tendency is to create long sentences by use of embedded subordinate clauses headed by a converb.typepad. 129 Тийм. . surguuliig šineer baiguulan5 1943 onii 9 saraas exlen6 xičelüülexeer bolson iim üye baisan7. 2011). as noted earlier. establishing5 a new school.130 chapter three bagšiin surguul’d očilgüigeer šüüd ofitsyeriin surguul’d očij8 suraltsaxaar bolj9. . when the medium is used to reproduce or publish what are essentially written materials. on the Internet? In the first chapter of this book. and limitations on uses of forms in one style or another. that they do. find spoken usage. having been assigned1 to the teachers’ school. starting6 in September 1943. uh . But. . either. the teachers’ school entrance quota. similar to that in print materials. Meanwhile2–3. and the sentence-heading verbs underlined and put in italics. that . went there10 and was12 enrolled11 and started9 studying. for example. and “media” languages barely arose. I at that time. the issue of the distinct characters of spoken. do we simply find written usage. tend očij10 bürtgüülj11 bailaa12. and that there was no difference between asking a native speaker of Mongolian to perform tasks involving written language and asking him or her to perform ones involving speech. it is naïve to speak of the Mongolian. The seven independent clauses of the English translation accompanying (320) translate just two structures headed by finite verbs (here numbered 12 and 7. so I did not go to the teachers’ school and going8 straight to the officers’ school. for not only do the past tenses not work in written Mongolian the way the traditional grammars claim. It should be clear by now that there are dangers in that approach. But what about the past tense system? Specifically. The second chapter of the present book largely ignored the issue and assumed that one could use print materials to reveal things about speech. at that time a decree came out4 from the People’s Republic—present-day Mongolian Republic—ministry. It obscures the linguistic realities. as if visual tape-recordings? Or is there a distinct style that is evolving. language. similar to that in spontaneous speech. written. unedited utterances. or has evolved. when the medium is used to reproduce or publish unpolished. even of the Khalkha. Here the converbs have been underlined. Notice. Recent grammars such as the one by Kullmann and Tserenpil and textbooks such as the set by Tserenchunt and Luethy have gone a long way towards recognizing and noting differences between varieties of the language. which was7 to offer classes. because the grammatical tradition takes a rather unsophisticated view of what is a language as rich and complicated as any—Mongolian. the latter formed with -sen). but they don’t work in written Mongolian the way they do in Mongiolian speech. the officers’ school. or imply. and correspondingly. iin Khalkha-gen vang-iin prince-gen büten 8 full 8 jil year jinxene bičeeč.maranata.d year-dat (17–25 nas) 17–25 age Setsenxan Setsenkhan aimg.’ 234. be born-impfc tendx.oo city-rp 1897 on. church-dat baptize-past (Нэрт монголч эрдэмтэн Николас Поппегийн дурадгал [1–4–р бγлэг]. There have been presented here examples in which -jee can hardly be inferential or mirative and in which it is clear that the writer is presenting the statement as factual and presumably is confident of its veracity (16).iin Šandun muj.php?option=com_ content&task=view &id=2533&Itemid=127) ‘I was born in Chefu city in Shantung province of China on the 8th of August of [the year] 1897 and was baptized in the English church. Šyekspir 1564 on.sön.d 8th-dat tör. Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 on. freely occur in sentences like (235–236).mn/index. neither of which provides a context that supports a proximal or an evidential reading. .san.iin Angli of there-gen English süm. and does. As well. 16.com/famous/MagsarHurts.iin aimag-gen Erdenedalai Erdenedalai xošuun.t office-dat Xalx.ii banner-gen tamgiin gazar. Nicholas Poppe (chapters 1–4)’. the apparent evidentiality of -sen in speech (146) contrasts with its rather different.san. 1886–1894 1886–1894 on. true clerk-instr work-past (http://www. Bi Xyatad.eer ajilla. non-evidential.iin month-gen 8-n.j.d tör.’ 146.14 http://www.d tör.mongolinternet.iin Čefü I China-gen Shandong province-gen Chefu xotn. (Yatskovskaya 1976: 8) Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 year-dat be born-past ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in 1906.jee.ii 1897 year-gen 8 8 sar.htm) 14 ‘Memoires of the famous Mongolist scholar. can. uses in writing (233–234).past tenses in the written language 131 -lee. (Altangerel 1998: 40. column a) Shakespeare 1564 year-dat be born-past ‘Shakespeare was born in 1564.d zagalmailuul.’ 233. the mountains were covered with Chinese soldiers.j bai.’ 236.iin tserg. unlike the response to -v questions in speech. Likewise Bosson’s Modern Mongolian contains the dialogues in (238–239). All three sentences in reading #5 (from the newspaper Ünen) in Montgomery’s Reader (1969) end in -v.iin tsereg Dun Chan port reach-ifvn-dat China-gen soldier uul. some published examples in which the reply to a -v question uses -v in the answer are questionable. Dün Čan boomt xüre. The Past Tenses in Writing 2.iin Mongolia-gen army-gen yaaman. China Radio International posted a Web page containing the dialogue in (237).d bičeeč. where -v is quite common in statements. It is quite otherwise in writing. and there generally functions as the equivalent of -lee. Furthermore. Of the first 50 sentences (outside of dialogue) in Sengee’s story Ayuuš (1961) 10 have a main verb in -v. . and the answer or response is.iig bürxe. It is the tense of the main verb in 11 of the first 50 sentences of the text in Saruul-Erdene (2004). However. and a page intended for Russian speakers translates as in (240).laa. Dašdorj Dashdorj Avtonomit Autonomous mongol. in questions in written texts.d Xyatad. not necessarily in the -lee tense. -v does not necessarily presuppose proximality. Department-dat clerk-instr work-impfc be-past (Yatskovskaya1976: 13) ‘Dashdorj was working as a clerk in the War Department of Autonomous Mongolia.j bai.eer ajilla. Written -v The most apparent difference between the past tenses in speech and those in writing concerns the use of -v. which in speech is largely restricted to “normal” questions.laa.1.’ 235. mountain-acc cover-impfc be-past ‘When he came to the port of Dun Chan.132 chapter three ‘From 1886 to 1894 (ages 17–25) he worked for a full 8 years as a clerk in the office of the banner of Prince Erdenedalai of the Setsenxan aimag of Khalkha.xe.’ (Saruul-Erdene 2004: 102) 2. Bata when come-past Bata today come-past « Kogda prijexal Bat? Segodnja Bat prijexal. Šamba Meruz (Xar gert xaan) oxin.iig act-acc id.v? Bid xii.ii Morning yava.v? come-past Bid We surguuli. » (http://predistoria.as school-abl ire. as in (241).aas where-abl ire.cn/21/2004/11/04/43@31525.’ b.’ 238.tel eat-termc dongodo.v: rebuke-past sura.v.aas United States of America-abl ire. Čoimson gua say-past Choimson gua .org/index. » (http://predistoria. Ta You (plural) xaan.v learn-past xaana where či? you “Yaasan never Öglöön. (Bosson 1964: 51) come-past ‘Where did you come from?—We all came from the usa.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p =7871) ‘When did Bata come? Bata came today.iig xen xii.’ 240.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p =7871) ‘Who came? Dulmaa came. a -v question may also evoke an answer in -v. Ene buuz.’ In archaic or quasi-archaic language.htm) ‘Who made this dumpling?—We did. 241.sen yum.’ 239.v. Ta You (plural) Bid We tsöm all xaan.d. Bat xezee ire.v. (Bosson 1964: 51) come-past ‘Where did you come from?—We came from school.v? come-past Amyerikiin Negdsen Uls.j flare up-impfc yavdl.aas where-abl ire.past tenses in the written language 133 237. who come-past Dulmaa come-past « Kto prijexal? Dulma prijexal.v? Bat önöödör ire.v. a. part of a story about the legendary Geser Khan. This buuz-acc who make-past we make-pfvn copp (mongol.org/index.v.v či?” go-past you alia naidangui wanton envy gurvan idee three meal ge.cri. Xen ire.v? Dulmaa ire.oo Shamba Meruz (Black yurted khan) daughter-dat-rp uurla. v? do-past ix ex oron č xün biš great mother country modp person not ge. “I went to play by the fountain. 242.v.ii dund I a question you (plural) all-gen amongst ta ex bolson Mongol orn.” I have a question to openly put to you.net/question. Tüün. there are signs that a question in this form may not be restricted to the proximal.x.t fountain-dat Bulag fountain udgan fortune-teller min’ my una.php?q_id=1998) ‘For the good of the mother country! What did you do? When you say.ii yas.j play-impfc go-impfc [genet] üyerle. he said: ‘Where did you learn such a wanton act of envy? Where did you go during the three morning meals?” Choimson gua said. put-vol15 bi neg asuult ta büxn.ii country-gen xii. ex Mother bi I neg a orn. “I am not a person from a great mother country.j suddenly overflow-impfc üxev.html) “Shamba Meruz (Black yurted khan) flared up and rebuked his daughter.j čad.net/ihtuuh/geser/5021.ee say-ifvn-dat-rp neeltei openly tölöö! ta yuu for the good you (plural) what tav’.134 chapter three xele. non-literary language. The sense is roughly ‘I want to’ or ‘let me’.oo you (plural) original Mongol country-gen-rp tölöö yuu xii.” But even in more colloquial. What could you do for the good of the mother country you came from originally?’ 15 Also called the first person imperative. my fountain suddenly overflowed and the fortune-teller fell down and looked.banjig.san ve? for the good what do-impfc can-pfvn qp (http://ask.j fall-impfc naada.d.v bid” ge.asuult. .iig see-past that-gen bone-acc er.v: say-past bilee.iix. stay-past we say-past (http://www. In (242). We stayed searching for the bones.ya. copp “Bulag. ta yuu xiiv ‘what did you do?’ seems to parallel yuu xiij čadsan ve ‘what could you [= were you able to] do?’.j oči.j search for-impfc uda. 4 xuviin irtstei baiv.4%.aa sleeping-gen-rp xoyoul the two together sana.iinx. ‘The January 7th. For example. opened the meeting and presented attendance and the agenda. chairperson of the Standing Committee.j get up-impfc bai.ees 17 gišüün ir.iig üze. enter-past xoër pivon. attendance was 94..d be-ifvn-dat zoorin. it apparently functions like -sen. 94.xa.g.oo cellar-dat-rp er male sem quietly öröön.v. 244). if not precisely the same. either occurring in contexts where elsewhere -sen occurs.iix. Gungaadorj.x two beer-gen-rp quality-acc see-ifvn bai. or alternating with -sen in one and the same context. And it is clear from these and other examples (such as 145.san. irts. 2003 (Tuesday) meeting of the Standing Committee on Nature. Xuraldaaniig baingiin xoroonii darga Š. Environment. or. others in -v (245).tai secret work-com xoin. xeleltsex asuudliig taniltsuulav. there are chronologies in -sen (e.oo after-rp untlag. other than in quotations and dialogue.laa. xeregt business Xoll Hall bai.oo čanar. The meanings of -sen and -v in such contexts seem to be much the same. be-past šivegčin servant gol main lonxon. think-past dadamgai familiar em xoër female two oro.son aim-pfvn xün person nöxör n’ companion her . are quite uncommon in writing. 17 of the 18 members attending.oo. It is common in narratives (243). Š.iig bring-ifvn-acc avgai Mrs. xödöögiin xögjliin baingiin xoroonii 2003 onii 1 dügeer sariin 7-nii ödriin (Myagmar garig) xuraldaan 10 tsag 10 minutad Töriin ordnii V tanximd exlev.iig bos. Xuraldaand irvel zoxix 18 gišüün.j. day-gen morning dawn-instr Mill. and ones that alternate between the two (246).son enter-pfvn avčra.iin öglöo üür.oo bottle-rp mart.x. and Rural Development began at 10:10 in Hall “B” of the State House.x. 145.d bottle-dat Ug root zor’.eer. Baigal’ orčin.san be-pfvn bolo.aa forget-pfvn-rp Xoll Hall avgai Mrs. Gungaadorj neej. Tsagaan Sum’yaa white Monday ödr.past tenses in the written language 135 Questions in -v.güi Milly-acc get up-impfvn-neg Xoll Hall Ter that boso.’ 243. 247) that -v in texts is by no means limited to the recent past or to evidential statements. But this ending is by no means uncommon in written statements.öös room-abl Tiišee Towards there lonx.v.d.oor become-ifvn-instr nuuts ajil. When used in statements. They had hardly entered the cellar when Mrs. and had something to do with the specific gravity of their beer. The Invisible Man. chapter 6) 244.j.v.j return-impfc xaalgan.v.aa sleeping-gen-rp bii there is ge. Wells.136 chapter three yava.iig šatn. On the landing he was surprised to see that the stranger’s door was ajar.ii guest-gen ongorxoi open-ifvn gaix.x.g xara. be surprised-past öröön. He went on into his own room and found the bottle as he had been directed. Mr. Hall and Mrs. But returning with the bottle.sen say-pfvn gazr.d (USA) Indian people-dat .ii dain. 8 sar. (Vells 1979: 28f.aad look at-pfc tsašaa further untlag.v.x.aas n’ place-abl his ol.’ 1674 1674 on.d Rhode Island-dat /ANU/ Indiančuuda. Hall very properly went upstairs for it.d 8 month-gen 31st-dat bol.) be-impfvn-acc see-past Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit-Monday.iig zogso.iig be-ifvn-acc Xoll Hall talbai place deer in üüd door xar.n select-modc Butsa.ii room-gen bai. Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the cellar. Their business there was of a private nature.ii become-past That-acc stairs-gen oč. that the door was in fact simply on the latch.ii door-gen or.d: year-dat Rod-Ailenda.d: Frants ba Sitsilüüd xoorondoo 1302 year-dat France and Sicilians between šašn.son. As she was the expert and principal operator in this affair. religion-gen war-acc stop-ifvn-instr agree-past ‘1302: France and the Sicilians agreed to stop their war of religion. before Millie was hunted out for the day. he noticed that the bolts of the front door had been shot back.son üil yavdal happen-pfvn event ‘Events which took place on the 31st of August’ 1302 on. find-impfc take-past n’ the gadaa outside tailaastai unfastened zövxön only on’slootoi latched baig.x go-ifvn bolo.tal go-termc tügjee bolt öröön. Hall found she had forgotten to bring down a bottle of sarsparilla from their joint-room. G.oor toxirolts. enter-impfc lonx.iin 31-n.d room-dat šile.aa.j ava. Tüün. (H.tol go-termc yal’güi ajar nögöö other giičn.oo bottle-rp yav.iinx.jee. They moved the capital to Kyoto.v.iig xoriglo.’ (a portion of the chronology at http://edu.v.’ 16 The translations are mine. 1206 on — Činggis xaan Mongol. 710 capital city-acc Nara to move-past ‘710.jp/mn/japan_info/explore_japan/history.v. Mongol. erect-impfc finish-past ‘752. They finished erecting the Great Buddha of the Todaiji Temple.iin ezent gürn.’ 752 752 Todaiji Tadaiji süm temple dex of Ix Great Budda. 794 capital city-acc Kyoto to move-past ‘794.v.iin tal xeer.embjapan.oo biči.j.iig bai.gd. 1691 year Outer Mongolia Qing empire-dat capitulate to-past ‘1691—Outer Mongolia capitulated to the Ching empire. liquor sell-ifvn-acc prohibit-past ‘1674: In Rhode Island (usa) they prohibited selling liquor to Indians.’ 1368 on 1368 year — Yuan’ Yuan mongolčuud Mongolian people güren möxö.guula.son.iig Kioto ruu šiljüüle. They moved the capital to Nara.’ 1240 on — Mongol. come-past ‘1368—The Yuan dynasty collapsed and the Mongols returned to their native land. 710 Niislel xot.d dagaar or.go. . 246. unite-impfc Mongolia-gen imperial power-acc be-caus-past ‘1206—Uniting the Mongolian steppelands.g Buddha-acc bütee.past tenses in the written language 137 arxi xudalda. Chinggis Khan founded the Mongolian empire.’ 1691 on — Ar Mongol Čin güren.’ (A portion of a chronology of Japanese history at http://www.iin nuuts tovč.mn/modules.iig Nara ruu šiljüüle.son.olloo. 1240 year Mongolia-gen secret history-rp write-pass-past ‘1240—The Secret History of the Mongols was written.htm).aa homeland-dat-rp butsa.j return-impfc ire.sen.x.j empire collapse-impfc uuguul native nutag.’ 794 Niislel xot.php?name= Todaynews&mm=08)16 245.j duusa.mn.v.t.iig 1206 year Genghiz khan Mongolia-gen steppes-acc negtge. 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life. participles used as predicates co-occur with a copula in many languages (as in French: il est venu ‘he has come’. For a long time.)17 247. The pragmatics of these complexes has to date received little attention by grammarians and linguistic scholars. literally ‘he is come’).san greatly simplify-pfvn xii.v. -sen and -sen baina So far little has been said here concerning combinations such as -sen yum and -sen baina. biznismen bai. and consequently are bound to be poorly understood by the non-native speaker.org/wiki/Монгол_γндэстэн.wikipedia. .ii 10 year-gen 10 xamgiin most 2 sar. Since Mongolian readily deletes copulas and allows verb-less sentences like (248).org/wiki/Томас_Альва_ Эдисон) ‘Thomas Alva Edison (February 11.iig life-acc neeltüüld. . Tomas Al’va Edison Thomas Alva Edison 11 11 — 1931 — 1931 n’ the am’dral. 1847—October 18. or that the two differed in regard to aspect.wikipedia. at least in the present tense.2. 17 The translations are mine.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison) 2.iin 18) month-gen 18) ixeer xyalbarčil. This misapprehension on my part was due to three causes. . First. . http://mn. I assumed that predicative -sen was either an optional short form of -sen bai-.ii year-gen on.sen make-pfvn anu-iin USA-gen zoxion büteegč.iig discoveries-acc (1847 1847 on. and in some of those languages a copula is either optionally or obligatorily deleted. inventor businessman be-past (“Tomas Al’va Edison”.iin 2 month-gen sar.wikipedia. it seemed natural to assume that -sen is a short form of -sen baina.138 chapter three (A portion of the chronology [On toolol] from the article http://mn .’ (http://en. Tiimee BI MONGOL xvn.e.” en. as opposed to the simple past. at http://aminayalguu. The use or lack of a form of be can indicate whether the performance of the verb is of a habitual nature. .” (Wikipedia. ‘He works frequently or habitually. -sen. for which he also offers the literal gloss ‘he [is] having gone to his own work. bi mongol xün is quite common.wikipedia. -deg. 249. a. “African American Vernacular English.php?id=Yaruu_nairag&page=9 &sn1=&divpage=1 &sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=hit& desc=desc&no=1553)18 ‘Yes! I [am a] MONGOLIAN person. suffixes] [-x.g. This page is no longer available. ..planetpapers. but also of aspect. Capitalization is as in the original. 2011). the omission of [baina] is virtually obligatory” and he offers the example (250).’ [“Better illustrated with ‘He be workin’ Tuesdays. Black English Vernacular is characterised by the absence of the copula: You sure ugly.past tenses in the written language 139 248. Street (1963: 155) explicitly treats -sen as the result of copula deletion: “When [baina] occurs immediately after an adjectival complement ending in one of the participial particles [i. or -ee] . 18 Latin alphabet in the original.” (http://www. but (in Cyrillic) Tiimee. Yes I Mongolian person (http://mglclub.org/wiki/ African_American_Vernacular_English) Compare the sentences in (249). it might be similar to the difference between the perfect tenses formed with ‘have’ and a perfect participle.php) .construction have often been linked in textbooks and grammars.mn/read/entry28753 (retrieved May 20. He gone.com/-data/view.blog. the nomen perfecti. There is also the example of what used to be called Black English:19 “The most distinguishing feature of [Afro-American Vernacular English] is the use of forms of be to mark aspect in verb phrases..’ The second cause was that in many languages a participle combined with some form of ‘be’ (or ‘have’) forms a periphrastic (complex) tense marker. . Thus if -sen and -sen baina differ.com/Assets/4757.” Poppe (1955: 174) invites the same conclusion where the written language in vertical script is concerned when he writes of the perfect participle. 19 “. spelt as given here. which is a difference of tense. ‘He is working (currently).gogo.’”] The final reason for my false assumption is that predicative -sen and the -sen bai. He workin’..’ He be workin’. . e. ” and offers the examples in (251).21 -san baina [is] better than -san.’ c. and could be replaced by.” They gloss both Ter untčixsan baina and Ter untčixaad baina. ‘He has gone to work. Anx beginning 1920 1920 on.construction from predicative -sen is that of Tserenchunt and Luethy (2005: 92).” one of which is -sen baina. oruuulsan bajna. 21 .deg püüs baiguulјee.” 252. törögsen bülüge ‘He was born. The [-sen] carries the feeling of ‘finished’. Ter ajildaa javsan. but [provides the] same information.3. that is. together they create the sense of just now finding out about a past action.’ 2. they say there that “[i]t is used much like [-sen baina].’ b. this latter constructed with the perfect converb. 20 Contrasted by Tserenchunt with the “Known” (evidential) past tense in -lee. iregsen amui ‘He has come.d ax düü year-dat brothers xоёr two “Dasser broters” ge. . . Of -jee.’ Kullmann and Tserenpil (1996: 195) say that “[u]sually aspects are built with aspect suffixes. and bülüge ‘was’. though it continues to appear in search results. but the source is unknown and is no longer available on-line.’ Sodnomdorj also said of (253) that oruuljee in this example equals. . But aspects can be built using analytical verb forms [which are] built using the auxiliary verb [bai-]. as ‘He [sic] has slept.” Sodnomdorj observed of (252) that “-san baina is better. -jee and -sen baina One of the earliest accounts to clearly differentiate the -sen bai. and [baina] of ‘now’.’ 251. ükügsen bui ‘He has died. a.22 “Dasser brothers” call-habvn store be-caus-past ‘The “Dasser Brothers” store was established at the beginning of 1920. bolai ‘is’. 250. 22 Example from the Internet.140 chapter three that it “occurs with the finite forms of the verbs a. but not by *oruuulsan. who say that the “Unknown [inferential]20 Past Tense has two forms of expression.‘to be’ and bayi‘to be’ and the defective verbs bui ‘is’. The same information as -jee. In regard to Poppe’s example (15). and he suggests that the spoken equivalent of -sen baina is -čixsen.iin zoxion baiguulaltan. hundredth.” 15. claims that “-jee/chee is [the] more formal and written form” (p. and Tserenchunt has confirmed that “the [-jee] ending is interchangeable with [-sen baina]” (Tserenchunt.c. they require further research to determine. Although this example is from a Web page. 141 tereg.ee folk-rp xool food gar hand xüns food aravt.san}. he says that “nar garčixsan is better when speaking.past tenses in the written language 253. on the contrary.. but 23 In my transcription.x become-ifvn zuut.d or.iin livestock herd-gen myangat. Of course.jee/unš. cart bolo. 2007). 24 . tenth. nar garč ‘the sun rose’ (Poppe 1970: 131) Tserenchunt. nar garsan [is] better when writing.jee. Tereer He tednii their xamtaar jointly ard irged. personal communication. for example in Austin’s Reader. whereas -jee is better in speech. mal sürg. -čixjee also occurs in speech. there are some differences between the two. Not only do both -sen baina (258) and -sen yum (254)24 occur in writing.uul. xotod törjee.’ One important difference claimed by Sodnomdorj for the two is that -sen baina is a written form.iin thousandth-gen tserg. “[s]o I would say the best way of [translating ‘Shakespeare was born in Stratford’] is ‘Shakespeare Stratford hotod tuerjee’.laa/unš. army-gen control-dat enter-caus-past ‘He put the people’s hand carts and food herds jointly under the control of the army. ‘I read this book when I was small. June 1.’ Sodnomdorj commented of unšsan baina that it had “almost the same meaning as” unšjee in (148). June 1.”23 If there are differences in the status of the two as regards register or media of use. there are numerous examples in print sources. Bi bagadaa ene nomiig {unš. 148. But according to Sodnomdorj. 2007). stormpages. (1963).sen This buuz-acc who make-past We make-pfvn (mongol. In written non-fiction.üüd. and only one ends in -sengüi. 1944) ‘Within just five days they destroyed 77.gč call-agvn angl. But so do -sen baina (3b) and -sen yum (237. from Ünen.xe. one in -sen yum.ii restaurant-gen . 3b. one ends in -sen. copp züg. July 3. The -jee past. of the 14 sentences. in the first three text pages of Sandag (1967).html) ‘These programmes are appreciated by professionals.cri. -jee may well be the most frequently used of these forms. none end in -sen.jee.ees direction-abl öndör ünelelt av. of course.v? Bid xii. appreciation take-pfvn copp (www.d see-ifvn-dat zarim some neg a ryestoran.iin English-gen tariačin xün bai.” ’ 256.iin program-pl topic professional-pl-gen yum. for example. ‘It’s broken. but none end in -jee. 9 of the 21 full sentences (exclusive of those in quotations) end in -jee.ii enemy-gen Byeloruss.san yum.142 chapter three so does -jee (255–256).com/speaker/about_mon. or -lee at all.uud n’ mergejiltn.’ 254. -v. Etseg Jon Šyekspir n’ Father John Shakespeare his fyermyer farmer ge.iin tsereg sönöö. and Baltic first front-gen army destroy-past (Austin et al.jee. occurs in speech. 1963: 126.000 enemy soldiers just on the Belorussian third front and the Baltic first front. or -sen yum are used there. one ends in -sen baina.iin soldier-gen zövxön just dotor within daisn.’ (Sanders and Ireedüi 1999: 191) 237. .’ 257. taken from the newspaper Ünen. In the first three pages of the text of Gongor’s book (1970). “. and two in -sen baina. -lee.htm) ‘Who made this dumpling?—We did.iin Belorussia-gen 77 77 myangan thousand 3-dugaar third front front ba Baltiin negdügeer front. None of -v. 259). Tavxan Just five xonog.iin day-gen tserg.cn/21/2004/11/04/[email protected] xen xii.’ 255. (Sandag 1967: 68) farmer person be-past ‘His father John Shakespeare was a “farmer. Xugarsan baina. Obviously the choice of endings is sensitive to genre: in the last reading of unit 18 of Austin et al. Similarly. Ene buuz.ees this-abl üze. 5 of the 39 sentences end in -jee. . Edgeer These programm. and two in -v. Üun. one time went beating grain and was captured by the Merged.na. .’ bai.eer. Öčigdör bol.j capture-pass-impfc budaa grain nüde.’ 259. (Friedman 2007: 40) 258. (Friidman 2007: 49) impossible thing not apparently .iin Van Khereid-gen king Mergede. Sue Sue az jargal.past tenses in the written language ajil work č modp autsorsing outsourcing 143 xii. Khereid’s khan. Barimt V.j do-impfc boloxoorgüi züil biš bololtoi” . . . . . Even some restaurant jobs. be-pres In the case of -čixsen. it seems.” too. when was the meeting?.san bai.güi happiness-without bai. be-past Tereer aimšigt She terrible osol accident bolo.” 260. .son Yesterday become-pfvn ‘It was yesterday.iig nüd. In regard to (260) as a response to the question “Excuse me. occur-ifvn-acc eye-instr-rp watch-pfvn copp ‘Sue was unhappy.j yav. with the complex -sen baina. and nearly synonymous. Sodnomdorj commented that the speaker “[heard] from someone else. Watson concluded that “the butler did it”.v.x. inviting the inference that -čixsen by itself does not express hearsay. (Gongor 1970: 97) beat-impfc go-pfvn be-pres ‘V.na. fact negen one n’ topic üye time Xereid.’ The ending -jee is used both in speech and in writing.san yum. namely that -sen baina has a sense of something someone was told (hearsay). King Tooril. to express hearsay. But as we suggested above. and is interchangeable. V. he would more appropriately use xiijee than xiisen baina. gene is required (as in 261). She witnessed a terrible accident. Thus if Dr.d Merged-dat xan khan Tooril Tooril olzlo. if not completely synonymous. Sodnomdorj claimed another difference between -sen baina and -jee.ee xar. are not immune to outsourcing. whereas -jee could either convey hearsay or something that one “figured out” (inference).gdo. -jee is inferential (148) or mirative (114: the speaker had just found Bill dead). much as we have seen -sen acting in spoken sentences such as (115). (1998: 127). it leaves open a number of questions. But in writing. “someone told you” Go away-čix-pfvn say-pres ‘They say he/she/they went.” Useful as this observation is. but even if they don’t. as regards meaning. for example.san ge. there is a difference between present-oriented sentences (114. why and how is its use sensitive to genre? And what is the relationship of written -jee to spoken -jee: are they used in the same way. and those oriented to a reference time other than the utterance time (150. what. and bolson baina on the other. October. which present a circumstance that relates to another eventuality. and does the difference between bolčixson bajna/bolčixjee on the one hand.. “analyse this morpheme as a resultative marker. like written and spoken -v. the brother was gone. under which circumstances does it add the one and under which does it add the other? I suspect that both completeness and unexpectedness here require further explication. which essentially state what is a fact and relate a past occurrence to the present as something which happened. a sentence in -jee would seem to be about a state or situation.” (They also discuss its relationship to tense and aspect.ne. 148). Nelson et al. Gar. but not in at least some journalism? That is.) Further study is clearly indicated.čix. an “objective” statement about a state of affairs. 255). or do they differ somewhat in either meaning or use? What is the meaning of -čix. does expressive mean? It is also clear that the suffix has interactions with a number of other affixes. . In writing. 25 Tserenchunt comments (p. turn only on the absence or presence of -čix?25 There are two further questions regarding -jee as well. and almost all other sources.’ These examples raise a number of questions. to present a fact. had already gone. Are -jee and -sen baina freely interchangeable. or do they. 2008) that -čix “is an aspect[ual] suffix which adds the meaning of completeness or unexpectedness. rather. in contrast to Tserenchunt. 118. Where a sentence in -v could perhaps often be characterized as about an occurrence. it seems. precisely. In speech. It seems appropriate in the former case to use an anaphoric tense and in the latter a deictic one. First. and if not.c.144 chapter three 261. when may (or must) it be used. Can it always add either of these two meanings. differ in some way? There are several clues that in fact they do differ. as the English translation indicates. at the time that the speaker or writer came. Its function is expressive. in (150). why is it commonly found in at least some historical accounts. cri. he had gone to the centre. But in writing. are distal. ‘Bill’s dead. though they may be proximal to a reference time distinct from the utterance time. (Sandag 1967: 68) ‘His father John Shakespeare was a “farmer. One piece of evidence for this is the co-occurrence of -lee with distal adverbials. in principle as well as in practice. ‘Flint is dead.com/modules. 118. Aimgaas namaig irexed Bold ax baisangüi. amongst other things. which automatically defines here and now.ii Olon uls. Distal -lee Another difference between the spoken and written languages has to do with proximality. ‘At that time. Bill üxčixjee. MIAT kompan. 262. there is a definitive speech situation. In speech. except where it is representing speech. at least relative to the present time.iin emergency-gen buult landing xii. But in writing.iin ingots MIAT company-gen many country-gen flying-gen boat önöö this öglöö morning osl. Tuxain üjed bi guravdugaar angid baijee. but in writing it freely co-occurs not only with adverbials of fairly recent time like önöö öglöö ‘this morning’ (262) and önöödör ‘today’ (263).” ’ 2. too. I was in the third grade.biirbeh. -lee is not restricted in this way. In speech. but with ones for distant times such as ter jil ‘that year’ (264). 115.’ (http://mongol.lee. make-past . töv rüü yavjee. In speech.htm) 148.php?name=news&file=article&sid=182. Flint üxčixsen.cn/21/2007/04/20/43@86531.’ 150.’ (Stivenson 1975: 45).past tenses in the written language 145 114.iin nisleg. Bi bagadaa ene nomiig unšǰee. all the past tenses.) ‘When I came from the aimag. (www. with the exception of -lee. ‘I read this book when I was small. written forms in -lee may always be distal. Etseg Jon Šyekspir n’ fyermyer gegc angliin tariacin xün baijee. there is no situation shared by a speaker (writer) and addressee (reader): they are. my older brother Bold wasn’t there.’ 255. is that in writing the proximal/distal opposition for deictic tenses is neutralized by the lack of a real deictic centre. we find it associated with adverbs like saya(xan) ‘just now’ and odoo ‘now’.’ (Stivenson 1975: 85).4. at the present time no longer available. What this reflects. and in fact. separated in time and space. uud dax’ island-pl of subdukts. year Robyert Koats Robert Coats Aleutiin Aleutian arl.iin darg.mn/tv5/index. arlan num.iin üürg.mn/medee_uzuulch.lee.ee today party-gen leader-gen duties-rp güitsetge. . . at the present time no longer available. (http://en. .146 chapter three (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics) In chapter IV.’ 263. Robert R. Mön Same ter that jil.php?page=news&nid=3430) ‘The prime minister today took on the duties of the party’s leader.org/wiki/Плит_тектоник) In the same year. take on-past (http://www.php?medeenii_dugaar=1237 &medeenii_torol=4&medee_ali=1.tv5. Coats .iig todorxoil. described the main features of island arc subduction in the Aleutian Islands. we explore the roles and functions of the various past tenses in spoken discourse and written text.loo.tv9.) ‘MIAT Company’s International airplane made an emergency landing this morning. Yörönxii said Prime minister önöödör nam. subduction island arc-gen describe-past (shttp://mn.wikipedia.’ 264. And .CHAPTER FOUR THE DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS OF THE TENSES 1. in colloquial speech. including the passé anterieur. The imparfait. Moreover. a genre or type of discourse. and the expressive. for example. just as there are tenses. The Functions of the Tenses in Discourse and Text 1. or jokes. can sometimes serve as a present tense in speech. narration. spoken—of the language. the textual. must not only be coherent within itself. Furthermore. and sometimes reportage by the authorial voice. that are literary and less likely to occur. for example. A conversation. In Mongolian. for example. the same tense may have different uses in written and spoken French. Another class of function is the textual. A side-effect of this is the metalinguistic function of grammatical features such as verb endings. Longer written genres such as novels contain a rich set of sub-structures that includes dialogue. the sets of available tenses.g. including the metalinguistic. but must cohere with the rest of the story surrounding it. narratives. amongst other things. there are French tenses—the surcomposé tenses— that are considered informal and normally do not appear in writing. In regard to forms of language. too. namely to signal. and their uses. We have noted the differing character of the tenses typical of various genres. The Functions of Utterances The use of an ending depends on the specific functions that the clause containing it is to perform in the discourse. might contain quotations. the French perfective past tense is expressed using the simplex passé simple in writing (e. for example. elle chanta ‘she sang’) but the complex passé composé in speech (elle a chanté). Discourses are not merely strings of clauses. The textual function is to create and maintain the coherence of the discourse. vary between different forms— principally. Extended dialogue in a novel. descriptions. but not exclusively written vs.. or a form of language. if at all. at least in certain special contexts. but display a hierarchical structure of subunits that cohere both globally (between units). There are several types of functions.1. and locally (within a unit). description. too. b.148 chapter four should that dialogue itself contain narration. Sam is pretty eccentric. objective perspective on the events they describe. Well. Max is tall for a midget. but he was hard to contact. but must be defined relative to the context and/or the intended purpose of the utterance. too. They wanted Max for a special role in their new movie. But it is important to note that almost any apparently incoherent string of grammatical sentences can be rendered coherent by further context. 266. What is meant by “coherence” in this context is the logical construction of clauses in forming larger linguistic units. for various reasons. his dog.” Finally. a further factor in the choice and interpretation of endings is the expressive function. Sam eats lunch alone. He had been vacationing in Aruba. The examples in (265–266) seem incoherent. even the use of a supposedly neutral tense such as the -sen past conveys information about the speaker’s attitude towards the content of the utterance. 265. In 1904 there was a great fire in Toronto. 267. The other day he was eating an ice cream cone and going on and on about stuff that happened a hundred years ago. in which evidentiality is part of the grammatical system. is not an absolute property. He had been vacationing in Aruba. and I hate hearing about horrible things. Max is surprisingly tall for a midget. c. Narrative sentences lack the immediacy of factual discourse and offer a distanced. a. He named his daughter. What this reveals is that coherence. I like ice cream. In a language such as Mongolian. This of course . they are rendered coherent. In (147). a. I like ice cream. and his boat—all of them—“Jessica. that narration must likewise cohere both within itself and with the rest of that dialogue. notice that the backgrounded material is in a tense form normally used for foregrounding. which is to convey personal attitudes towards the discourse. Well. like grammaticality. All Tom is interested in is disasters. and hence an obligatory category. His car is painted 28 different colours. But within the contexts in (267). In 1904 there was a great fire in Toronto. b. Sam eats lunch alone. Here the ending is likely chosen precisely to avoid the attitudes conveyed by -lee and -jee. Tenses such as the (historical) present fulfill an expressive function in narrative discourse precisely because they are proximal and hence characterized by involvement of the speech act participants in the context of the discourse. But I hate bores. His car is painted 28 different colours. Barilgiin Texnikum gej. just as we can say that “she” was Jane. there is the Construction College now. That school was situated in recent-time Gandan. züün tal n’ xoër. There was a two-story building on its right and there were two-story and four-story pinkish buildings on its left. 268. dörvön davxar.the discourse functions of the tenses 149 suggests that the uses of the past tense endings to serve their sundry discourse functions follow from their meanings. gej baigaa. (http://www. There are. Much as the isolated sentence She went home does not reveal who “she” is.2. Ingeed 8 sariin 23-d. . iim xoër yagaan baišin tend baisan. it does not tell when “she” went home.org/samples/ transcriptions/TR060101B. On the linguistic level. but research on pragmatics in recent decades has at the very least called this perhaps overly simplistic view into question.xml) ‘On 23 August. . Such binding serves to anchor the utterance in the sense of connecting it with some segment of the preceding discourse or text and thereby rendering the utterance coherent within that larger unit. odoogoor Barilgiin Texnikum gej aa .) 147. Baruun tal n’ xoër davxar. no reference time. . rather than the reverse. intentional. Its director was [a man named] Colonel Erdenedamba.mongolianoralhistory. the tense has no temporal antecedent. But there are different types or “levels” of coherence in discourse and text. She went home. The Three Levels of Discourse Coherence Maintaining coherence is one of the functions of the tenses. Tüünii zaxiral xurandaa Erdendamba gej xün baisan. .mongolianoralhistory. 1943 onii 8 sariin 23-d Süxbaatariin neremjit “Ofitseriin surguul’ ” deer očson. Jane was fed up with work. coherence consists of the proper anchoring of the tenses. aa . Anchoring means the binding of temporal anaphors by antecedents. Ter surguul’ n’ odoogiin Gandan deer. because there is no antecedent for the pronoun. .xml) 1. 1942 I went to the School of Officers. Example . (This is in fact the traditional view of the relationship between meaning—semantics—and use—pragmatics—and so should occasion no surprise. in fact. The context provided in (268) allows one at least to say that she went home when she was fed up with work. and certainly where Mongolian is concerned. at least these three levels of discourse coherence: linguistic.org/samples/translations/EN060101B. aa . . and attentional.’ (http://www. further research is indicated. exceed.č.maar.o horse-rp bai. Gev genet go-past all of a sudden xoyor two sonin aduu nüden. As far as temporal binding is concerned.aas mountain-abl bai.v. sentence cannot serve as anchor for the second one. the reader must assume some such temporal reference point.impfc asga pinnacle xad. whose reference time is the present. 1 Expressive of a wish: bi . . . hunt-impfc aduu horse gov. . Neg One udaa bi aldsan xoër occasion I blunder off-past two er. if any.san be-past xeter. and I saw two strange.tai rock-com oči. . reddish horses. A tense ending may anchor another (as the tense of tusav in 270 is bound by that of očiv). bind) the tense of a clause.güi be-optative1-neg gün deep xavtsl. John was distraught.e. dark. 270. He has witnessed a terrible accident..iin gorge-gen bor dark šarga tawny derged near züsn. so may temporal adverbials (the tense of očiv in 270 is in turn bound by neg udaa).deg graze-habvn uuln. past-tense.iin desert-gen yerdiin normal am’d am’tan existence belč. .ii motley-gen mori. baimaar baina ‘I would like to be .d tusa.j.v.’ (Aldridge 1976: 5. even nominal expressions (the tense of missed in 271 is bound by the expression the war years). almost any expression in the context can serve to anchor (i. 269. They missed him a lot. from just such an adverbial or nominal expression explicitly contained in the sentence.’. In the absence of such a reference.150 chapter four (269) is incoherent precisely because the first. The war years were difficult ones for Tom’s family. The initial utterance in a discourse receives its binding. where there are many deep little rocky valleys and where nobody ever goes anymore. (Oldrij 1980: 12) strange horse eye-dat strike-past ‘But one day I was hunting for two of our lost horses further than usual into the empty mountains. chapter 1) 271. Sue holds up the newspaper time Tom comes in Diagram 7 . Wikipedia. but the modifier successor as well. but unbounded eventualities—states. Sue was already holding it.the discourse functions of the tenses 151 In a discourse. an adverbial such as a couple of minutes after (272) or a nominal such as successor states (273) may serve to shift the reference time. Normally events trigger advance. activities. chapter 3) 273.org/wiki/Islam) In the absence of such expressions. (Wells. http:// en. In a narrative sequence. Sue was holding up the newspaper. 274. the reference time for the verb ending of each clause is temporally located just after that of the immediately preceding clause. This new polity soon broke into civil war. and successor states fought each other and outside forces. The Invisible Man. and the like—do not. Tom came in. Sue held up the newspaper. A couple of minutes after. Compare diagrams 7. Within a century of Muhammad’s first recitations of the Qur’an. wondering what it might be that he had seen. (“Islam”. tenses are bound by other tenses. 272. In (274a). The result is narrative advance or narrative progression— the feeling that time is passing with each successive event. b. Sue held the newspaper up just after Tom came in. a. Tom came in. the time at which “successor states fought each other and outside forces” is understood to follow the breakup of the Islamic unity not only because of the immediately preceding and. There he stood on the dark little landing. an Islamic empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Central Asia in the east. he joined the little group that had formed outside the Coach and Horses. but in (274b). 8.wikipedia. The possibility of narrative advance is sensitive to the nature of the eventuality recounted. Binding depends to a great extent on the structure of eventualities. yavtal ‘until (they) went’. But events typically consist of various parts or phases. Finite tense forms play a relatively smaller role in Mongolian than in English. but through converbal endings marking finely distinguished temporal relationships—yavmagts and yavanguut both mean something like ‘as soon as (they) went’.152 chapter four Sue holds up the newspaper time Tom comes in Diagram 8 Sue is hungry . States are uniform... Thus climbing a mountain consists of the action of climbing . An accomplishment combines an activity or process such as running or falling with a culminative change of state. in effect an achievement. as do implicit temporal relationships holding between them. time Diagram 9 In Mongolian there is a greater tendency than in English to render temporal relationships explicit through the use not only of adverbial expressions like later and subordinating conjunctions such as after. An achievement like spotting something is a momentary event that simply happens at a point in time (as in diagram 10). that Sue is hungry). as in diagram 9. unchanging occurrences. at any given point within the period over which the state holds. and the various types of predicate expressions have rather different temporal profiles. and yavangaa ‘while going’. it is possible to truthfully say that it is the case (here. continue to do so. For an activity. But even an activity like running or the activity phase of an accomplishment like running across the street (or running a marathon) consists of separate phases. so that when we hear that someone is running. Unlike English. at any point subsequent to the termination . which has only the verb climb.the discourse functions of the tenses 153 Sue spots a coin on the pavement time Diagram 10 Sue climbs the mountain Sue has climbed the mountain .. .” for example. German distinguishes the activity of climbing. das Steigen. Neither “they’re starting to run” nor “they’re finishing running” refers to the medial phase in the same way and so neither leads to quite the same inferences. or an episode (a state or process obtaining over a delimited period time. middle. from the accomplishment of climbing to the top. presumably. and end of an activity may be referred to as such. to the extent that the beginning. “Running. time Sue reaches the peak Diagram 11 followed by a culmination: the point at which the peak is finally. such as being ill for three days or feeling hungry for a few minutes). this is simply the sheer historical fact. the world is left in a result state. das Ersteigen. we infer that they have been running and will. After the eventuality proper has ended. process... generally refers to the medial phase of an episode of running.. as shown in diagram 11. actually reached (diagram 11). The preparatory phase is the transition from the initial state to the eventuality itself. the phase prior to the achievement itself. Both ontologically and linguistically—that is. The result state of an event. And he is at home because.154 chapter four preparatory phase event proper initial state result state time Diagram 12 of the eventuality in question. consisting both of an activity or process that must be gone through to reach the culmination.” One difference is that the preparatory phase. The initial state is the character of the world before the occurrence. Thus there is something a little odd—or ought to be—about saying things like “the train is arriving at the station” or “he’s dying. the Steigen. But after Tom comes home many things may be the case that are not due to his coming home. he came home. Thus at any point in the climb you can claim to be climbing the mountain. If Tom has come home. An accomplishment like climbing a mountain is actually a complex. and the accomplishment. the Ersteigen. can be the consequence of the occurrence. he is at home. momentary events. though you cannot claim to have climbed it till the end. but merely obtain at the time when he has come home. however. between the activity. is only rendered a preparatory . the achievement that ends the accomplishment. not merely after. it is possible truthfully to say that it has happened (here that Sue has climbed the mountain). all cumlmination and no activity. or may simply be its sequence. Achievements are. German makes a nice distinction that English lacks. An accomplishment expression such as climb a mountain subsumes the activity phase within the event-complex itself. properly speaking. the eventuality is preceded by an initial state and a preparatory phase (diagram 12). In addition to the result state following the eventuality itself. in the nature of the phase as well as in how it is referred to—there is a difference between the preparatory state of an achivement and of an accomplishment. and in the latter it regresses because the preparatory phase precedes the culmination of the event. and talk about. Hence normally “pulling the trigger” refers to the preparatory phase. He picked out three red roses. In the former case discourse time advances because the result state of an event follows the time of the event proper. or a process like the bursting of a balloon. But you can be climbing the mountain even if you never reach the top. if Sue falls ill. that is.j select-impfc tsagaan. The train was arriving only if it in fact did arrive. ‘John went into the flower shop. The waker who says “bi bosloo” ‘I’m getting up’ is only proven correct if they do get up. the preparatory phase depends on the eventual culmination. pulling the trigger of a gun actually takes time. introduces the entire structure of the event into the discourse: a succeeding sentence or clause may use any phase of the event as its anchor point. and you can only be said to be pulling the trigger if and only if you do in fact pull it. rather than rendered explicit. two white ones and one pale pink. three red yagaan pink sarnai rose xoër two songo. John flower-gen store-dat go-impfc enter-past Tereer he gurvan ulaan. not the activity. neg white one av.’ (Webber 1988: 69). as instantaneous.v. however. If Tom goes home. Many eventualities can be viewed either as achievements or accomplishments. building a boat even if you never finish it. For example. John tsetsg. a. he must initially not have been at home. 275. The perfective aspect. But we generally perceive. take-past tsaivar pale pink . it is like an accomplishment in that you need to be drawing the trigger back for a fraction of a second before the mechanism is triggered—the culmination.the discourse functions of the tenses 155 phase after the culmination. and a succeeding event may occur within the result state (275a) or the preparatory phase (275b) of its preceding event. she must originally have been well. The initial state in an event—events inherently involve a change from an initial state to a result state—is often implicated or implied by the sentence.iin delgüür. unlike the perfect and progressive. In the case of an achievement. pulling the trigger of a gun. and someone can be said to have been dying only if in fact they had died. the time of the eventuality may serve as its reference time.j oro.laa. depending on the scale.t yav. ) 276. ‘John bought Mary some flowers.jee. at times successive occurrences (278b). This same ambiguity may be triggered by the imperfect converb of Mongolian. John Mary-dat flower buy-impfc take-past Tereer He gurvan three ulaan.156 chapter four b.čee. Bat morning early come-impfc classroom-rp clean-past ‘Bat came early in the morning and cleaned the classroom. taking the totality of the time Bill sang as binding the ending of the second clause. or it could be read as successive. Where more than one temporal structure is available as binder. but sometimes the larger. 277. a. as in (277). He picked out three red roses. select-impfc take-past The time of the event as a whole may also serve as the binder.j ava. extra-sentential context is required to indicate which is intended.j av. Thus in (276). John went to the hospital. ambiguity results. the two—his having twisted his ankle and his going to the hospitral—coincide.j angi.v. white neg tsaivar one pale songo.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 157) .’ (Webber 1988: 69).j Mother meal make-impfc aav tsai father tea uu.na. He had twisted his ankle on a patch of ice. but during the period of time in which he is going to the hospital. Bill sang a song. This could be read as simultaneous (Jane played the piano while Bill sang). Father is drinking tea. 278. red xoër two tsagaan. Jane played the piano.a tseverle. At times it marks co-temporal occurrences (278a). John Mary-d tsetseg xudalda. two white ones and one pale pink.’ (Kullmann and Tserenpil 1996: 157) b. Eej xool xii. the state of John’s having twisted his ankle is bound by the time of his going to the hospital and thus is simultaneous with it. (The result state of his twisting his ankle extends beyond his going to the hospital. Bat öglöö ert ir.j drink-impfc bai. be-pres ‘Mother is cooking. taking only the result state of Bill’s singing the song as its reference time. coherence requires that each clause serve some function in the discourse or text and hence be related by a rhetorical or coherence relation such as “elaboration” or “explanation” to its anchor.v. In (281a). Max tüün. She had witnessed a terrible accident. 280.güi bai. the states temporally overlap: Max was ecstatic at the time Sue was unhappy. Tereer aimšigt osol Sue happiness-without be-past She terrible accident . Bill read Hamlet. the event occurs within the time of the state: Max decided to help Sue while she was unhappy. Sue az jargal. In (280b).aar help-ifvn-instr šiid. There is. however. which. but in the former. a. the second sentence reports the cause of the state reported in the first.lee. a. In (280a). it provides an explanation for it.’ Sue az jargal. Since states have a homogeneous phasic structure. Max happiness-com be-past b.v. Jane did a crossword puzzle. for example.the discourse functions of the tenses 157 An activity sentence may be interpreted as either a bounded event with a result state or as purely a preparatory phase for some achievement.v. the time at which the state obtains is taken (as a whole) to be the anchor time for a state (280a) or event (280b) expression following in the discourse. on the intentional level. Max however was ecstatic. Ge.’ Sue az jargal. is incoherent because its second sentence cannot fulfill any discourse function relative to the first sentence.d Sue happiness-without be-past Max that-dat tusl. Sue was unhappy.v. ‘Sue was unhappy. 279. the same type of ambiguity appears as that exhibited by (277).ax. Max decided to help her. decide-past On the intentional level. ‘Sue was unhappy. 281. In the latter case (279) a successive reading for the last two sentences is impossible.güi bai. no rhetorical relation that allows the temporal pattern of (281b).güi bai. Bill and Jane found things to do while waiting.tai bai.sen xedii Sue happiness-without be-past say-pfvn although č modp Max az jargal. b. The clauses of (281c) cannot be interpreted as having a common topic because they cannot be interpreted as linked by a rhetorical relation. In terms of either sentence production or interpretation. Sue preferred ice cream to cake. however. our knowledge of the real-world may preclude. She had witnessed a terrible accident. She has witnessed a terrible accident. the three levels function simultaneously. Sue preferred ice cream to cake. (282) strikes one as incoherent. Sue was unhappy.ee xar. . The reason is that on the attentional level. that state. For example. Even if the particular temporal pattern is permitted by some rhetorical relation. provide a connection that would render the sequence coherent.x. Successive statements may be connected thematically by implicit connections drawn from our knowledge of the world.eer. or at least render highly unlikely. c. On this level. 283. Her preference in desserts doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her having witnessed an accident.san yum. She has witnessed a terrible accident. Such an addressee might infer from (284a) that Ulaanbaatar is in Mongolia. (282) is incoherent because its first sentence is about Sue’s state of mind. A larger context might. coherence requires that each clause belong to a thread defined by a common topic or focus of interest.iig nüd. Sue was unhappy. Compare (284c). or related to. It should be obvious by now that implicit rhetorical relations serve to render units of discourse such as threads or narrative lines coherent as much as do explicit ones. but the second clause cannot easily be interpreted as being either about. out of context. which makes it explicit that Ulaanbaatar is in Mongolia. 282.158 chapter four bolo. Someone who didn’t know that Ulaanbaatar is in Mongolia and was unfamiliar with both Mongolia and Finland might well find (284a) no different from (284b). But often enough a speaker uses explicit connections. She had witnessed a terrible accident. and it is hard to think of a context that would render it coherent. 281. while those of (282) simply lack (or seem to lack) a common topic. occur-ifvn-acc eye-instr-rp watch-pfvn copp c. given their unrelated reference times. but equally might infer from (284b) that it is in Finland. two sentences being related by such a rhetorical relation. especially when the addressee may require background information to properly interpret statements. I love Ulaanbaatar. it would be impossible to interpret sequences like these. In narrative. Its cargo had been set ablaze c. Hence where a temporal regression is indicated. their tenses. the past tense of one sentence generally refers to a slightly later time than that of the immediately preceding clause. Without our knowledge of the world. translated in 290) involves temporal advance. Another ship would collide with it. at least out of context. and the reverse is true of a cause (285c). Mongolia is such an interesting place! b. between a pair of clauses is marked by. a. however. Sentences such as those in (286) are rather odd. A munitions ship exploded. A munitions ship exploded. recounted in the second sentence. Like the rest of Mongolia. and constrained by. 287. Example (288. 285. In (289. as in (285a). Finland is such an interesting place! c. there is a temporal regression due to the relation of explanation that the second sentence bears to the first: as the cause of the event recounted in the first sentence. b. it’s such an interesting place! The rhetorical relationship. The explosion had been felt hundreds of miles away. since the relation of the second sentence to the first is presumably that of consequence: Max’s standing up naturally follows Max’s spotting John. a. Thousands of people were killed. b. A munitions ship exploded. naturally precedes it. . hundreds of miles away. A consequence can be expressed as a relatively later event (285b). But often enough the temporal relations depend on the rhetorical relations. at least out of context. translated in 291). the munitions ship exploded. John’s pushing Max. by a collision. if any. I love Ulaanbaatar. (288) and (289) have the same tense endings but different temporal relations because of their different rhetorical relations. since this latter event caused the former. It had been hit by another vessel. The explosion would be felt b. I love Ulaanbaatar.the discourse functions of the tenses 159 284. a. Another ship collided with it. The explosion being felt hundreds of miles away. and the sequences in (287) likewise seem. 286. however. a. this cannot be a narrative sequence. A munitions ship exploded. simply incoherent. A munitions ship exploded and it was hit by another ship. A munitions ship exploded. 160 chapter four at least out of context. John-gen come-impfc go-ifvn-acc see-past boso. Discourse structure affects the interpretation of endings and endings in turn contribute to structuring discourse.2 The implicit relationships between 2 Hypotaxis ‘putting-under’ refers to the syntactic subordination of one unit to another. there is a tendency for parallel structures not to be treated syntactically as units of equal rank. in which hypotactic structures predominate over the paratactic structures typical of a language like English.sen push-pfvn bai. iv). its nonsense verbs preclude interpretation based on real-world knowledge. Parataxis ‘putting alongside’ refers to the syntactic coordination of units. Compare (292). Max won.na. I drove home. I conquered. 289.” 288. is such that intrasentential relations (between sentences) play perhaps no greater role than do intrasentential ones (within them).jee. In languages like English and Chinese there is a tendency for parallel structures to be treated as units of the same rank. . including Mongolian.j yava.j get up-impfc una. Max globulated. I came. 293. in which case John’s “orballing” him is the consequence of Max’s “globulating. iii) or sentences (ii. It could be similar to (289). A series of events is typically reported using independent clauses (i. with Max’s “globulation” the consequence of John’s “orballing” him. ii. I drove home and found the front door wide open. I came. be-pres 292. All the rest are converbal or participial phrases subordinated to the (single) independent clause. 290.ii ir. Discourse coherence and temporal coherence go hand in hand.iig that-acc tülx.iig xara. stand-past John John tüün.x. Example (281a) is rendered temporally coherent by its set of endings. For example. and specifically between pairs of clauses. which share a past reference time. I saw. John envied him. John orballed him. Max saw John approach. whereas (281c) is incoherent. iv.v. In languages of the Altaic type. Max Max John. I saw. each with a finite verb. a series of events can be reported in a single sentence with but one clause.loo. I found the front door wide open. fall-past zogs. I conquered. Max Max Tereer He 291. The structuring of both sentences and larger units of discourse and text in a language such as Mongolian. principally on the local level. i. John pushed him. But it could equally well be similar to (293). Max fell. He stood up. marked by a finite verb-ending. iii. (1998: 117) already noted that -jee is “particularly prevalent in spoken storytelling. in producing a sentence. Sue was unhappy. therefore. such as in headlines or in the first sentence (or independent clause. with appended gene ‘[they] say’). She had witnessed a terrible accident. must therefore take these various factors into consideration when choosing an ending for each clause. a. but their own interpretation depends on their co-text as well as on the speech act participants’ knowledge of language and knowledge about the world. mainly baij or baijee (some. particularly when setting the scene or introducing a new event in the discourse. c. in how they relate to presupposed reference times. The Functions of the Past Tenses 2. Some forms of English do. A deictic tense requires no reference time. If we examine the initial sentences of these three exceptional tales. Sue. we 3 Nelson et al. Traditionally. Sue was unhappy.1.3 Baijee ‘[there] was’ often occurs with expressions like ert urid tsagt ‘once upon a time’. 2. as in (295).the discourse functions of the tenses 161 events or events and states stated in independent clauses or sentences in parataxis are typically rendered more explicit in hypotaxis through the subordination of one to the other. Of the eight traditional tales in Poppe’s (1955a) collection.” . allow hypotaxis. Past Tenses and Temporal Reference The significance of the facts presented in these last sections is that tenses with different temporal properties differ in their uses and interpretations. 281. however. It can. no assumed contextual time. The speaker. Tense endings contribute to the interpretation of discourse. in which case a passage such as (281a) can be rendered as a single sentence (294). and one in -sen. 296. like examples 295. be freely used in a position where there is no presupposed reference time. She has witnessed a terrible accident. for example. rather) of a text or discourse. having witnessed a terrible accident. was unhappy. One respect in which they clearly do is in their definiteness. But two of the eight end instead in -v. five have an initial sentence ending in -jee. -jee is used at the beginning of folk tales. 294. der Sohn des Uman Dalai 4 Poppe’s phonetic rendering. mandži xān.4 Uran Gua Dagina be-past say-pres-emphp (Poppe 1955a: 188.n. history-dat this modp kalpa period-gen beginning-dat ̄ ertīŋ xān. Ert urda Early former saiŋ tsag. and only they of the eight tales.xa.d dzǖŋ urda tewīg early khan-gen history-dat east south part of the world edzel. contain temporal references other than the vague “once upon a time. Bogdo Nojin Dschagar Khan.” Thus the story of “Bogdo Nojin Dschagar Khan” (p. be-past say-pres-emphatic (Poppe 1955a: 170. saiŋ good time-dat good tsag. “uraŋ guā dagin”) ‘Es lebte in alten Zeiten. beginning-dat sar saji manda. Erte urda Early former tsag. 170f.ī our kalpa period-gen beginning-dat Manchu khan-gen ̄ tüxen. als die Religion sich verbreitete.d. in der Geschichte der früheren Khane.ī xǖ bogdo nojiŋ džagar xāŋ umaŋ dalai khan-gen son bogdo nojiŋ džagar khan bai.ī time-dat a great khan-gen uraŋ guā dagin bai.d be born-pfvn most northerly country-dat umaŋ dalai xān.’ (Poppe 1955a: 189. am Anfang unserer Kalpa-Periode. wird erzählt.’ 296.īŋ time-gen exin. “bogdo nojiŋ džagar xāŋ”) ‘In früheren guten Zeiten.īŋ exin.ē.söŋ umar umar oron.seŋ rule-pfvn tör.īŋ exin.ta negeŋ jixe xān.nē. . “Uran Gua Dagina”) ‘Once upon a time there was a great king’s [daughter] Uran Gua Dagina.d.) begins as in (296). Uran Gua Dagina.d.ī tüxen.dag be-habvn ge. [die Tochter] eines großen Königs.162 chapter four notice that they. ene l galw.dž say-impfc bai. they are sufficiently specific to justify the use of an anaphoric tense requiring a specific reference point.w ge.ta. moon just rise-ifvn-dat religion just expand-ifvn-dat manǟ galw.d. lebte. wie man erzählt. 295.dž ge. als der Mond soeben aufging. While the temporal specifications in (296) strike one as equally mythic as those in (295).d.d. zu Beginn einter guten Zeit. in der Geschichte des Mandschurenkaisers. šadžiŋ saji delgerxe. am Anfang dieser Kalpa-Periode. over the down. and was born to rule over the southeasternly part of the world. at the beginning of a good time. Wells.jee. one wintry day.tei glove-com gar. 297. The stranger came early in February.iin railroad-gen negen one süüge.ees on-abl zuzaan thick xööxön xairtsag black case xün javgan person afoot (Vells 1979: 5) .iin tsas or. walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station. ch.iin day-gen tsas snow bai. the last snowfall of the year.d be-ifvn-dat örtöön station jijigxen little tani. the son of Uman Dalai Khan. at the beginning of this kalpa-period.dog xoërdugaar Winter-gen tail-gen snow fall-habvn second sar. at the beginning of our kalpaperiod.x. welcher in der allernördlichsten Gegend hauste und über den sudöstlichen Weltteil zu herrschen geboren war. that is. fall-modc ter that salxi wind tömör zam.iin month-gen budra.č arrive-impfc ödr.iin süül.j growl-impfc Bremblxerst Bramblehurst beelii. 1) Övl. come-past öglöö morning deer.’ In the absence of a temporal reference. thereby rendering the explicit temporal reference a mere inference and allowing (or requiring?) the use of -jee.t.san carry-pfvn neg a xür. as they say. if somewhat vague. and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand. rather than of -v. in the history of the early khans. through a bitter wind and a driving snow. G.’ (Poppe 1955a: 171. as the moon had just risen. in the history of the Manchu emperors.the discourse functions of the tenses 163 Khan. “Bogdo Nojin Dschagar Khan”) ‘In early good times.aa hand-dat-rp bar’. G. The Invisible Man. as the religion was spreading. Thus the beginning of H. modern stories.n. Although the English makes one wintry day and early in February overt adverbial modifiers and thus provides a definite.xa. reference time. there lived. Bogdo Nojin Dschagar Khan.güi know-ifvn-neg ir. fictional narratives. who lived in the northernmost land. the Mongolian translation builds the temporal reference into the description of the weather and hence emphasizes not that the stranger came on a day early in February. Wells’ The Invisible Man was translated using -jee (297). but that he came in a wintry. early-February storm. can make use of the ending -jee to open a tale as well. (H. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1752&Itemid=45). todorxoi baigaa yum baina. tend not to use -v (viz. yegüütgejee. and ögsöngüi.org/wiki/Од) is written entirely in the non-past tense.wikipedia.’ 247.dailynews. .5 http://www. (“Tomas Al’va Edison”. the on-line newspaper Dayaar Mongol does use an -v form. for example.php?option=com_content&task=view &id=2533&Itemid=127) ‘I was born in Chefu city of Shantung province of China on the 8th of August of [the year] 1897 and was baptized in the English church. Bi Xyatadiin Šandun mujiin Čefü xotnoo 1897 onii 8 sariin 8-nd törj. üregdsen. biography (247). (Nert mongolč erdemten Nikolas Poppegiin duradxal [1-4-r büleg]. Journalistic articles. Tomas Al’va Edison (1847 onii 2 sariin 11–1931 onii 10 sariin 18) n’ am’draliig xamgiin ixeer xyalbarčilsan neeltüüldiig xiisen АNU-iin zoxion büteegč.wikipedia.mn/index . and do not require the use of a deictic tense. tendxiin Angli sümd zagalmailuulsan. šarxdaad baina. 1847–October 18. biznismen bai. Ödriin Sonin (http://www. xorooson baina. To be sure.164 chapter four Stories or articles that contain explicit temporal references at the beginning can use -v (or -sen). baijee.. the on-line daily news. an anaphoric tense may occur in contexts in which deictic tenses are more to be expected.mn/modules.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison) Where the co-text or an expression within the sentence forces a definite reading. As with most reference works. But in the body of the article. and in the text neejee. . the forms used are garčee. a non-verbal predicate followed by gene. . an article such as the Wikipedia article about stars (mn. http://mn.maranata.’ (http://en. In a brief item about the same occurrence. 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life . Articles in the Mongolian Wikipedia also tend to avoid the -v form. the articles in Montgomery’s Reader). and fiction. baisan gene.php? name=News &file=article&catid=20&sid=14370) uses buuduuljee in the headline.org/wiki/Томас_Альва_ Эдисон) ‘Thomas Alva Edison (February 11. üildjee. baina ‘is’. . bolno 5 ‘Memoires of the famous Mongolist scholar. davtagdav. However this is limited to genres that are essentially narrative: autobiography (146). 146. in the headline of a news article (http://dayarmongol. Nicholas Poppe (chapters 1–4)’. and buudallasan baijee.wikipedia.com/index . using verb forms such as baidag ‘is’.v. in absolute position.mn/unuudur. Typical is the example (298).’ 301. Fonograf.’ . 1919 on.wikipedia. Back Mongolia-acc seize-impfc Autonomy-acc destroy-past (mn.x.php?n=18173) ‘A computer is developed in Mongolia. make-ifvn-instr experiment-impfc begin-past (http://mn.j.bugdeeree. avtonom.j exle.x Olympics see-ifvn 4000 4000 ticket bilyet book-past zaxial. the sole example of -v in the article “Mongol uls” (‘The Mongolian nation’). bolomžtoi ‘possible’.mongolnews.’ 299.iin tserg. 298. e.v.d 1919 year-dat Xyatad.. and predicates without copulas. Edison began trying to make electric lighting. and generally limited to pages of biographical or historical matter.’ In Web pages. headlines (the first utterance.iin daraa Edison Phonograph-gen after Edison tsaxilgaan electric gerel light xii.mn/?p=2754) ‘Mongols have reserved 4000 tickets to see the Olympics.org/wiki/Томас_Эдисон) ‘After the phonograph.wikipedia. Use of -v in Wikipedia articles is quite exceptional. etc.iig ezel. the army organs of China seized Outer Mongolia and destroyed its autonomy. Mongolčuud Mongol people Olimp üze. note the temporal expressions fonografiin daraa ‘after the phonograph” in (298) and 1919 ond ‘in the year 1919’ in (299). There follows (300–304) a selection of headlines from articles on various Web sites: 300.g. especially on pages reporting some form of news.lee Mongolia-dat computer develop-past (http://www.jee reserve-past (http://www. copulas like yum ‘is’. separated from the main text) are often in either the -jee or the -lee form. Mongol.iig ustga.the discourse functions of the tenses 165 ‘becomes’.v. one of only three uses of -v in “Tomas Al’va Edison” and (299).d komp’yutyer üildverle.iin China-gen army-gen erxten organ Аr Mongol.eer maxran oroldo.org/wiki/Монгол_улс) ‘In [the year] 1919. n av.uud onlain GNOME-gen translation-gen file-pl on-line orčluulg. From the sentence itself.000 million dollars.gd.com/index. the list under “Süüliin 5 medee” (‘latest 5 news items’) contains.lee remake-pass-past [2008/02/04 02:02:04] ‘A new version of the original trial crystal mirror.ii šine veb xuudas OpenMN communication-gen new Web page mendel.org/. 8 This headline.iin “Mongol ex xel” OpenOffice-gen “Mongolian mother tongue” töslöö exlüül. etc.’ b.aar Sun MySQL AB-acc billion dollar-instr xudalda. at the time of writing this.’ c. like many headlines in any language. ‘a system’. is intended. Someone familiar with the background probably could correctly interpret it. is. Sun MySQL AB7-g terbum dollar.’ d.laa [2008/01/21 09:14:57] buy-modc take-past ‘Sun MySQL AB is bought for 1. a.’ On the site http://www. ‘its system’. “Mgl Academy”6 Mongol Surguul’ Nee.lee.lee [2008/01/10 10:32:00] project start-past ‘OpenOffice’s “Mongolian Mother Tongue” project has started.openmn. GNOME-n orčluulg.d or.’8 e.166 chapter four 302..ii xuvilbar mirror-gen test-gen origin-gen version šinečle. OpenMN xolboon.iin exn. Bolor crystal tol.iin turšilt. out of context.lee “Mgl Academy” Mongolian School open-pass-past (http://dayarmongol.php?option=com_content&task=view &id=1682) ‘The Mongolian school “Mgl Academy” is opened.iin fail.gd.iin sistyem. multiply ambiguous. 7 .loo [2008/01/05 23:12:34] translation-gen system-dat enter-past ‘GNOME’s translation files enter on-line translation system. there is no way of telling which of ‘the system’. (303): 303.’ 6 The name is in English and in the Latin alphabet in the original. In the Latin alphabet in the original. [2008/01/03 20:53:42] greet-past ‘The new OpenMN communication Web page says hello. however. OpenOfis. Bi aminč xün I selfish person (http://duluu.’ 308. Naadam (games) fine become-past (http://seniorexpert.j yuu be? Blog say-impfc what QP (http://oluul.com/2007/06/blog-post_15. for example.com/?p=658) ‘The “Fashion 2008” show is ready to begin.com/archives/175) ‘Steven Seagal’s Mongolian Help’ 307.iin bolovsrol Mongolian style-gen education (http://erkhembayar. as in (308–309): 179 a.loo.d belen bol.amai.blogspot. “ГОЁЛ 2008” naadam exlexe. 307).com/2007/04/blog-post.d xöl 43rd country Guinea Bissau-dat foot (http://www.’ tav’. b) headlines or ones in some form of . including (explicit or implicit) copulas.x Steven Seagal-gen Mongolian help-ifvn (http://goojuur. 43 dax’ uls Guinea Bissau. tend to have noun-based titles. In Montgomery’s reader we find that the readings (all from the newspaper Ünen) mainly have noun-based (310a. in contrast.blogspot.com/2006/09/blog-post_7557.mn/archives/1877) ‘We set foot in [our] 43rd country.suuder.html) ‘The Naadam was fine. Blog ge.com/2008/07/blog-post_13.html) ‘I’m a selfish person. often some non-past form.’ In this. though some do have headlines ending with a verb.html) ‘What is a “blog” ’? 309. without verbs (304–306).blogspot. Mongol ba Komp’juter ‘Mongolia and [the] Computer’ (http://nasmgl.blogspot.loo fashion 2008 show begin-dat ready become-past (http://www.’ 304. set-past 179 b. sometimes -lee (179.the discourse functions of the tenses 167 Blogs. Stiven Sigal-iin Mongol Tusla. Naadam saixan bol. Mongol mayag.html) 305. blogs and many other Web pages are rather more like journalism than they are like.laa. history texts.html) ‘Mongolian-style education’ 306.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post_22. That is the case. The example (311) is both the headline and the first line of an item on a Web page. . 11) side-dat be-pres ‘The masses of Latin America are on the side of Cuba. or even of whole texts. Namr. for example.iin öngölzö.iin Latin Amerika-gen masses Cuba-gen tal. also tend to contain deictic tenses. 40–50) (314).d üze.x China-gen leader-pl-gen impinge-ifvn bodlog. p. 18) party government-gen leader-pl see-past ‘Party and government leaders saw the performance of the Bulgarian actors. p. and others of those that do not start with a non-past tense (though it is true that almost all the initial sentences of the paragraphs in the story “Šine baišin” [pp.iin jüjigč.’ e. a.na (reading #24. nor do subsequent paragraphs start with sentences ending in -lee. One has an -v ending (310e).na (reading #2. and for the same reason as headlines: deictic tenses do not require any presupposed reference time.php?n=18173 opens with (313). 24) policy-acc condemn-impfc be-pres ‘The Chinese leaders’ policy of impingement is condemned. 51–56] end in a -lee form!). 310.iin toglolt. montsameg. 19) fall-gen encampment ‘Autumn pasturing’ b.iig Bulgaria-gen actor-pl-gen performance-acc nam zasg.iin udirdagč.v (reading #5. and there are no further -lee forms in the first paragraph.mongolnews. four -lee-less paragraphs follow it. Xyatad. none has -lee. 22) c. For example. “Xyaruu unasan tsagaar” (pp.d bai. with Baast’s stories “Xaltarxüü” (pp.’ d.iin otor (reading #6.iin udirdagči. but surprisingly. A further example from the Internet: the page http:// www.iin ard tümen Kub.j bai.168 chapter four the present tense (310c.iin medegdel montsame-gen statement ‘A communiqué of montsame’ (reading #8. print texts the same is often the case. 9–20). Latin Amyerik. Bolgar. there is no other -lee in the story. p.’ The first lines of paragraphs. Another page similarly begins with a -lee sentence (312). In published. d).mn/unuudur.d. p.iig jigši. in quite a few short stories the first sentence ends with a -lee form.d. p. üüd.ee child-pl-rp bagš.j make-impfc .gde. at the present time no longer available.’ 314. mother-pl xii.laa. .d. Examples include (315–316): 315. MGM new computer produce-impfc start-past (http://www. .j. book publish-pass-modc gar. Mother-abl-rp a letter receive-past ‘I received a letter from my mother.ees.xan school baby-diminutive bürtge.j ex.lee. “Avilg. . The name is in the Latin alphabet in the original passage.iin student-pl-gen surguul’ balčir. “Migma elektoniks” XXK Mongold anx “Migma Electronics” XXK Mongolia-dat first udaa occasion MGM10 sine komp’yuter üildverle.php?n=18173) ‘Migma Electronics” XXK has started producing the new MGM computer for the first time in Mongolia. .oo üüd xaalgaa nee. and holding a meeting and discussion of parents and teachers and students. Los Anjeles xotn.php?option=com_content&task=view &id=1682) ‘The Mongolian school “MGL Academy” is registering small children.php?name=News&file=categories& op=newindex&catid=1&pg=17. “MGL Academy”9 “MGL Academy” Mongol Mongol Mongol Mongol xüüxd. teacher suragč.lee. Los Angeles city-rp door gate-rp open-past (http://dayarmongol. meeting aav.) ‘The book “A Dictionary of Corruption” has been published.’ (Baast 1962: 40) There are. however.laa come out-past (http://www.iin tol’ ” “Corruption-gen dictionary” 169 nom xevle.’ 312.mn/unuudur. . quite a few initial -jee’s to be found on Web pages.the discourse functions of the tenses 311. register-impfc uuzalt. . .’ 313.mongolnews.n.com/index. Pop od Pop star 9 10 11 Britney Spears sayaxan Britney Spears11 just Los Anjeles dax’ Los Angeles in In English in the Latin alphabet in the original.demparty.mn/modules. Eej. father yariltslaga discussion eej. “MGM” in Latin alphabet in the original.ee neg zaxia xüleej av. held an open house . . in Los Angeles.üüd. set a price on-impfc be-past (http://www. however.n come-modc salon.jee.tei price-com or.nii hair-gen ire.’ 316.iig n’ body-acc their ünelüül.iig gui.aas worker-abl üs.d 1906 year-dat tör. hair-acc her shave-impfc give12-ifvn-acc ask-past (http://news. Thus Sodov’s preface to the section on Boccaccio in his anthology begins with (317).jee.d.iig n’ xus.j bai. 200 garui 200 over oxi.eer girl-pl-acc forcibly biye.ii salon-gen ajilčn. often use the present tense in opening with a factual statement. (Sodov 1967: 51) humanist author copp ‘Giovanni Boccaccio is a great Italian humanist author.php?option=com_content&task=view&id= 52&Itemid=43) ‘More than 200 girls are forced to put a price on their bodies.ecpat.net/news-5363. be born-past (Yatskovskaya 1976: 8) ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in 1906. Frants France Baruun Western 12 (Bügd Nairamdax Frants Uls) n’ (The French Republic) topic Yevrop. Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 on.x. 16.mn/index. Essays and articles.ii salon-gen salon.’ 318.’ 317.banjig.jee. Jovanni Giovanni Bokkaččo Boccaccio bol topic marker Ital.č ögö.iin Italy-gen ix great xünleg üzelten zoxiolč yum.html) ‘Pop star Britney Spears recently came into an ordinary inexpensive Los Angeles hair-dressing salon and asked the staff to shave her hair for her.iig xüč.d Europe-dat ‘To do for someone else.’ Biographies naturally begin with sentences like (16). be located-ifvn .x. The Wikipedia article on France (“Франц улс”) begins likewise with a present-tense factual statement (318).170 chapter four jiriin humble gazar place xyamd cheap üne.’ orši.j enter-impfc üsč. only one of which is the specific function assigned the opening sentence of an article (or chapter of a book).iin xolboon.ii gišüün oron yum. why.’ In published. without background. or 35%) have various present-tense constructions. Europe-gen union-gen member country copp. Past Tenses and Grounding One type of textual function is foregrounding material (placing it in the main sequence of narrative events) or backgrounding it. Of course. etc. but also in the text as a whole.wikipedia. and the rest (seven.the discourse functions of the tenses 171 Yevrop. where. hard-copy non-fiction. how. the basic events. five (25%) have initial sentences using the ending -jee and three (15%) the ending -lee. of each event. The material stripped out is largely the subordinate background. both in regard to position in the paragraph. I saw. b. the various past tense endings are distributed rather differently from one another. Five (25%) have -v. In summarizing a story the body of the narrative is stripped down to the skeleton of the story. 27. I came. have initial sentences in -v. one in -sengüi. while Mrs. almost half (45%). none have -sen. and in Latin).2. For example. of the twenty readings in Montgomery’s (1969) collection of articles from the newspaper Ünen. just the events and their order. Caesar’s purpose in uttering (7b) is simply to present the events. making it subordinate in some way to those events. there are some 60 readings taken from various sources. but only two in -lee.. with whom. and I have made no effort to match the tenses to the specific genres in question. A large number of factors play a role in determining tense suffix choice. (1963). In the Mongol Reader edited by Austin et al. I conquered. Hall is “screwing up her courage to go in and ask her visitor if he would . his account is all foreground. When Caesar utters (7b) (in Suetonius’ account. (http://mn. 7. The rest—9. anyway. and one in -sengüi yum.org/wiki/Франц_улс) ‘France (the French Republic) is located in Western Europe and is a member of the European Union. two in -sen yum. or 15%—have some kind of present-tense sentence. 13 (22%) in -jee. Of these. we aren’t told the when. 2. these are very small samples. At the beginning of chapter 2 of The Invisible Man. it consists of two events.” Mr. . . the following fragment of an interview contains an autobiographical recounting which consists largely of a sequence of statements in -sen (320):14 13 This is a hypothesis obviously requiring both further refinement and future testing. snow more rage-impfc be-past (Vells 1979: 10) In either case. though the English original does have separate sentences. the clock-jobber. is whether. 319. and in writing. For example. b.13 a mere aspect of the event of complaining. like it. the imperfective converb would render the event semantically subordinate as well. indicating a closer connection between the two events than separate sentences would. precisely. as in the case of English. we may find a series of -sen’s. unlinked by the conjunction. One might say that ireed here is not unlike “came and . . the said of the English original is translated with -v. though. marked by the -ing form (roughly equivalent to the Mongolian imperfective converb in -j). Mr. The snow outside was falling faster. The initial hypothesis would be that choice of the perfective converb serves merely to syntactically subordinate his entrance to his complaining. a. Wells writes at this point example (319a). in the sense used here? 14 I have underlined the verbs with -sen endings. or whether it is the ending -lee. In a spoken narrative sequence.j bai. that is crucial here. and the corresponding verbs in the translation. The question. Strictly speaking. what does it mean.laa. For one thing. serves to background the material. marking Mr. Henfrey’s advent and complaint as the first event-complex of the chapter.172 chapter four take some tea. to be semantically subordinate. The Mongolian past progressive is a close translation of the corresponding English tense. and. But in Mongolian came is translated by the perfect converb ireed and thereby syntactically subsumed into an event-complex: he came into the bar and complained. comes into the bar and complains about the weather (or his boots).” in English. Henfrey’s entrance into the bar and his comment on the defeat of his boots by the weather. In English these are separate events marked by the main verbs came and said of their respective sentences. Henfrey. a series of -v’s. which appears in Mongolian translation as (319b). it is the imperfective aspect. Tsas ulam širüüse. aas month-abl bol. yosoor bagš. be-caus-pass-past on. go out-impfc šineer newly sar.n be-caus-modc 1943 1943 üye. . .the discourse functions of the tenses 320.d school-dat oro.d year-dat tögs. .ööd finished-pfc surguul’. .d finish-ifvn-dat manai our Šine New negdügeer first Dörvön bagš. .d school-dat xuviarla. . . finish-pfc namaig me-acc surguul’ school 20-iod 20-ish aa . class-com-instr angi. .iin officer-gen surguul’ school baig.a school-rp surguuli. develop-past on.xö.iin Mongolia-gen ofitsyer.aad assign-pass-pfc odoo now ter that Mongol Uls.j be-impfc angi.a school-rp 1943 1943 ingej thus xögj.iin teacher-gen surguul’.gd.taig. 6 surguuli.aar.d time-dat said nar. manai Our anx first surguul’ school xoyor two tegexed xoyor angi. be-past Bügd Nairamdax Republic exle.x.x enter-ifvn bai.son. .ööd.son become-past üye. become-past 1943 1943 ontssain excellently baital while xoyordugaar second angi. class-com bagš.san assign-pass-pfvn Bagš.taig.aar class-com-instr Tegeed then tögs.eer pursue-caus-ifvn-instr iim such bai.d year-dat 173 Bi I ter that gar.ii year-gen 9 9 xičel. year bol.tai.dg.tai. say-habvn-acc surguul.sön.san.iin teacher-gen bai. then two class-com angi.san.gd. neg zaxiral.guula. .san.uula.iin minister pl-gen tušaal command ge.tai.tai teacher-com barilga building bar’. 6 uh .iig.d school-dat xuviarla.d. ah .iin teacher-gen xuviar aa .iin quota uh .č. accordingly teacher-gen .n begin-modc üye time on.gd. bagš. . time-dat bagš. .iig school-acc on. be-past surguul’.üüle. class tögs.tai. Ingej four teacher-com a principal-com thus bai.san build-past Tegeed Then bi I aa . mongolianoralhistory. say-impfc ge. . 23-d 23rd-dat Baruun Right ofitsyer.aar train-ifvn-instr 8 sar. . . be-impvn xoyor two davxar.j go-impfc tend there Ingeed Then oči.j enlist-impfc surguul’ ” school” Gandan deer. . about 20 teachers. A new building was built and developed.geer going-neg-instr surguul’.j say-impfc tal side xoyor. . I did not go Teachers’ school and was registered as a student of the school of Officers. 6 classes. uh . .laa.aa. . In 1943 I graduated from my school I was assigned to the teachers’ school.iin 8 month-gen šüüd straight davxar. say-impfc ge. (http://www. two dörvön four n’ its 1943 1943 on. aa.iin Süxbaatar-gen neremjit named deer to odoog. uh . go-past aa .d school-dat oči. . 23rd-dat.j. Ter That surguul’ school n’ topic odoog.mongolianoralhistory.iin 8 month-gen 8 sar. building there be-past (http://www. .oor Barilg. .güi. become-impfc bai.iin construction-gen Texnikum college baig. On 23 August.j go-impfc “Ofitsyer. Gandan on Texnikum college ge.san.iin today-instr construction-gen Barilg. aa . . 4 teachers and director.ii year-gen Süxbaatar. züün tal story left side iim thus xoyor two n’ its yagaan rosy baišin tend bai. When I graduated from the school in 1943 it had .xml) . There was a two-story building on its right and there were two-story and four-story pinkish buildings on its left.x.iin “Officer-gen bürtgüül.iin officer-gen suraltsa. story bol. there is the Construction College now.son. 1942 I went to the School of Officers. . .j.xml) My school was established with two classes-the first and the second.d school-dat očil.174 chapter four surguul’. be-past 23-d.iin today-gen oč.org/samples/transcriptions/TR060101B . At that time a decree of the Ministries of the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) was issued and the school of Officers was established to launch its classes in September 1943.j . . .org/samples/ translations/EN060101B. That school was situated in recent-time Gandan. . I’d decided to study there. in State-gen 7-nii 7-gen tsag hour tanxim.v.ii year-gen xugatsaand during ajl. Gungaadorj nee.j. Food.d Meeting-dat ir. Š.sen perform-pfvn 2002 2002 on.tei attendance-com Tasalsan: absent: xii.4 94.ii committee-gen Š.j.iin development-genitive čuulgan. Arvin D.iig agenda-acc taniltsuula.uul.nii house-gen Xuraldaan.j agree-caus-impfc Part of this passage is in example (145) above. present-past Xuraldaan.j do-impfc Tailan. the minutes of meetings typically consist of a series of statements in -v.4 xuviin percent Üünd: Herein: Neg.v. irts. begin-past xoroon. One.iin Parliament-gen namr. be-past D. xödöö. Gungaadorj open-impfc irts.the discourse functions of the tenses 175 Similarly.iin month-gen (Myagmar garig) (Tuesday) Töri. and Agriculture of the Mongolian national Parliament (321):15 321. Baigal’ Nature orčin. Arvin Ulsiin Ix Xural.ii year-gen ödr.giin environment country-genitive baingiin standing xoroon.iin fall-gen 15 10 10 V “B” baingiin standing on.v.ii assembly-gen güitsetge.ii committee-gen 1 dügeer 1st sar.tai Report-com zoxix belonging bai. come-impfc 94.iig Meeting-acc 2003 2003 xögjl. as in this fragment of the minutes of the 2003/01/07 meeting of the Standing Committee on Nature.ees member-abl 17 gišüün 17 member ir.d 10 minute-dat exle.vel come-condc gišüün.iin work-gen xolbogd.d hall-dat 10 minuta. attendance darga chairperson xeleltsex asuudl.iin day-gen xuraldaan meeting ord. Environment. tailan report 18 18 . Š.ii year-gen xugatsaand during tölövlegöön.uul.iin work-gen Tölövlegöön.iin parliament-gen asuult.iin Ix Xural. . Nyamdavaa. Ts.ii assembly-gen xii. question. speak-past Xuraldaan 10 tsag 45 minuta. Accepting the report.j agree-caus-impfc gišüün member L. One. Accepting the draft plan.v. Two.d öndörlö. Ts. That is.ees member-pl-abl Ug principal xeleltse. The meeting wound up at 10:45. Two. Šiirevdamba. Meeting 10 hour 45 minute-dat wind up-past ‘The January 7th. O. attendance was 94. 2003 (Tuesday) meeting of the Standing Committee on Nature.4%. Report of the work performed during the Fall 2002 assembly of the National Parliament.iin fall-gen čuulgan.iin Parliament-gen namr. 17 of the 18 members attending. Nigamyet.’ 16 The plural marker nar is used here to “sum up” the list of members. Šaravdorj. G. gišüü. absent: D. Nyam-Osor nar pl16 sanal opinion xele. R. opened the meeting and presented attendance and the agenda.x do-ifvn ajl.töi draft-com Uls. Davaadtsedev.ii plan-gen asuudl.güi.d.ii plan-gen tösöl. Environment. Ts. members of Parliament [names] gave their opinions. finish-past 2002 2002 on. go out-past-neg 12 minuta. the members of Parliament did not raise questions or express opinions.d 12 minute-dat Xoyor. and Rural Development began at 10:10 in Hall “B” of the State House. Ts. Gungaadorj. it marks it as a group of people.san. tösöl draft xolbogd.176 chapter four Ulsiin Ix Xural. chairperson of the Standing Committee. Draft plan during the Fall 2002 assembly of the National Parliament for work to do.v.iin Parliament-gen sanal opinion gar.iig question-acc 10 tsag 10 hour duusa.v. Arvin. Ööld. Tsogtbaatar. The discussion of the principal question concluded at 10:12.j discuss-impfc Ulsiin Ix Xural. Then several people asked questions. A deictic tense normally takes its reference point. and.d state-dat bai. Sodnomdorj spontaneously wrote down (323). this possessive form is used as a marker of definiteness.v.na be-pres gej that maan’ our yari. determine the choices of form. precisely.tei yarilts. is specified by the adverbial prepositional phrase 17 Xamtaar ‘together with’ here seems to be a misunderstanding of the instrumental with in the English passage. if it is.v. in (324). In other translations of narrative sequences. what factors.iig dargalagč tövd. Xurl. the past tense in and of itself only indicates that the discovery of America by Columbus precedes the present time.iig meeting-acc xün person nee.t n’ put-past end-dat the18 biden. except in the occasional sentence. the time to which it relates the time of the occurrence recounted. 323.v. and text in the Altaic languages. say-past The question is whether -sen (-v) is the only form that is available for narrative sequence and.iin city-gen xed xeden several darga leader sanxüü. if it is not.the discourse functions of the tenses 177 Confronted with the task of translating (322). under what conditions a narrative sequence is appropriate in discourse.giin finance-gen ulzalt. For example. He said the city was in financial trouble. from an adverbial expression or some other temporal expression. it occurred. roughly equivalent to ‘the’.ii Assembly-acc president Tibet-gen prayer-gen xamt. 18 Literally ‘his. 322. their’. As yet. open-past asuudal question tavi.laa.iin mörgölčn. he likewise used this form. conversation. . Finally the mayor spoke to us. because little investigation has been made of the structures and functions of discourse. The chairman opened the meeting with a Tibetan prayer. Tereer xot us-com converse-past he city xünd difficult baidal. using -v (except in the third sentence). especially where Mongolian is concerned. her. complete and definitive answers cannot be given for these questions. Etses. if any.aar together with-instr17 Tegeed Then xot. When. The importance of narrative sequence is that past tenses in narrative typically are non-deictic. It was at this time. some states are permanent or endure over long periods of time. I hated school. a contextual time such as “when I was a child” or “when I was in school. immediately after. including the speaker’s world knowledge. Similarly. The war years were hard on our family. 328. 327. Columbus discovered America in 1492. because it fails to provide a reference point for the tense. But . I hated school.” In (327). the narrator’s getting up results in a state of affairs wherein they had gotten up. or even less. though the reader may assume. creates a state of having gotten dressed. In (328). In narrative sequences it is the so-called event time (the time of the occurrence or eventuality) of one clause that provides the reference time for the next statement in sequence. more precisely. Their getting dressed. Thus we know that if (328) recounts all the essential events that transpired (so that “getting up. that is. I went downstairs. we understand that it is during the war years that the utterer’s family never had enough to eat. that is. Of course. that is. perhaps only a few minutes. in (325). 326. elapsed between the two events.178 chapter four in 1492. that they got dressed. What “immediate” in this context is. in turn.” for example. does not include more than getting out of bed and the events which occur between getting out of bed and getting dressed are merely incidental and can be subsumed under the terms get up or get dressed). however. 324. a time immediately following the state resulting from the occurrence in the preceding clause serves as the reference time for the tense of the next statement of the next occurrence in sequence. that they went downstairs. Or. through a process of accommodation. in light of the context. and it is while this state of having gotten dressed obtains. We never had enough to eat. Out of context (326) seems incomplete. From (328) we infer that the narrator got dressed as soon as. 325. I got dressed. when they had gotten up. I got up. When I was a child. they got up. and they went downstairs immediately after getting dressed. that is. it is the previous sentence. is pragmatically determined. which provides the reference. part of the context. the adverbial subordinate clause provides the reference for the utterer’s state of hating school. asking his questions of the narrator. I came. and she wouldn’t let me touch her at first. and it was when he had run off that his barking woke up Grandfather. Peep was muddy and untidy and very restless. The next but one and has the same effect: Skip kept barking—despite what Kitty said to him—after the narrator got up and saw that it was Peep. Another sequence occurs in the second paragraph. And though I said. and I had to crawl out of the window to see what was wrong. takes as its reference time the time when Skip had begun to bark. at about two am. at about two am. The time when he had woken Grandfather becomes the time at which Grandfather came outside. do not advance narrative time. to say the least. That the narrator’s telling him to be quiet follows his waking up is doubly indicated. they do not occur at a time immediately . woke up. He came outside with a torch asking me what on earth I was doing in the cold in my dressing gown and with no shoes on. the sequence of events forming the “story”). telling the dog something must have followed waking up. I saw. 329. Skip ran off after Peep wouldn’t let Kitty touch her. but also. that is. Then one night. I woke up and told him to be quiet. “it’s Peep come back. For example. we know that a long period of time must have separated each pair of events. and it was Peep. in sequence with his beginning to bark (and presumably in consequence of it). while the next predicate. 7. That is.” Skip kept barking. chapter 5) Non-narrative statements. the narrator (who is Kitty Jameson) woke up when Skip had begun to bark. which woke Grandfather. the use of and to conjoin actions idiomatically implicates sequentiality: the reverse order. b. But I thought I saw something outside. “Shhh. That is.the discourse functions of the tenses 179 in the case of Caesar’s boast (7b). that is. I got up to look out. statements that form part of the narrative background and not the foreground (the main line of the narrative. since normally she would not have been talking in his sleep.” to Skip. (Aldridge 1974. Then Skip ran off into the darkness barking at something. Skip began to bark under my bed. I conquered. in the passage from The Marvelous Mongolian in (329). the verbal complex began to bark takes as its reference time the time expressed by the adverbial complex then one night. as if he was afraid of something. I told him to be quiet and woke up would be odd. Finally. the kind of occurrence it denotes. including discourse functions. The Romans conquered Britain. at the beginning of the second paragraph. the second sentence does express a consequence and hence a later event in sequence. but in (332) his being hit by a truck is the consequence of his not properly looking to see if there was traffic. in (331) and (332).jee. In (331). this passage illustrates another way in which sequentiality can be implicated.180 chapter four after the onset of the state resulting from the previous event or occurrence. depends on the Aktionsart of the predicate. but rather the time of the occurrence itself. if this is a narrative sequence. ‘Tom was hit by a truck. 331. of course his being shot came after his stepping out. 330. or not. It was the westernmost of their conquests. but that time is later than the time at which she got up. Thus in the case of (333). or functions deictically to merely state a fact (as in the second sentence of example (330). He was seriously injured. but rather is simply a time preceding the speech act time). and hence an event occurring at an earlier time. the temporal relations between the pairs of sentences differ because the rhetorical relations between them differ. For example. then you naturally look out after getting up. A similar ordering defined by the use of the infinitive occurs in I had to crawl out of the window to see what was wrong. The ordering of the sentences differs because the second sentence in (332) expresses the cause of the event in the first. whereas in (331). naming the narrator’s looking out. How a sentence relates functionally to the sentences around it is pragmatically determined. Whether a past tense verb functions sequentially to advance narrative time. This ordering follows from the use of the infinitive: if you get up to look out. Peep’s being muddy and so on. Tereer xünd šarxad. the past tense of which does not take its reference point from the time of conquest. For example. It’s being Peep is a state obtaining at the time that the narrator looked out. we don’t know in which order the events occurred. and in the absence of context can be ambiguous. but also on other contextual factors.d dajruul. holds at the time of the preceding action.san Tom truck-dat knock down-past He heavy wound-pfvn . Tom’s being seriously injured is the consequence of his being hit by a truck. Tom was shot before stepping out. if the second sentence is a statement of the conditions under which he was shot.’ Tom truckan. a Web page (http://tuurug. The aircraft’s landing gear and flaps were down.j bg. Tom was hit by a bullet.j chad.d dajruul. ‘Tom was hit by a truck.dag] bai.aa.d [mašin.newarkadvocate.sn. In regard to the former. the crash.com/ apps/pbcs.oxonianreview.aad [baig. zam gara.h [bai. whereas the reverse is. in (335).mongoliadc. [they’re? I’m?] hit by a car’ bn [bai. unfortunately.tei.aad] road exit-ifvn intend-impfc be-pfc mashin. 334. from Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi.güi look-impfvn-neg bai. be-pres 333. In contrast. I found on a Web page (www . it sank. I also wondered about the English word truck. (http://www. He didn’t properly look to see if there was traffic.jee.’ Tom truckan.the discourse functions of the tenses 181 bai. It made a sound like a giant metallic burp. at the present time no longer available. we infer it because of our knowledge that a crashed airplane cannot prepare for landing.d] dairuul. given as in the original.us/News/AD/JOB. Tereer Tom truck-dat knock down-past He traffic traffic bai.org/issues/2-2/2-2-1. As to the latter. that the ship made the burping sound as or after. (http://www . The plane crashed in a rural residential area about 200 or 300 feet from a house. as this passage is.na. possible. In (334). TRUCK bari.htm) 335. i.dag [čad.h [gara.dll/article?AID=/20080112/UP-DATES01/80112011. seemingly in preparation to land. and because.x] ge.’ ii.banjig. it is most likely. Truck drive-impfc be able-habvn be-ifvn necessity-com ‘Being able to drive a truck is necessary.j] say-impfc .net/zuud/index.j car-dat run into-impfc ‘exiting. the state of the aircraft reported in the second sentence is the state at or before.na.) 19 I wondered if the Mongolian should contain an indefinite neg ‘a’. Stables said.na] be-pres gj [ge.x] hereg.htm) the example (i) below. Nothing about the tenses used reveals this. given as in the original).php?b_ type=as) included (ii) (again. out of context.iig be-pfvn-acc xar. not after. He stepped out just as a second fighter made its strafing run. The ship sank.19 be-pres 332. For example. 337. functions this way. was flying far too low. (Hence those linguists who use “!” to mean “unacceptable with the assumed meaning” would likely replace the asterisks below with exclamation marks. The military investigation confirmed what had been obvious from the moment the tragedy occurred. In (337b). a. The plane. (http://news. a. it would be impossible to change (338) as indicated—replacing the perfective passé tense with the imperfective imparfait. The Ukrainian aircraft had been chartered by Libya to fly food and medical aid to Chad. the past progressive. The Ukrainian aircraft was chartered by Libya to fly food and medical aid to Chad. which severed the ski lift cable in the Italian resort of Cabalasi. The military investigation confirmed what had been obvious from the moment the tragedy occurred. but otherwise there is no difference between the two passages (337a. without changing both the meaning and the function of the sentence in question. which severed the ski lift cable in the Italian resort of Cabalasi. it cannot use these to disambiguate the discourse structures of strings of sentences because the simple past tense can be used in the same contexts as the other two tenses: compare (336a–b) and (337a–b).pbs. The plane. namely the simple past tense.bbc. The military investigation confirmed what had been obvious from the moment the tragedy occurred.) . and the past perfect. the simple past tense seems more colloquial than the past perfect. which severed the ski lift cable in the Italian resort of Cabalasi. b).182 chapter four Although English does have different past tenses that could be used to differentiate a narrative sequence from a passage containing both a foregrounded and a backgrounded occurrence. (http:// www. Six people have died after a cargo plane crashed in Cameroon after failing to land at an airport in Ndjamena. The plane. The plane. d. c. capital of neighbouring Chad. flew far too low. The military investigation confirmed what had been obvious from the moment the tragedy occurred. 336. The simple past (perfective) and the imperfect of the Romance languages. for example.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june98/cablecar_3-12. unlike in the case of the the English examples above. had flown far too low. Six people have died after a cargo plane crashed in Cameroon after failing to land at an airport in Ndjamena. which severed the ski lift cable in the Italian resort of Cabalasi.co. had been flying far too low. In many languages an imperfect or imperfective past verb form contrasts with a perfect or perfective one and does serve to disambiguate such strings. capital of neighbouring Chad.stm) b.uk/2/hi/africa/4936912 .html) b. des of-the autorités authorities canadiennes. Sous Toronto. Under le long de along piste runway avant before ravin ravine et and Selon According to la the de finir of finishing de of sa its prendre catching l’enquête the-inquiry la tempête. imparfait] à itself-is crashed on son atterrissage à its landing at avait had glissé slid Toronto. l’avion the storm the-plane course run dan un in a petit small feu. storm dont of which les the vents winds changeaient [imparfait ≠ *a changé. passé composé] trop vite. “L’appareil est arrivé [passé composé ≠ *arrivait. the-Airbus A340 of-Air France s’est écrasé [passé composé ≠ *écrasait.” visibility a expliqué [passé composee ≠ *expliquait. L’enquête menée par les autorités canadiennes The-inquiry conducted by the authorities Canadian révèlent [passé simple ≠ *révèlait. l’Airbus A340 d’Air France 2005. imparfait] explained rapidement rapidly . the-Airbus was flying too fast. imparfait] revealed d’Air France of-Air France avait abordé had approached altitude et une altitude and a vitesse speed trop too la the que that l’avion the-plane piste d’aterrissage avec une runway with an élevées. passé composé] were changing de in et and direction direction avec with peu de little of visibilité. Le high The 2 août 2 august 2005.the discourse functions of the tenses 183 338. fire. imparfait] The-machine arrived à Toronto au at Toronto in-the d’une of-a violente violent milieu middle tempête. Canadian l’Airbus volait [imparfait ≠ *a volé. ’ explained Wendy Tadros. Under the storm. the Air France Airbus A340 crashed during its landing in Toronto. ‘[It] came in too high and too fast.184 chapter four Wendy Tadros. ‘The plane arrived at Toronto in the middle of a violent storm whose winds were changing rapidly.fr/actualite/societe/avion-l-airbus-accidentetoronto-volait-trop-vite-22374. and with little visibility. Consider again the passage (329) from The Marvelous Mongolian: 20 For the original English of the quotation. director of the Transport Safety Board (TSB) of Canada.francesoir. According to the inquiry of the Canadian authorities.ca/forum/ showthread. Wendy Tadros du of-the directrice director Bureau bureau Canada (BST). see http://urbantoronto. the plane had slid along the runway before finishing its run in a small ravine and catching fire. slippery il n’a tout simplement pas eu [passé composé ≠ *avait. touching down almost halfway along the wet and slippery runway. runway glissante. It simply ran out of room.” enough room (http://www. imparfait] trop haut et arrived too high and trop too vite. imparfait] it neg-has entirely simply not had assez de place. fast posant ses putting its mouillée wet En In roues wheels et and presque almost à in la the moitié de la middle of the piste. On August 2. .”20 In Mongolian.html) “The inquiry conducted by the Canadian authorities reveals that the Air France plane had approached the runway with too elevated an altitude and speed.php/5567-PearsonCanada-should-expand-runway-safety-zones-tointernational-code-says-Air-France?p=122935. 2005. the Airbus was flying too fast. aspect need not take on this burden: modality is available to mark the same function. Canada (BST) de la of the sécurité safety des transports of-the transporation du of-the “Il It est arrivé [passé composé ≠ *arrivait. got up. Xediigeer bi Skip noxoidoo “čimeegüi”. It is instructive now to consider the Mongolian translation of this passage (329M). told. Then one night. tüüniig duugüi bai gej zandrav.. xutsaj exlev. that of the second paragraph is presented below. She wouldn’t let me touch her at first: bailaa. I woke up and told him to be quiet. That “it was Peep” indicates a state discovered subsequent to looking out. Getel ene möčid tsonxnii tsaana yamar negen yum bürtelzex šig bolov. which woke Grandfather. the foregrounded events. came.22 got up—bosov. Peep was muddy and untidy and very restless: bailaa. and she wouldn’t let me touch her at first. Having to crawl out the window is a state of affairs holding at the time that Skip kept barking. ‘Getting up. the narrative backbone. Skip began to bark under my bed.the discourse functions of the tenses 185 329. He came outside with a torch asking me what on earth I was doing in the cold in my dressing gown and with no shoes on. Getel ene n’ Davjaa bailaa. Bi tüüniig olj xaraxaar bosov. I got up to look out. with the possible exception of serjee in the second paragraph: began to bark— exlev. however. Peep was muddy and untidy and very restless. And though I said. etc. see (329) in its place above. as if he was afraid of something. “Shhh. “ene cin’ Davjaa 21 I have underlined the -v forms and both underlined the non-v finite verbs in and put them in italics.” to Skip. the states are mainly expressed with -lee: it was Peep: bailaa. woke up. And. “it’s Peep come back. But I thought I saw something outside.’ . I told him to be quiet. marked mainly by the successive verbs began to bark. Bi serj. woke. 22 ‘Got up and told him to be quiet’ is rendered using the modal converb: roughly. He was afraid concerns a putative state at the time Skip began to bark. woke. Neg udaa šöniin xoër tsagiin üyed Skip yamar negen yumnaas aisan yum šig minii oron dooguur orj. kept barking. Then Skip ran off into the darkness barking at something. In English both foregrounded events and backgrounded states are expressed with the simple past tense: began. and I had to crawl out of the window to see what was wrong. but also the stative was and had. got. etc.” Skip kept barking. For the detailed gloss of the first paragraph. at about two am. told—zandrav. In addition. that it represents an occurrence subsequent to that. and it was Peep. 329M. it is possible. Thought may represent a state at the time Kitty told Skip to be quiet. chapter 5) We saw that there is here a sequence of events.21 As one might have expected. interestingly enough. (Aldridge 1974. are all expressed using -v. there are a number of other predicates. j üz.toi. as shown by its being presented in a relative clause.n.iin Davjaa-gen xamag whole bol.) ask-past Two verbs in this passage require special comment. and secondly through the use of the narrative ending -v.ii door-gen bar’.v.d cold-dat yuu what xii.oos become-pfvn-abl tevdsen panicky Daraa n’ After that xaranxui dark šavar šavxai muddy dirty učirgüi mindlessly bai.saar carry-contc dan only č modp n’ her Skip yamar neg yum ol.jee. Bolov in the third sentence (which translates But I thought I saw something outside) marks that this is not a state. The Mongolian makes his (Skip’s) running barking .sn. Yuu bolsniig medexiin told bi tsonxoor garav. that it was the cause of his waking.j bark-impfc či you gadna beside baidal. which woke Grandfather.j do-impfc asuu. subordinate to barking at something. awake-past nütsgen naked ene this xüiten.č go out-impfc bošinz.d run-ifvn-dat üüdn.xa.j fear-impfc Exl. be-past ai.aa yum be-impfvn thing be qp n’ his övöö grand-dad deer on gar čiiden flashlight ire.186 chapter four ergej irsen baina šüü dee gej xelsen bolovč Skip xutssaar l bailaa. The second verb is that serjee in the second paragraph. come about’ rather than the purely stative baix ‘be’. This sentence is the translation of Then Skip ran off into the darkness barking at something.d. The sense is that then (getel) the narrator had a sensation of seeing something outside.x.ee body-dat-rp Terveer Out biye body šatan steps gar. his waking is not an event in the narrative. housecoat-com baig. Davjaag.güi reach-ifvn-neg namaig me bai. (Oldrij 1980: 70f.eed Begin-pfc ogt completely terbeer off xürge. The English original makes explicit that Skip’s barking woke Grandfather. in two ways.laa. be-past ruu towards davxi. Nonetheless. first by using the verb bolox ‘become.sen met Skip what a thing find-impfc see-past as if xutsa. but rather a “psychological” event.laa.tai state-com biyen.j say-impfc ser. come-modc xöl foot ge. come to be. Baruun tal n’ xoyordavxar. Bi ter üyed. xoyordugaar angitaigaar. while the background material consists usually of unbounded states and processes. although övöö serjee ‘grand-dad awoke’ is not syntactically subordinate. surguuliig šineer baiguulan 1943 onii 9 saraas exlen xiceellüülexeer bolson iim üye baisan. dörvön davxar. . aa . . neg zaxiraltai. Ingej baiguulagdsan. Hence in the Mongolian. it is still not an independent event. . . that is. and grounding. . . . Šine barilga bar’san ingej xögjsön. there is a correlation between aspect. At that time a decree of the Ministries of the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) was issued and the school of Officers . We don’t know—and don’t care. Ingeed 8 sariin 23-d. which have well-defined endpoints (beginning and end). negdügeer angi. . When I graduated from the school in 1943 it had . iim xoyor yagaan baišin tend baisan. Ter surguul’ n’ odoogiin Gandan deer. (http://www. züün tal n’ xoyor. Bagšiin surguul’d xuviarlagdaad baij baital ter üyed Bügd Nairamdax odoo Mongol Ulsiin said nariin tušaal garč. 1943 onii 8 sariin 23-d Süxbaatariin neremjit “Ofitsyeriin surguul’ ” deer očson. . . . bagštai bolson. . gej baigaa. as marked by the deictic verb. yosoor bagšiin surguul’d očilgüigeeršüüd ofitsyeriin surguul’d očijsuraltsaxaar bolj. Tegeed bi surguulia 1943 ond surguulia ontssain tögsööd bagšiin surguul’d xuviarlagdsan baisan. .xml) My school was established with two classes—the first and the second. in (320). For example.org/samples/transcriptions/TR060101B . Aktionsart. bagšiin surguul’d orox xuviar aa . the event of going to the school is recounted. tend očij bürtgüülj bailaa. The foregrounded material normally consists of expressions referring to bounded activities and events. anx xoyor angitaigaar. and then a description of the school follows. but a circumstance. A new building was built and developed. Where the fore. The passage simply states that this was the situation at the time that the event (going to the school) occurred.and backgrounding in a discourse is concerned. . ofitsyeriin surguul’ gedgiig. Even in cases where the reader infers an initial and/or final bound. . tögsxöd manai surguul’ aa . aa .the discourse functions of the tenses 187 the context of Grandfather’s waking by putting xaranxui ruu xutsaj davxix n’ ‘his running barking towards the darkness’ into the dative case. In 1943 I graduated from my school I was assigned to the teachers’ school. Dörvön bagštai. ond tögsööd. 6 angitai. in this context— when these facts came to be true or how long they endured. Manai surguul’ tegexed xoyor angitai.mongolianoralhistory. odoogoor Barilgiin Texnikum gej. 4 teachers and a director. 20-iod aa . 6 classes. 320. about 20 teachers. such a passage in and of itself states only that such-and-such a situation obtained at the time of the event. Barilgiin Texnikum gej . Tegeed namaig 1943 on. suggests that these occurrences are in fact sequential. . . which is the response in an interview to the question “What was the impact like?. Where an utterance . Activities (processes) like run or melt. I did not go Teachers’ school and was registered as a student of the school of Officers. I’d decided to study there. Past Tenses and The Topics of Threads The coherence of a work on the local level is maintained by rhetorical relations. 1942 I went to the School of Officers. although episodes are bounded activities or states that function like events. There was a two-story building on its right and there were two-story and four-story pinkish buildings on its left. b. (http://www. That school was situated in recent-time Gandan. a. I came. there is the Construction College now. and achievements like notice and arrive.) 7. as in example 7b). as events they have a well-defined temporal shape.org/samples/ translations/EN060101B. (Caesar) 339.” referring to going over a waterfall. which renders a putative narrative such as (339) rather odd).3. I lifted weights. which is why they seem to be encapsulated and thus viewed from the outside as an integral whole. 340. sometimes called coherence relations. I felt a shock wave bell ring. The foreground material therefore tends to utilize predicates that can express bounded eventualities—principally eventive expressions. (http://www. I jogged. b. could function as narrative sequences. I saw stars and heard a loud tone. so that in the right types of context the sentences in (340).mongolianoralhistory. . I was conquering. which could simply be lists of temporally unrelated (or simultaneous) occurrences. and states like exist are inherently unbounded. On 23 August.com/pages/whitewater/ed_lucero/index_ww.188 chapter four was established to launch its classes in September 1943. I saw. I was seeing. (The context of 340b. accomplishments like come and conquer. whereas progressive expressions turn them into quasi-states viewed from an internal perspective and as obtaining at some point in the narrative sequence. I conquered. For this reason the main line of a narrative tends to use perfective aspect (for example the English simple past tense.xml) Events are strung together to form the narrative line like beads on a cord. I was coming. while the background uses for the most part imperfective aspect (for example the progressive past tense. I swam. aa.php) 2.wetdawg. At the time. there are distinct topic (wa) and subject (ga) markers. (It does not reduce the terminological confusion that “subject” has a meaning in grammar distinct from its ordinary meaning of ‘topic’.the discourse functions of the tenses 189 can be related to the preceding sentence. or a larger unit of discourse. or both (341c). a. c. a. Max saw John approach. what is being talked about. could be read as coherent if 23 The term “topic” has a somewhat different meaning in discourse pragmatics than in syntax and semantics. b. The particle bol marks a “topic” in the semantic sense. the discourse fragment in (7a) is coherent because one of the sentences is relationally subordinate to the other.) In discourse pragmatics the term “topic” is roughly a synonym of “theme”. it is possible to have both topic and subject in one sentence: As for Ontario. as one source (http://www. He picked out three red roses. In (275b).” While the specific interpretation of this definition varies considerably in various linguistic theories. the climate is humid all year round. In its day. as (341b) is in (341d). at least. Similarly (288) offers in the second sentence a consequence of the first. Here the topic. the second sentence expands on the first. but the subject. two white ones and one pale pink. It is the thing the speaker or writer is talking about. 7. is the climate. For example. John bought Mary some flowers. The Titanic sank. the discourse is coherent. Even these sequences could be rendered coherent by further context. the second offers the reason or cause for the eventuality recounted in the first. a “topic” in this sense is “A word or phrase in a sentence. the concept approximates the everyday concept of “topic” much more than the meaning of the term in semantics does. both are used in the present work. that the rest of the sentence elaborates or comments on. it was the most luxurious liner in the world.com/topic) puts it. 275. and (341a). is Ontario. by a rhetorical relation. It hit an iceberg. what something is being predicated of. usually providing information from previous discourse or shared knowledge. for example. the Vasa was the greatest warship in Europe. We can easily alter such examples to render them incoherent. 288.thefreedictionary . The Titanic sank. The Titanic sank. The topic may or may not coincide with the grammatical subject. In English. In Japanese. offering more detail. He stood up. The Titanic sank. and confusingly enough. The Explorer hit an iceberg. . All we need do is change the topic (341a) or the theme (341b).23 341. b. She felt crummy and irritable. and everyone. Compare. d. (342a). Some rhetorical relations function to maintain the thread by coordinating material with the preceding cotext. and couldn’t help frowning and grumbling at everything. She felt crummy and irritable. At every point in a discourse or text the speaker has the choice of starting a new thread. and couldn’t help frowning and grumbling at everything. Martha was in a bad mood. Others may start a subordinate thread by subordinating new material. Threads are strings of sentences with a common theme. or of returning to a yet earlier. They often commence with a new topic. the superordinate thread may be resumed. it was the most luxurious liner in the world. and couldn’t help frowning and grumbling at everything. but that theme is within the larger context of the theme of the superordinate thread. c. Martha was in a bad mood. She felt crummy and irritable. b. d. and everyone. 342. and the largest. At the time. Once the subordinate thread is closed. In (342c) that topic is actually exploited to create a subordinate thread. but in (342d) the same thread is simply continued. Martha was in a bad mood. A subordinate thread concerns a new theme. 341. with (342b). But the third sentence in (342c) and in (342d) introduces yet another source of a potential new subordinate string. in which the second sentence simply fills out details of the statement in the first sentence and thereby maintains the thread. She felt crummy and irritable. The Titanic sank. possibly exemplifying newsworthy maritime accidents or the like. it does not close the superordinate thread. the relationship is rather like that of a subordinate clause embedded within a sentence. superordinate .190 chapter four it is taken as part of a list of statements. which introduces a potential new topic for a subordinate thread. Martha was in a bad mood. of continuing the current one. She hoped that taking some anti-depressant tablets would put her in a better mood. the end of the subordinate clause does not necessarily conclude the sentence as a whole. a. Her husband in particular was a source of great irritation and an unfortunate victim of this irritability. for example. In structural terms. so that while opening up a new thread. Marine safety is not guaranteed by the modernity or the size or the classiness of a vessel. and everyone. And the most modern. ” Certain utterances seem to have as their purpose to initiate or to solicit discussion. an open thread may be an invitation to a conversational partner to continue it. or even separate texts. A thread may be spread over many paragraphs. “to write beside” or “written beside”) is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing or dealing with a particular point or idea.25 This hypothesis is likely in time to turn out to be more or less incorrect. On the other hand. While the available scholarship can as yet hardly offer a serious theory of the paragraph.” that is. They draw the particular thread of discourse to an end (and thus are likely 24 Current version at the time of writing. which in turn have consequences for tense-marking. “A paragraph (from the Greek paragraphos. it has long been clear that the paragraph is a unit on the level of the structure of discourse and text. but for present purposes we need only note that the conversational functioning of utterances is closely related to discourse structure. the closure of a thread may be intended to end dialogue regarding that topic. but it is a good first approximation to understanding the functioning of the paragraph. and its relationship to tense and aspect. As the24 Wikipedia article on the paragraph says. 25 . that is. one issue in this regard is the paragraphic structure of texts. Some rhetorical relations are what we are calling conclusive. And insofar as threads are structured by rhetorical relations. while yet others seem intended to end it. we would expect to find a correlation between tense choice and position in the paragraph. and the middle of a paragraph marks the continuation of a thread. A paragraph which contains an entire thread may be embedded within a superordinate thread spread over several paragraphs. One property of utterances in context that native speakers intuit is “conclusiveness. threads (attentional structure). Of course. and the like. have only become the subjects of intense study in the last decade and a half or so. what has been called here a theme. The relations between topics. and much remains to be discovered regarding the structure of discourses and texts. Consequently it seems only natural that a new paragraph marks a new thread. the end of a paragraph signals the end of a thread. Where the present work is concerned. this is purely on the local level.the discourse functions of the tenses 191 thread. There has been much investigation of the role of utterances in structuring conversation. rhetorical relations. For example. a rhetorical structure. or to start a subordinate thread. Section 3 (beginning with [344b]) shifts attention to her son Bodsonchar.lonelyplanet. with its reference to “the final rider.deg bai. they naturally tend to start threads and often appear. reveals this to be a non-initial paragraph and subordinates it to earlier co-text. call-habvn be-past ‘One of Alun Gua’s sons was Bodonchar.jee. who again has not previously been mentioned. some rhetorical relations are non-conclusive. The following (343) is an example of a paragraph with such a conclusive final sentence. cleverness-com woman be-past ‘One of the Chinggis Khaan’s ancestors. Saruul-Erdene (2004) breaks the Secret History of the Mongols down into a series of one-paragraph stories. where the first rider will accept a sample of soil and water from the homeland. Festivities begin 2 August in Dadal Soum. What is shaping up to be the most authentic event is a horse relay from Chingis Khan’s homeland. was a clever woman.192 chapter four to close out a paragraph). Chingis’ birthplace. Khentii Province.” and the absence of any initial introduction of topics or themes.’ (Saruul-Erdene 2004: 10) . when horse messengers carried documents across the Asian landmass at lightning speeds. Section 6 (344d) contains an episode about Temüjin’s father. and even more festivities.g Bodončar Alun Gua-gen one son-acc Bodončar ge. therefore. Čingis Xaan. Alun Gua has not previously been mentioned. This summer’s relay will cover 600km in just 48 hours. The last sentence.d ancestry-dat Alun Gua ge. to the ancient capital of Karakorum. The relay harks back to the days of the great Mongol empire. Section 5 (344c) concerns Temüjin’s betrothal at age nine. a. Alun Guag. Most open with a verb-form in -jee marking the beginning of a new topic.deg Alun Gua call-habvn uxaan. 343. and invite further material.’ (Saruul-Erdene 2004: 8) b.ii Genghiz khan-gen udam.jee. Alun Gua (beautiful Alun). For example. a whole new topic.iin neg xüü. 344. on 4 August.com/ travelstories/article/ghengiskhan_0606) On the other hand.” apparently closes this particular thread. at the beginning of paragraphs.tai emegtei bai. The reference in the first sentence to “the most authentic event. The final rider will gallop into the ruins of Karakorum. (http://www. Section 2 begins with (344a). I read the newspaper. “then something follows. Bi avtobus xülee.” What follows might be a report of what was read.iig Temujin-acc yösön nine 193 nas.tei süi tav’.x.laa.j return-impfc bai. come upon-past ‘As he was traveling home from arranging the betrothal.jee.jee. Temüjin.tai bai. Temüjin.’ (Saruul-Erdene 2004: 16) Often -lee is non-conclusive. the reader expects what follows to fulfill the function opened up the sentence in -lee.sn. read-past ‘While I was waiting for the bus.iig Börte.the discourse functions of the tenses c. the speaker could use xelsen. Indeed it may function like a verbal colon.ii Temujin-acc Borte-com betroth-pfvn-gen daraa following Yesüxei Baatar Yesukhei Baatar xurim wedding feast xii.j bai. Sodnomdorj commented in regard to (346) that xellee would be acceptable in this sentence. He noted that if the addressee knew what the speaker was about to say. but otherwise xellee functioned like a colon to prepare the addressee for what he was going to say. 345. and the point of uttering (349) might be simply to introduce the topic into the conversation.deg xün.tai be-ifvn-comitative taarald. I bus wait-impfc be-ifvn-dat-rp bi I sonin newspaper unš.ii oxin.d. [it] sounds like more is coming. Yesukhei came upon a wedding feast in Tataar aimag. Thus in regard to the sentence in (345).aa.toi süi tav’. call-habvn person-gen daughter-com betroth-past ‘When Temujin was nine years old Yesukhei Baatar arranged his betrothal to the daughter of Dei Setsen (Wise Dei) of Olkhunud aimag.’ (Saruul-Erdene 2004: 14) d. inviting further material.j make-impfc butsa.x. indeed better than xelsen.iin aimag-gen Dei Setsen Dei Setsen ge.xa. .d age-com be-ifvn-dat Yesüxei Baatar Olxunud Yesukhei Baatar Olkhunud aimg.’ An ending such as -sen does not function in this way. 194 chapter four 346. Here one “could use [the -v form]. Choijamts. Teg. Öčigdör bi tüün.xml) Similarly.d. as the “end of [the] statement.” Presumably.’ In commenting on an utterance such as (152a).iin now-gen (zarimdaa sometime Baganuur Baganuur Melzei) Melzei orčim near ge.tei uulz.iin party-genitive ava.eed bagš. (http://www. would indicate further information is to come. do so-pfc teacher-dat-rp One day say-past (The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia.sön.iin pl-gen bičgiin darga.com/famous/DNatsagdorj.” as in (348).mongolianoralhistory.d secretary-dat . Ix zoxiolč Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj Great writer Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 1906 on.htm) be born-past ‘The great writer Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in the place called Gün Galuutai (sometime Melzei) near present-day Baganuur in the year 1906.” 152.x.” 348.x film-ifvn üür. mongolianoralhistory.san.xml) Then one day I told the teacher. Sodnomdorj indicated. a. the -sen-form törsön in (347) “does not lead [to] further information. a -lee-form. Interview 1—English. that uulzsan marks the statement as “finished”.ee. http://www. törlöö.aa neg ödör xel. The form törsön simply states a fact.d year-dat Gün Galuutai Gün Galuutai odoog. (EN060101A—History of Ulaanbaatar 1.’ While -lee may be non-conclusive.d. as in answer to the question “when was he born?” 347. call-impfc come-ifvn-dat-rp nar. but -jee [is] better. and tends in a discussion to “[close] the whole thing.org/samples/ translations/EN060101A.org/ samples/transcriptions/TR060101A. Sodnomdorj said that one cannot use -sen to open a passage. -jee may be conclusive. http://www. Tegeed daxin Then again nam.deg call-habvn gazar place tör.mongolinternet. Yesterdsay I that-com meet-past ‘Yesterday I met with him/her.sen.iin cell-gen ge.j ire. Interview 1. TR060101A—History of Ulaanbaatar 1. ”] We debated whether to show our heads towards the outside or towards the inside while we slept.j greatly contest-impfc Šönö Night xaruula.lee.x show-ifvn uu. Thus in (349). before we went to sleep. we decided an issue.aa sleep-ifvn-dat-rp tolgoi.j be-impfc xayaa edge unta. and specifically the opening sentence of the thread. The Paragraph As well as position—and hence discourse-function—in a whole written work such as an article. which “disconnects” the statement from the thread. which require further study. . show-ifvn qp say-impfc we contest-pfvn copp (Luvsantseren 1972: 13) ‘This night. In particular.čee.x uu ge. Unlike -sen.goo head-rp golomt ruu centre towards xaruula.’ Given the close relationship of the -sen yum construction to the ending -jee. Ene šönö bid This night we neg an xerg.’ The question then is how to relate this particular type of function of the tenses with their meanings and their other functions. one determinant of ending choice is position (and hence function) in the paragraph. we should not be surprised to find that -sen yum.iin ömnö sleep-ifvn-gen before tun very šiid.j bid marga. 2. [“We decided our problem after long discussion. It coincides with the end of the paragraph. (Luvsantseren 1972: 100) such demonstration give-past ‘Then. -sen yum serves to “connect” the utterance with that opening.x. but the -san yum of the second sentence does not lead anywhere. when again we [they?] came with the intention of filming. too. has a distinct functional role to play in discourse.4.x.the discourse functions of the tenses 195 iim ilerxiilelt ög.iig issue-acc bai. the -lee of the first sentence leads to the second sentence. can we generalize regarding the difference in discourse functioning on the attentional level between deictic and anaphoric tenses? These are complicated issues. decide-past ruu towards ix marga. qp unta.san yum.d. debating very greatly. 349. we [they?] gave such a demonstration to the secretary of the party cell. both the English and the Mongolian exhibit hypotactic structure. Paratactic languages tend to associate structures by coordinating them. likewise. according to some of which both English and Chinese are paratactic languages. Chinese is paratactic. and English in particular is quite capable of producing classic examples of sentences of either type. to which is then added the dative case. and noted for few laconic utterances. b. and bos. and according to others of which. In both cases. For example. Caesar’s boast in the form of (7b) is the classic paratactic sentence. however. I came. a sentence contains another sentence. of which we have seen such examples as (16) and (309). (Caesar) Latin is notoriously hypotatic. I saw. can build quite short sentences. I saw. Mongolian. In this case. the clause they are attached to. 7. In Mongolian.196 chapter four There are a number of problems involved in testing this hypothesis. unmarked concatenation from conjunction through the use of coordinating conjunctions. In English. which in English is coordinated with went by means of and. and I conquered and I came and I saw and I conquered as equally paratactic as (7b). which in effect functions as a subordinator meaning ‘when’ or ‘at the time that’. but English hypotactic. I conquered. But it is also quite capable of readily producing even more lengthy and complex sentences like the one below from (243). . rather than coordinate with. in which a structure is subordinated to. turning it into the infinitive or non-past verbal noun. a process called asyndeton or asyndetic coordination. however. Here. we do not distinguish such simple. but both of those included structures are subordinate to. it turns three independent structures into one by simple concatenation (chaining-together).is nominalized. There are different definitions of these terms. these terms are used as follows. the verb bai. For present purposes. is subordinated to orov through use of the imperfective converbial form in -j (bosoj). Here the Mongolian translation follows the English structure closely. A paragraph is not quite the same thing in a hypotactic language like Mongolian as in a paratactic language like English.‘rise’. which contains a further sentence. Complicating matters is the fact that few if any languages are purely of one type or the other. not coordinated with. Consequently we regard both I came. to turn three sentences into one. a paratactic language simply throws them together. this is accomplished here by use of the complementizer that and by the subordinating conjunction before. another structure. as well as by the small sizes of samples involved. The Invisible Man. are historical. what in languages like English would be independent sentences are often partly subsumed in other sentences. end in -sen yum (and one more in -sen baina). Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the cellar. And that is indeed what we do find. and only one in -sen. a -sen yum form is clearly not the same thing as a yum when it is not preceded by -sen.” p. They point in the direction of two conclusions: first. Dasdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 ond törjee. None have -lee. and are minibiographies of the khans of the period of. a series of readings in the reader by Austin et al. 8. assuming that the paragraph reflects discourse structure and the various endings differ functionally from one another. It is also difficult to know whether to consider solely the last verb. in Yakovskaya 1976) ‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in [the year] 1906. that genre and subject matter affect the choice of tense markers. Wells.html) ‘I’m a selfish person. Again. Of these 18 paragraphs. appropriately enough. (H. three (16%) in -jee. and is 18 paragraphs long. 9. šivegčin Milliig bosoogüi baixad er em xoër Xoll bosoj zoorindoo sem orov. and second that position in the paragraph does as well. two in -jee. or half. the Mongolian Yuan dynasty. Bi aminč xün (http://duluu. Nor is it obvious how to count the sentence in a one-sentence paragraph.com/2006/09/blog-post_7557. The first. The value of the following figures is reduced by the lack of answers to such questions. five. and preceding.’ 243. Arguably such a sentence is as much a final sentence as an initial one. four (21%) in -sen yum. Of the 18. before Millie was hunted out for the day. in Mongolian. Mr. For example. or 26%. chapter 6) Tsagaan Sum’yaa ödriin öglöo üüreer. concerns Genghiz. and just two (11%) in -sen.’ Accordingly. But consider the comparable numbers for the final sentences of the paragraphs. or to treat complexes as distinct from their component final verbs. have -v. nor is a -sen baina form the same as baina). it is far from clear that all such combinations form syntactic or semantic units distinct from their final verbs. seven (39%) have initial sentences ending in -v.blogspot. we would expect to find differences in affix usage relative to position in the paragraph. (“Am’dralyn zam. Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit-Monday. Hall and Mrs. While some complexes are clearly not the same as their final member without the preceding elements (for example. G.the discourse functions of the tenses 197 16. Accordingly. Nonetheless the numbers are suggestive. (Vells 1979: 28) 309. none ended in . “the concluding sentence of each paragraph almost invariably contained” the past tense form in -v. are suggestive and invite further inquiry.198 chapter four Table 6 initial sentence of paragraph final sentence of paragraph 16% 0% 11% 21% 39% 14% 11% 0% 6% 26% 50% 7% -jee -lee -sen -sen yum -v other -lee. (These figures are set out in table 6 below for ease in comparison. . “BNMAU-d soyol-gegeerliin šine baiguullaga bui bolson niigem ediin zasgiin nöxtsöl övörmöts ontslog (1921–1940)”. The percentages are based on the totals in the last column.) This is vastly too small and non-representative a sample to draw any definitive conclusions from. chapter 2. Table 7 -v -jee -lee initial 8 (9%) 25 (29%) 4 (5%) medial 6 (32%) 6 (32%) 4 (21%) final 1 (4%) 9 (33%) 0 (0%) TOTAL 15 (11%) 40 (30%) 8 (6%) -sen -sen yum other 0 (0%) 26 (30%) 24 (28%) 0 (0%) 3 (16%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 5 (19%) 12 (44%) 0 (0%) 34 (26%) 36 (27%) TOTAL 87 19 27 133 26 Nelson et al. Here (table 7) are the figures for the first twenty pages or so of the chapter. while not spectacular. of Davaasambuu’s BNMAU-iin soël gegeerliin ajiliin tüüxen zamnal.1. The Functions of the Past Tenses in Various Genres 3. (1998: 118) note that in newspaper articles.26 3. but these variations. Use and Genre Consider. and rounded to the nearest integer. because we cannot evaluate its statistical significance. This chapter concerns development and contains many statements about the situation at various dates in the past. Meaning. for example. and each closely matches its overall share -v occurs in 11% of all sentences • but 32% of middle ones • 40% of -v’s occur in mid-paragraph -lee likewise. Gongor’s (1970) Xalx tovčoon. “Yazguuriin mongol aimguud: Darligin. however. occurring in 6% of all cases • but 21% of mid-paragraph ones • 50% of its examples are mid-paragraph -sen yum is radically reduced in mid-paragraph and final sentences “other” (mainly pres) is 27% over-all • but makes up 44% of finals • and 0% of mid-paragraph sentences How. 43–55) of the section. mainly non-past sentences. precisely.the discourse functions of the tenses 199 A number of things are to be observed about these numbers: • • • • • • • • • -sen does not occur at all -jee is five times as frequent as -lee and three times as frequent as -v -jee and -sen yum are about equally frequent “other”. they take on more significance when we compare them to a small sample of yet another non-fiction work. and unanswered. Here (table 8) are the numbers for this selection: Table 8 -v initial medial final TOTAL -jee -lee 0 (0%) 17 (37%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 13 (46%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 9 (38%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 39 (39%) 0 (0%) -sen -sen yum other TOTAL 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (6%) 3 (12%) 2 (8%) 8 (8%) 29 (59%) 12 (43%) 13 (54%) 54 (53%) 49 28 24 101 . we are to interpret these fairly informal statistics is a good. This sample covers the first dozen or so pages (pp. Nirun xoyor”. question. but at the very least these numbers raise questions about what factors give rise to these results and what they have to say about the meaning and use of the tense markers. occur in more than a third of the cases -jee is about equal in all positions. Interesting as these results are on their own. but neither do -v or -lee • -jee is almost four times as frequent as -sen yum • “other”. is not the end of the story. And if that is true of -jee. forming about a third in each position. The first ten pages or so of the section “Am’draliin zam” of the translation of the biography of Natsagdorj by Yatskovskaya shows the following results (table 9): Table 9 -v -jee initial 3 (13%) 4 (17%) medial 7 (10%) 11 (16%) final 2 (10%) 2 (10%) TOTAL 12 (11%) 17 (15%) -lee -sen 3 (13%) 3 (13%) 6 (7%) 10 (15%) 1 (5%) 2 (10%) 10 (9%) 15 (13%) -sen yum other TOTAL 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (5%) 1 (1%) 10 (43%) 35 (51%) 12 (60%) 57 (51%) 23 69 20 112 . But the figures for -jee suggest this is incorrect. these differences. mainly pres sentences. and thereby render insignificant. Notice: • not only does -sen does not occur at all. it might be argued that differences in individual style or some other extrinsic factor plays a role in marker choice significant enough to account for. and it is fairly equally distributed over the three positions. it is likely true of the other endings as well. however. It is highly unlikely that this similarity is just chance or accidental concord in style. these numbers are interesting.200 chapter four Once again. The pattern that emerges from these two samples. In both samples the over-all usage of this form is about a third. occur in more than half of the cases • -jee once again is about equal in all positions • and each closely matches its over-all share There are significant differences from the Davaasambuu sample: • • • • neither -v (11% in Davaasambuu) nor -lee (6%) occurs at all -sen yum is radically reduced (from 26% to 8%) “other” is increased (from 27% to 53%) “other” is fairly evenly distributed through the paragraph here • which was not the case in the earlier sample Given these differences. the small numbers render the statistical significance dubious at best. but is once again about equally distributed • “other” (again. including -sen • -sen yum only appears once (1%). does not occur at all here. this exercise has hopefully convinced the reader of three things. if the earlier discussion in this book has not: • the past tense markers as used in spoken Mongolian differ from those in written Mongolian. -sen yum. • discourse functions of various kinds are correlated with the meaning and/or use of the markers . While much. There -v formed 11% of all examples. in the volume “Xyaruu unasan tsagaar” (1962): Table 10 -v -jee -lee initial 10 (53%) 2 (11%) 2 (11%) medial 19 (48%) 3 (8%) 5 (13%) final 1 (10%) 3 (30%) 4 (40%) TOTAL 30 (43%) 8 (12%) 11 (16%) -sen -sen yum other TOTAL 0 (0%) 3 (8%) 0 (0%) 3 (4%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 5 (26%) 10 (25%) 2 (20%) 17 (25%) 19 40 10 69 Here we see quite different patterns from the earlier samples. mainly pres) forms make up just over half this sample • -lee is about twice as frequent in initial as in other positions The effect of genre can be seen in the following (table 10) results from a short story. however: • all the past tense forms appear. here it is 43%. However.the discourse functions of the tenses 201 There are several comparisons that could be made with the earlier samples. “Badraa” by Baast. compared with 26% and 8% of the earlier samples • -jee is about halved in over-all share. The -jee marker forms the smallest percentage of sentences of all the samples. The following are the most noteworthy results. which constituted 26% of all sentences there. • the past tense markers differ in their meanings and/or uses. and especially the Davaasambuu one. On the other hand. much more research is required to make these numbers useful. 2. the speaker has the intention of affecting the addressee in some way. Naturally references to aspects of that situation are possible. For the sources of the concepts and theories presented here. Diegetic and Mimetic Genres To understand the uses of deictic and non-deictic tenses we need to know something of the functions of the two types of tenses in discourse. for example. Adverbials may refer to the immediate situation of utterance: here. the following day. as the subtitle of his book indicates. A related. Tenses in discours are present-based tenses: the present.202 chapter four 3. there is no reference to the situation that the utterer and addressee find themselves in. Like Benveniste. today. on the other hand. in the afternoon. . Hence there is a tendency to use the third person and non-deictic adverbial expressions like there. the future-inthe-past. In discours. see that article. for the two kinds of tenses correlate with different discourse functions. book 3) distinguishes mimesis. the imitation or representation of reality in genres such as drama. 2). the pluperfect. Benveniste distinguishes histoire (‘story’) from discours (‘discourse’). the narrative recounting of events. at that time. from diegesis. ch. then. Narrative tenses are past. distinction is made by Benveniste (1959) and by Weinrich (1964. just as in real life. but never reaches the present. And the tenses differ. the future. while in mimesis it is (nominally) always the present. “Besprochene und erzählte Welt”—the ‘discussed’ and the ‘recounted’ worlds. Hence diegetic genres such as the novel and the short story are typified by the past tense. of the act of utterance. and depends on the fact that they are both in the same situation. now. the present perfect. Weinrich similarly distinguishes. distal. Temporal adverbials are anaphoric. removed from the present: the past. and ultimately with different types of genres.27 Plato (Republic. Weinrich counts amongst the “Tempora der besprochenen 27 This section draws heavily on Binnick (2003). but somewhat dissimilar. but effectively pretty much the same. defined in somewhat different terms than are Benveniste’s discours and histoire. The distinction relates to time in that in diegesis the events recounted are in the past and narrative time moves forwards. In histoire. the events recounted are divorced from the situation of the speech act. but mimetic works such as plays by the present tense. The first (referring to the speaker) and second (referring to the addressee(s)) persons readily occur. autobiography has a higher percentage of sentences in -sen (e..iig quality-acc šivegčin servant er male sem quietly üz. and amongst those of the “recounted” world. be-past or. and fiction (243.xoo beer-acc-rp čanar. 350) has many more sentences in -v—and sequences of sentences in -v—than genres that do not in some sense tell a story. 346) than many other genres. while reports—which concern facts.xa. tendxiin Angli sümd zagalmailuulsan.d. http://www.iig Milly-acc xoyor two Ter the bos.laa. and hence in the first place to the genre of the discourse containing it.) For similar reasons.maranata.j zoorin.ii.d be-ifvn-dat boso. Monday day-gen morning dawn-instr Mill.eer.oo. in Mongolian. 350).güi get up-imperfect-neg Xoll Hall xoër two ajil. enter-past nuuts secret baj. and the contrasting. As a result. (353) does not even have an explicit copula. (351)) than does fiction. as has non-fiction in general (352–353).iin öglöo üür. Benveniste and Weinrich associate diegesis with past tenses.v. (I have underlined the -v-forms in (243.ex see-ifvn em female oro.g.oo get up-impfc cellar-dat-rp pivon. For example.28 146. what is the case—in general tend to use non-past tenses. non-diegetic genres with non-past tenses.mn/index.tai work-com Tiišee Towards there 28 bai.son enter-pfvn Note the verblessness of (352–353).the discourse functions of the tenses 203 Welt” (‘tenses of the described world’) the present-based tenses. Both the choice and the interpretation of an ending are sensitive to the purpose of the utterance. (Нэрт монголч эрдэмтэн Николас Поппегийн дурдатгал [1-4-р булэг]. . 146. stories—which concern events and are about what happened—are normally recounted in the past tense.. Bi Xyatadiin Šandun mujiin Čefü xotnoo 1897 onii 8 sariin 8-nd törj.g.php?option=com_content &task=view &id=2533&Itemid=127) ‘I was born in Chefu city in Shantung province of China on the 8th of August of [thyear] 1897 and was baptized in the English church. journalism has more non-past sentences (e. past-based ones.’ 243. Tsagaan white Sum’yaa ödr. become-past Tüüniig That-acc šatn.aad.v.gaa.j return-impfc bii there is šile. Wells.ii door-gen ava. (H.son aim-pfvn xün person Xoll Hall sana. As she was the expert and principal operator in this affair.ax. Hall and Mrs.tal go-termc n’ the lonx.j find-impfc xaalgan.öös room-abl lonx.d bottle-dat nöxör companion n’ her yava.iig bring-ifvn-acc xoyoul the two together mart.san be-pfvn bol. Hall very properly went upstairs for it.204 chapter four xoin. dadamgai gol familiar main zor’.iig be-ifvn-acc xar. take-past tügjee bolt tailaastai unfastened zövxön on’slootoi bai.j.ox.v.tol go-termc yal’güi ongorxoi ajar open-ifvn nögöö other bai. But returning with the bottle. The Invisible Man.iin.v. Mr. enter-impfc n’ his Butsa. On the landing he was surprised to see that the stranger’s door was ajar.san.ii üüd guest-gen room-gen door deer on oč. Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the cellar. he noticed that the bolts of the front door had been shot back. chapter 6) . He went on into his own room and found the bottle as he had been directed.n select-modc yav. G. think-past bai.d room-dat ge.iin.xaa further sleeping-genitive-rp öröön.jee Xoll look at-pfc be surprised-past Hall tsašaa untlag.x go-ifvn bolo.xaa sleeping-gen-rp öröön. gaix.aa forget-pfvn-rp Xoll Hall avgai Mrs.oo bottle-rp avčr.ii öröön.x.oor become-ifvn-instr lonxon. and had something to do with the specific gravity of their beer. Their business there was of a private nature.ii stairs-gen talbai place giičn.aas place-abl or. Ug root xeregt business avgai Mrs.g xara. They had hardly entered the cellar when Mrs.sen say-pfvn gazr.v.oo bottle-rp gadaa outside ol. Hall found she had forgotten to bring down a bottle of sarsparilla from their joint-room.oo after-rp untlag.) only latched be-impfvn-acc see-past Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit-Monday. (Vells 1979: 28f. that the door was in fact simply on the latch. before Millie was hunted out for the day. get up-past Getel but ene this ol.aa neg ödör xel.j find-impfc n’ Davjaa the Davjaa bailaa.sen say-pfvn bai.v.org/ samples/translations/EN060101A.d.aar look-ifvn-instr tsonx.d hour-gen time-dat möčid hasty bolo. Teg.nii window-gen Bi I tsaana yamar negen outside which a tüüniig him (accusative) boso.org/ samples/transcriptions/TR060101A.mongolianoralhistory.j.xml) 350. quiet “ene this cin’ your Davjaa Davjaa erge.mongolianoralhistory.j say-impfc . become-past xara.xml) Then one day I told the teacher.iin üye.j say-impfc Bi I yumn.x.j ir.v begin-past ge. Interview 1—English.the discourse functions of the tenses 205 346.iin xoër night-gen two Skip Skip yamar which negen a minii my oron place dooguur under exle.oo dog-dat-rp “čimeegüi”.d. (EN060101A—History of Ulaanbaatar 1.san thing-abl fear-pfvn or.j bark-impfc tüüniig that-acc duugüi silent bai be zandra.eed bagš.v.v. Neg One udaa occasion šön.na be-pres šüü modp dee” modp ge. http://www.j. Choijamts. TR060101A—History of Ulaanbaatar 1. Interview 1. http://www . be-past Xediigeer then bi I Skip Skip noxoi. enter-impfc ser. wake up-impfc yum copp šig like xutsa. rebuke-past Getel but ene this yum thing bürtelzex glimpse šig like tsag.aas ai.sen.sen return-impfc come-pfvn xel. Do so-pfc teacher-dat-rp One day say-past (The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia. iig buruušaa. “Shhhh” to Skip..laa. But I thought I saw something outside.iin ard tümen Brazil-gen masses Kub. And though I said.iin esreg Cuba-gen against alivaa any türemgiill. Capital its Paris city (http://mn.org/wiki/Франц) ‘Its capital [is] the city of Paris. reading #2) 352.na. Niislel n’ Paris xot. in which case the narrator adopts the objective voice of a historian.’ In diegetic (narrative) genres there is a perspective or point of view from which the author chooses to narrate the event. and the use of endings is sensitive to this focalization.’ (Mao Tsedong 1966: 1) 353.’ (Montgomery 1969: 11. (Aldridge 1976: 55.wikipedia.sn. I got up to look out.oor window-instr gara.v. force topic marker China-gen Communist Party copp (Mao Tsedong 1972: 1) ‘The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party. xxi on č.m. and it was Peep.iig become-pfvn-acc mede. aggression-acc condemn-impfc be-pres ‘The Brazilian people condemn any aggression against Cuba.206 chapter four bolovč although Skip Skip xuts. Manai our üil work xerg. I woke up and told him to be quiet.j bai. or it may adopt the perspective of an internal focalizer. note 3 on p.) go out-past But one night.saar bark-contc l modp29 bai. Skip began to bark under my bed. as if he were afraid of something. and I had to crawl out of the window to see what was wrong. that 29 Sanders and Bat-Ireedüi (1999) call l a modal particle. Narration may be non-focalized.iin know-ifvn-gen tuld on account of bi I tsonx.iin Kommunist Nam mön. but Kullmann and Tserenpil (1998:348f.) treat it as a “restrictive focus” particle.) . at about two a. Brazil. “it’s Peep come back.iig udirda.x. 123. be-past Yuu what bol.” Skip kept barking. (Cf. (Oldrij 1980: 70f.x gol cause-acc lead-ifvn main xücin bol Xyatad. chapter 5) 351. In (354).g. was} round.the discourse functions of the tenses 207 is. and hence. while was reflects the past-time perspective of the subject. in plays) preferred for factual (as opposed to eventive) statements backgrounded in narrative text preferred for stative expressions (that cannot refer to events per se) preferred in contexts in which there is. Columbus.3. Columbus was well aware that the earth {is. 3. 354. is represents the present-time perspective of the speaker. The temporal perspective of the focalizing agent has sometimes been identified with the reference time. a character within the narrative (as Treasure Island is constructed as the memoirs of Jim Hawkins and The Marvelous Mongolian is an epistolary novel consisting almost exclusively of the letters exchanged by Kitty Jamieson and her friend.g. novels and short stories) preferred for occurrences in narrative sequences foregrounded in narrative text preferred for non-stative (eventive) expressions (such as accomplishments and achievements.. distinctive distributions in discourse. there can be a conflict between the reference time in the sense of the consciousness filtering events and the reference time as the point reached in the narrative progression. Mönxiin Bayart).. narrative genres (e. but the former does not. In general: deictic tenses should be: • • • • • preferred in genres of “discourse” and in mimesis (e. This provides a set of properties that serve to categorize the various tense endings. since the latter generally advances through the course of the story. Genre and Tenses The various factors mentioned in this section result in the tenses having distinctive uses. however. or can be. In diegetic genres. or episodes of states and activities) . no explicit reference time apart from the time of the eventuality or the time of the utterance and correspondingly anaphoric tenses should be: • • • • preferred in diegetic. as in (i). and the last two are given to provide contrast with the first three. These facts establish clearly that the non-past is principally. an explicit reference time apart from the time of the eventuality or the time of the utterance The non-past tense. the present (or some other tense of discours) is overwhelmingly the tense utilized. Gaixamšigt mongol mor’.rottentomatoes. or must be. The figures above (in table 11) are for the first 25 sentences in each of the listed discourses. a deictic tense.30 In the next section we apply these criteria 30 The historical present and certain other uses of the present allow it to act like an anaphoric tense. but it is usually deictic.com/vine/journal_view . Austin et al. since it relates the time of the eventuality directly to the speech act time.). . excluding quotations Number of non-past tenses in first 25 sentences 22 20 15 7 1 • preferred in contexts in which there is.mongolianoralhistory.208 chapter four Table 11 Source Dialogue in Am’draliin ödör (p. .and I come downstairs and my moms [sic] boyfriend is freaking out and yelling at me. Then I wake up on one of my days off . Equally natural is the use of the present tense in the fictional correspondence in The Marvelous Mongolian and its Mongolian translation. if not exclusively. for example. interviews (such as the Divaasambuu Gandan interview).which was Sunday . 10) The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia: Divasambuu (TR060402—Gandan Interview. is a classic example of a deictic tense. i. to “now. Am’draliin ödör in Lodoi 1967). . He has such a short temper.” If we examine plays and film scripts (e.php?s=&journalid=317231) . (http://www.g.. Person 1) (http://www.xml) Dialogue in the story “Toogiid öngörüülsen negen ödör” (Erdene 1969: 15f. or even the dialogue in novels and stories.org/samples/ transcriptions/TR060402. . whether marked by -ne or by a present-tense copula such as yum or mön. 1963: 174f. It refers directly to the present.) Non-dialogue in the story “Altai” (Erdene 1969: 9–12) “Činggis Xaan” (unit 21. narrative advance. for example initial position and absolute position. presenting it as an event in a narrative sequence. while deictic tenses do not. anaphoric tenses are typical of diegetic genres such as fiction and autobiography. anaphoric tenses foreground an eventuality. We take these properties as criteria to be applied to the past tenses of Mongolian in order (1) to justify our classification of -jee and -lee as deictic. where facts. for example. and (2) to explore the use and interpretation of the various past tenses in differing contexts. and partly to explore the functioning of the various tenses in discourse. and anaphoric tenses are more likely to occur in mid-discourse. as in reportage. as in chronology or narrative. where the past tenses of Mongolian are concerned. in diegesis. and reference works. as opposed to events. We saw earlier that one of the properties distinguishing anaphoric (definite) tenses from deictic (indefinite) ones that the former require a presupposed reference time different in principle from both the time of utterance and that of the eventuality. Past Tenses in the Various Genres We have seen that anaphoric tenses require (or at least allow) reference times distinct from both the time of the eventuality and the time of utterance. Both -jee and -lee occur in initial and absolute position. are in question. Narrative is defined by narrative sequence.4. successive segments of dialogue in fiction are regularly marked by gev ‘said’. Which past tenses appear. In practice this means that contexts lacking such presupposed times. and ultimately with different types of genres. and which in nondiegetic genres? The foreground of written narratives such as novels and short stories is characterized by the use of -v. .the discourse functions of the tenses 209 to the various past tenses of Mongolian. and we have seen that where there is a temporal sequence. -v and -sen are the tenses used. Moreover. For example. We have also seen that there is a correlation between rhetorical function and genre. partly to justify the claim at the beginning of this section that the two kinds of tenses correlate with different discourse functions. Consequently. And that is precisely what we have found. whereas deictic tenses background an eventuality as a circumstance outside of that sequence. On the other hand. 3. journalism. in narrative genres. and deictic tenses are typical of non-diegetic genres such as factual non-fiction. are biased towards deictic tenses. while -sen and -v do not. the tenses used are -jee and -lee. and -v and -sen as anaphoric. Hall goes back upstairs for it (d). they go into the cellar (355a). a. And with a flash of inspiration he connected this with the stranger’s room upstairs and the suggestions of Mr. Hall realizes she has forgotten something (c) and Mr. The report of Mrs. that the door was in fact simply on the latch. then pushed the door wide open and entered. knocks at the stranger’s door (k). c. Thomas Henfrey. and recalls something (i). There follows a background comment on their business there (b).31 ‘entered’ (356a = 355a) is an -v form (orov). On the landing he was surprised to see that the stranger’s door was ajar. In the Mongolian translation. g. Hall and Mrs. he notices something amiss (g). Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit-Monday. He rapped at the stranger’s door. Mr. d. before Millie was hunted out for the day. h. But returning with the bottle. b. At the sight he stopped. gaping. l. he noticed that the bolts of the front door had been shot back. . Hall found she had forgotten to bring down a bottle of sarsparilla froim their joint-room. Then he stops and turns back (j). and the detailed glosses for (a–g) can be found there. m. Hall very properly went upstairs for it. He is surprised to see that the strange guest’s door is ajar (e). Their business there was of a private nature. He distinctly remembered holding the candle while Mrs. Mrs. f. Returning downstairs. e. There was no answer. Hall’s realization (c = c) ends in an -v 31 The detailed glosses for (h–m) have been added here. i. 355. He rapped again. and when there was no response (l). He went on into his own room and found the bottle as he had been directed. k.210 chapter four Chapter 6 of The Invisible Man opens with the Halls getting up. He goes into his own room and finds what he had come for (f ). and had something to do with the specific gravity of their beer. which arouses some thoughts (h). Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the cellar. They had hardly entered the cellar when Mrs. j. Hall shot these bolts overnight. then with the bottle still in his hand went upstairs again. a -lee form. The passage in (355–356) was originally example (243) above. As she was the expert and principal operator in this affair. enters (m). The backgrounded sentence that follows (b = b) ends in bajlaa. gol xün bai. sanav ‘thought’. e. be-past xolbon together tüünii bar’. he found (olj avav.č ene baidl. k. g.laa.d nöxör n’ javax bolov. probably because this necessity arose only after the sudden realization in (c). f. Entering his own room. Xoll tsašaa untlagiinxaa öröönd orj.x učr. h.x. again -v) something odd (g = g). Ter xoër pivoniixoo čanariig üzex nuuts ajiltai bailaa.iin guest-gen Teddi Teddy xaalga. with an -v form) the bottle (f = f ). . Tiišee orson xoinoo untlagiinxaa öröönöös lonxoo avčraxiig xoyoul martsanaa Xoll avgai sanav. . He noticed (xarav. think-past j. Xoll xeseg zuur yaa. (i = i) ends with a -laa form. Ug zor’son xeregt Xoll avgaj dadamgai. So he pushed the door open and entered (orov) (k = m).the discourse functions of the tenses 211 form.san that-gen carry-impfc be-pfvn tügjsen. door Xenfr.iig Xoll bolt-acc Hall sana. 356. Xoll genet uxaar. šivegčin Milliig bosoogüi baixad er em xoër Xoll bosoj zoorindoo sem orov. but there was no answer ( j = j. Tüüniig šatnii talbai deer očtol nögöö giičnii öröönii üüd yal’güi ongorox baixiig xaraad gaixjee. Hall had to go (yavax bolov in d). then comes another mental occurrence: he connected this observation with past events— (h = h) ends with the -jee form bodjee ‘thought’. d. c.san. b.güi find-ifvn-neg . a.d light-dat xaalga door ongorxoi opening xoyor. Ur’d oroi gergii n’ earlier evening wife his laan. l). Mr. He remembered .j bai.toi two-com bai. think-past i.ii candle-gen gerel. bii gesen gazraas n’ šilen lonxoo olj avav.iig Hall suddenly realize-impfc this situation-acc önööx tonight’s bas also giič.aa Hall a while do what-ifvn happen-impfvn todorxoi distinctly olo. Butsaj yavtal n’ gadaa xaalganii tügjee tailaastai zövxön on’slootoi baigaag xarav. sanalaa. an -v form is used here. Tsagaan Sum’yaa ödriin öglöo üüreer. The next sentence (e = e) reports his mental state and thus ends in -jee: gijxjee ‘(he) was surprised’. Then he knocked at the door.san boloxoor lonxon.iin Henfrey-gen yaligüi insignificant taavar guess bodjee. iig door-acc tele. Tamüjin-gen big younger brother Jochi Xasar be born-past ‘Temüjin’s older younger brother Jochi Xasar was born.j carry-contc return-impfc ög.v.php?option=com_ content&task=view&id+1305&Itemid=125) consists of a list of events in chronological order. just what we would expect if the former is an anaphoric tense and the latter two deictic. In non-fiction.’ Temüjin .n widen-modc open-modc oro. do for someone else-past xün. 1164 on 1164 year (xöx bičin (blue monkey jil): Temüjin year) Temüjin gurvan nas.mn/index.aa lonx stand-impfc be-pfvn-rp bottle bar’. often use -v. in the senses in which we have been using these terms. there is very nearly.tai bai. again as one would expect. a correlation between foregrounding and the use of -v on the one hand.v. age-com be-past ‘1165 (bluish-grey chicken year): Temüjin was four years old.tai three age-com bai. knock-condc reply none k.saar butsa.v.ood üüd.ii n’ Again knock-pfc door-acc the üüd. and expressed in sentences which use -v. if not completely.maranata. enter-past If this passage is typical.vol xariu alga. for example.v. and backgrounding and the use of -jee and -lee on the other. factual statements tend to use -lee and -jee.212 chapter four zogso. Chronologies.j bai.’ 1166 1166 on year (ulaan noxoi jil): Temüjin tavan (red dog year) Temüjin five nas. Thus most of Činges xaany tüüxen on daraalal (http://www.ii ix düü Joči Xasar törö. identified by year.n nee. be-past ‘1164 (blue monkey year): Temüjin was three years of age. while past events in sequence are recounted using -v.sön.ii person-gen nögöö other togš.sn. some of the early entries are given in (357): 357. Daxin togš.’ 1165 on 1165 year (xöxögčin taxia jil): (bluish-grey chicken year) Temüjin Temüjin dörvön four nas.tai age-com . ii dain.son.htm likewise uses -v forms (a sample was given in 245).iin 31-n.son üil yavdal 8 month-gen 31st-dat happen-pfvn event ‘Events which took place on the 31st of August’ 1302 on.v.mn. and much more research is required before a comprehensive account can be achieved.iig xoriglo.the discourse functions of the tenses 213 bai.’ 752 Todaiji süm dex Ix Buddag büteej duusav.’ The study of the pragmatics of tense in written text and spoken discourse in Mongolian is just beginning.olloo.v.d: Frants 1302 year-dat France ba Sitsilüüd xoorondoo and Sicilians between šašn.d: Rod-Ailenda. be born-past ‘1166 (red dog year): Temüjin was five years of age. religion-gen war-acc stop-ifvn-instr agree-past ‘1302: France and the Sicilians agreed to stop their war of religion.go.d (USA) Indian-people-dat arxi xudalda. ‘710.iig zogso. be-past Temüjin.oor toxirolts.emb-japan.jp/ mn/japan_info/explore_japan/history. liquor sell-ifvn-acc prohibit-past ‘1674: In Rhode Island (USA) they prohibited selling liquor to Indians.’ 794 Niislel xotiig Kioto ruu šiljüülev. ‘794.son.x.’ A chronology of Japanese history at http://www.d bol.’ 1674 on. . They moved the capital to Nara.mn/modules. 245.’ The -sen form is sometimes similarly used. 8 sar. ‘752. however.čuuda. They finished erecting the Great Buddha of the Todaiji Temple. as in this portion (244) of the chronology at http://edu.php?name=Today news&mm=08: 244. 710 Niislel xotiig Nara ruu šiljüülev. They moved the capital to Kyoto.x.d 1674 year-dat Rhode Island-dat /ANU/ Indian.ii Temüjin-gen xoyordugaar second düü younger brother Xačigun Xachigun törö. His second younger brother Xachigun was born. . and that they do indeed differ from one another and are not freely interchangeable..” information-seeking questions). it serves to connect the eventuality (event or state) referred to in the sentence to the immediate speech act situation. what the relationship of inferentiality is to mirativity in Mongolian was not investigated. the book is within the speech act situation. which cannot itself appear in “real. and not especially linked to the present situation. as a non-past.e. with the exception of -v in questions (where it functions as a version of -lee. it is nonetheless linked to the present situation in some way. but once again it serves to link the situation referred to in the sentence to the present situation. Where it is used for distant past events. unlike the non-past ending -ne. The proximal ending may also be used as a present or future. i. The evidential ending is proximal. adjudicate between the conflicting claims that the endings can optionally be exchanged for one another at the discretion of the speaker or writer. that is. The other endings. is distal. More generally. by the way. and the fact that the speaker read the book in the past is in some way relevant to what is the case at the present time. For example. are all distal. is also mirative. Where the spoken language is concerned. . in addition to the opposition of evidential (-lee) and inferential (-jee). which. two other distinctions between this pair of endings were found. concerning a situation separated in time from the present. incidentally. it sought to investigate the relationship between the various past tense markers.) The first of these is that of proximality and distality. removed in time from the present. and concern matters separated in time from the present. it is here. if the speaker says that he or she “read this book” when they were young. and. used to report something newly discovered. in its “actual present” use.REMARKS IN LIEU OF A CONCLUSION The present work set out specifically to justify the claim that at the heart of the past tense system of Khalkha Mongolian and of other closely allied Mongolian dialects and languages is an opposition of evidential and inferential past tenses similar in general to that found in such Turkic languages as Turkish. (The inferential ending. as an alternative past tense to all the others. but is important as the most obvious difference between spoken and written Mongolian tense usage. Deictic tenses simply relate an eventuality to the deictic centre (roughly. as in autobiographical accounts. dependent on the context and a number of other pragmatic factors. a considerable amount of time presumably passed between each pair of these events. (What “immediate” means in this context is. I had dinner. This characterization is not completely correct. for this reason. In regard to this distinction. specifically what are called reference times. has sometimes been called the “indefinite past tense. I changed into casual clothes. but in the case of writing is regarded as the major tense marker. the time of the speech act).216 remarks in lieu of a conclusion The second additional distinction is that between anaphoric and deictic tenses. and so contrasts (in this use) with both -jee (which is inferential or mirative) and -lee (which is proximal). only that at a certain given time I failed to do so. Anaphoric tenses are like anaphoric pronouns in requiring antecedents.” the pace of events is clearly much more rapid. they are called definite. Deictic tenses are indefinite. The perfective participial ending -sen. with its own character. I saw.” the regular preterite tense being definite. If I say “I went home. the endings -jee and -lee do not contrast. it is distal. however. vici ‘I came. and to that extent is evidential. since they neither require nor point to a certain time. I conquered’. It became obvious in the course of the research for the present book that the tense system of spoken Mongolian is not the same as that of written Mon- . in fact functions. Each event in a narrative sequence follows immediately on the preceding one. In narration. It has traditionally been noted that the -v past is largely restricted in the modern spoken language to questions. Barbara Hall Partee (1973) famously observed that I didn’t turn off the stove does not mean ‘I never turned off the stove’.) Because anaphoric tenses depend on some contextual time. The present perfect of European languages. Thus in the case of Caesar’s boast Veni. Although it can be used to recount one’s own experiences. when used without a copula as the main predicate of the sentence. often (but probably erroneously. as both are deictic. in light of what has been said here about its relationship to the imperfective participle) reported to replace the other endings under negation. the reference time for a clause or sentence may be provided by the time of the eventuality reported in the preceding clause or sentence. vidi. not just -v. and other complex forms. Thus these two endings contrast as non-evidential. Especially in “objective”. and definite (anaphoric) tenses with the deictic tenses. which distinguished them according to temporal (tense) and aspectual differences . Foregrounded events are recounted using anaphoric tenses. but although the proximal/distal opposition of -jee and -lee is maintained. though admittedly -sen must in some cases be characterized as evidential. the associated foregrounded event. often-neutral -sen is not just the inferential -sen baina with the copula omitted. (And despite what has sometimes been written. the time of utterance or (in the case of writing) the time of interpretation. while “written” Mongolian can be spoken. but written -v a form of -sen. “factual”. these tenses function like anaphoric tenses rather than deictic ones. and informal writing approximates to speech in many ways. both evidential and inferential. the deictic centre is not a given. Furthermore. or in some way linked to. and they require definite tenses and are naturally distal as well. while those which are in the history of that event use -jee. however. and formal speech may approximate to the written language. the kinds of uses and interpretations which characterize any of the various past tenses in conversational speech differ from those the ending in question shows in writing. In such usage. Circumstances taking place at the same time as. and often these endings are defined as proximal or distal relative to a time which is not the actual present. a mixture of features of both styles can be observed in electronic communications such as text messaging and Web pages on the Internet. non-inferential. for example. In general. the sometimes-evidential.) In fact. as it is in oral communication. also are used.) The discussion in chapter I had already demonstrated the problems with the traditional “semantic” theory of the tenses. it can be said that spoken -v is a form of -lee. for example -sen yum—the use and interpretation of these complexes has not been investigated as part of the current study). for “spoken” Mongolian can be represented in writing. third person. (These labels of “spoken” and “written” should not be taken too seriously. in the background of narration. writing uses the “neutral”.remarks in lieu of a conclusion 217 golian. “colourless” -v. use -lee. It is this usage which led some grammarians to equate -jee to the pluperfect. This usage is found. It is true that the evidential/inferential distinction is maintained in writing (though -jee may be replaced with -sen baina. But speech uses -sen in this role. but also as distal with the proximal -lee. historical accounts. which at the narrowest means the immediate situation of utterance (at least in the case of speech). It hit an iceberg. my native-speaker guide through the thickets of the Mongolian tense system. Chapters II and III explored. and illustrated the distinctions of use and interpretation outlined above in these “remarks. they differ pragmatically. after all. they are. while the recounting of events (as in foregrounded narrative) can no more use these tenses than can “real” questions. The functions of utterances involve a number of interrelated categories and levels.” however. Crucial to their use and interpretation is context. context includes everything the speaker knows. how they are used by the speaker or writer and interpreted by the listener or reader. that is. For example. but dependent in some way on the context. and the writing surrounding the passage of text in question. The questions they occur in are employed with other purposes in mind than seeking a “yes” or “no”. This sort of suggestion is to be found in Ramstedt’s work (1902) as well. justified. reveals the role that real-world knowledge plays in interpretation. The sequence The ship grommed. all just past tense endings. This fact was reconciled with Ramstedt’s and Sodnomdorj’s observations thus: the endings do mean the same thing. and the co-text—the speech preceding the utterance in question. A separate set of factors in tense choice (or interpretation) is the function of the utterance. For example. or the answer to a WH question like yamar ‘which?’ or xen ‘who?’.218 remarks in lieu of a conclusion of meaning. and therefore is some kind of background informa- . The use of the nonsense words grom and vlurp prevents us from employing the kind of common sense that tells us that in The Titanic sank. in and of itself. and all that he or she presumes that the addressee knows. means that they are freely interchangeable.” Sodnomdorj. set out a challenge with his claim that the endings all mean the same thing and are optionally interchangeable. It vlurped. and as regards their contributions to the meanings of the sentences containing them they therefore differ in no way. When put to the “Intuition Test. temporal relations provide cues to rhetorical functions. Facts and background information require precisely these deictic tenses. the second sentence recounts a previous occurrence to that in the first sentence. neither -jee nor -lee can occur in “real” questions. the distribution of the tenses was shown to be neither whimsical nor optional. But at its broadest. But though that. . and where the Mongolian tense system is concerned. In contrast. To change the subject. Needless to say. and meaning to construct larger units (for example. such as the conditional tense: The ship grommed. Rhetorical relations yield intentional coherence. anaphoric tenses an appropriate reference time. And finally. But in each case. Deictic tenses require an appropriate deictic centre. we can use an explicit marker of precedence. In a given context. complex interplay of purpose. Tenses can also serve to create temporal references which can serve as reference times. rather than a preceding. since the pluperfect takes as its reference time a time immediately following the past time denoted by the past tense in the preceding sentence. In addition to these “textual” functions. our sense tells us that if the second sentence is non-narrative. . It sank. The Titanic hit an iceberg. Where ambiguity is possible. there are certain rules of the conversational “game” which must be followed. the apparent rhetorical function may indicate the temporal relationship. the investigation of the use and interpretation of such markers as tense endings is as complicated as it is interesting and revealing. Or an expcit marker of subsequence. given how little attention has been paid by linguists to (both structural and functional) units of language larger than the sentence. conversations) from smaller ones (such as utterances). discourse. context. Temporal relations yield linguistic coherence. It would vlurp. It had vlurped is temporally coherent. Markers such as tense endings must interact with the meanings of content words like verbs and nouns to establish the appropriate meaning relationships in each context.remarks in lieu of a conclusion 219 tion such as the cause of that subsequent (and consequent) occurrence. time. But since we have no idea what “vlurping” is. such as the pluperfect: The ship grommed. that the present work has raised many more questions than it has answered. etc. It had vlurped. as the conversation. but concurrent and mutually-interactive levels of structural coherence. develops. there is a rich. there are others. it is not surprising. or vice-versa. The sequence The Titanic sank. text. But one can hope that it has made grammarians. well-formed language requires attentional coherence. Here there are three different. for example. Temporal relations and rhetorical relations are important because they function to construct discourses and texts. we can only assume that vlurping is the kind of thing that can cause a ship to sink. it must represent one of the types of rhetorical relations in which the accessory information concerns a following. teachers. Many of the nuances of this rich language are simply lost to those who know only the -v past. One may also hope that it may help the non-native-speaker to more correctly use and interpret the past tenses of the language.220 remarks in lieu of a conclusion linguistic scholars. and has pointed the way towards future research for those who may wish to pursue the questions raised here. . and students of the language aware of how inadequate the traditional grammars have been on the subject of the tenses. mn/v3/download_data.mn/modules . 60 орчим зэрэгтэй. Залуу байхдаа би зураг авах маш дуртай байжээ (bajlaa). Хошуу ноён нь 6–7 настай жаахан хихэд байсан бѳгѳѳд ноёны туслах Насанбат гэдэг хш хошууны ажлыг мэддэг байжээ (bajlaa). 500-аад адуутай их баян хш байжээ. хавар харьцангуй таатай байсан нь малый тоо толгой есехед нелееллее (-jee). мал аж ахуйн салбар эдийн засгийн еселтед жинтэй хувь нэмэр орууллаа (-jee). (Зураг 1. (no longer available) Гадаад эдийн засаг дахь нефтийн унийн еселт.php%3Ftype%3Dreview%26year %3D2005%26file%3Drep_dec_2005. (www.olloo. холбооны салбар.APPENDIX The passages used in the “Reversal Test” Тэр уед би Шилийн гол аймгийн Авга хошууны Гэгээний хийд дээр голдуу амьдарч байсан. тослох материалын унэ ессен болон 2000–2002 онд болсон зудын уршгаар малын тоо цеерч. махны нийлуулэлт багассан зэргээс шалтгаалж инфляцийн тувшин 2004 онд 11. Тэр хїн 5 хатантай.php?name=News&file=print&sid=43454) 2005 оны хувьд тээвэр.nso. уурэн телефоны салбарт гуравдагч оператор гарч ирэх гэж байгаа зэрэг нь уунд нелеелсен байна.0 хувь болсон байна.8) Оны эцсийн байдлаар инфляцийн тувшин 9. Энэ хугацаанд Свер Монголын олон ч газраар ажлын шугамаар явсан даа. Темер замын тээврээр дамжин енгерех ачаа эргэлт харьцангуй нэмэгдэж байгаа.5 хувь гарч емнех оноос бууржээ (-lee). (no longer available) – Тэгэхээр та Маршалыг Зевлелтийн армид бэлэг хургэхэд хамт явалцсан байх? – 1942 онд Зевлелтийн армид бэлэг хургэхэд Монголын Ардын армийг телеелж оролцсон. Мен 2004–2005 оны евел. экспортлогч орны татварын еерчлелтеес шалтгаалан шатах.pdf ) . Германыг Москвагаас ухраагаад серег давшилтад орсон Ѵе нь байжээ (bajlaa). (www. Би тэр їед Тшэнжаргал гэдэг Монгол нэртэй байв. but the same passage with a similar. авилгалын асуудал улам даамжирч. Энд еерийн сонирхсон салбар бурт судалгаа. олон улсын хамтын нийгэмлэг ч эдгээр хучин чармайлтыг дэмжиж.mn/24tsag/2007/02/17/5451) 1876 онд “Нээлтийн уйлдвэр” нэртэй хувийн лаборатороо байгууллаа (-jee). Тэр жилдээ бас нэг чухал нээлт хийсэн нь. . цаапщьш арга хэмжээг авах цаг боллоо (-ˇee). Ууний дараа 1877 онд фонографыг зохион бутээсэн нь анхны авиа тэмдэглуур боллоо (-jee).php?na me=News&file=print&sid=16776 and in standard spelling at http://www. урд нь Александр Грахам Беллийн зохион бутээсэн харилцуур утсанд дууны енгийг илуу тод болгодог есгегч нэмж хийсэн юм. Монгол улсын хувьд гол нь захиргааны болоод улс терийн тувшний аль алинд нь байгаа авилгач байдлыг хазаарлах талаар ур ашигтай арга хэмжээнуудийг хамгийн туруунд авах шаардлагатай байна. туршилт хийж байжээ (bajlaa).pdf. зарим ЗУЙЛ дээрхамтран ажиллахаар болжээ (-lee). дийлдэхээ болихоос нь емне Монголчууд еерсдее ч. non-standard spelling can be found at http://www.mn/modules.forum.wikipedia.olloo. Дашрамд дуулгах таатай мэдээ бол Цэргийн дэлхийн аварга шалгаруулахтэмцээнд баг тамирчдаа оролцуулах урилгыг авч иржээ (-lee).mn/ res_mat/MongoliaCorruptionAssessmentFinalReportCompleteMN. Нью-Жерси дэх Менло паркт дэлхийн анхны уйлдвэрлэлийн лаборатори байгуулж шинэ нээлтууд хийсээр байжээ (-lee).222 appendix Унэндээ. (origo. (mn. Еренхийдее.org/wiki/ Томас_Альва_Эдисон) 1 The passage with this spelling is no longer available.1 Энэтхэгийн БХЯ-ны дэргэдэх Спорт хорооны удирдах албаны ХУМУУСТЭЙ уулзаж. Binnick. Reprinted. 1979. “Remoteness Distinctions.” In Handbook of Pragmatics Online. 54. 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Second edition. 97–121. Tempus: Besprochene und erzählte Welt. Second edition. ——. Michael. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Vendler. Weinrich.) Wu. Kohlhammer. Paris: Seuil. 2nd edition. (Quotations taken from 1957 Pocket Books [New York] edition. 1974. Wells] 1979. Introduction. 1995.list of works cited 227 Ujeyediin Chuluu [Chaolo Wu]. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.” The Philosophical Review 66: 143–160. 1996. Xerbert [H. Available at http://www. “Tense as Discourse Anaphor. Vietze. Alexander. 56. Vovin. 1973 as Le Temps: récit et commentaire. London. “A Survey of Tense Suffixes in Mongolian Languages. The Invisible Man. L. fifth edition. The Invisible Man (1897). G. 1988. Webber. Bonnie. Chaolo [Chaolu Wu. Translation of Wells.” Computational Linguistics 14: 61–73. 1964. Ulaanbaatar: Mongoliin zoxiolčdiin xoroonii xevlel. . 145f. 45. 13. 15.. 85 -seer xxi. see -v -bei 8 n.. 17. 17–19. 37 n. 8f. 5. 61. 3b. 45 n. 29 -dg 37f. 102. 81. 91 metric theory of 33–37 modal accounts of 54–59 non-conclusive 193f. 70–74. 65. 48 -güi ‘not’ 4f. 39 -lee xii. 6 -čix. 144 n. 31f. 40 marks the imminent/near future 24f. 163 -ǰükü 8 n. 51. -le 8 n. 6 -čei 8 n. 65–69. -jee 41. 97 vs. 161 n. 15. 163. 20. 47. 86. 2c. 36 -lügei 8 n. 36 ex. 22. 120 vs. 11 n. 34. 33–38. 57 -jee xii. 54f. 33. -sen 73 n. 51. 5. 70 n. 57 vs. 116. 97 in responses 73. 6 -luqa. 23 n. 63 metric theory of 33–37 mirative 144 modal accounts of 54–59 synonymous with -sen baina 140–145 vs. 192. 35. 81 marks the recent past 15. 92. 88. 65. 40. 43 n. 13 n.. 46. 12 n... 93 -la (Kalmuck) 7 n. 209. 55f. 142.. 64. 32 n. 48. 48 -gsen 29 n. 51. 40 marks the distant past 15. 81. 51. 35. 73 n. 172 -j (Kalmuck) 7 n. 17. 13. 13 -l (= -lee) 8. 7 n. 29f. 102 as future tense 34. 6. 73. 17. 6 -ǰüküi 11 n. 165. 88f. 144 as present perfect 16. 38. 9. 102. 93–95. 63 in paragraphs 168. 70 n.. 80f. 46. 25. 76 in the second person 70 n. 99–101 vs. 193. 116. 85–87 as general present tense 37 n. 37f.. 93f. 18. 7 n. 76. 9 n. 12 n. –sengüi 31. 62–70. 16.. 21f. 9.. 5. 61. 77 vs. 45. 15. 31 n. 143 as inferential past tense 40. 65.. 97 in the first person 52f. -v 47. 33. -cüküi 11 n. 16. -luqai 8 n. 16. 37f.. 62 conclusive 194 in folk tales 161. 40–47. 55. 25 -čixsen 141. 23 n. 143f. 3 in paragraphs 169.. . 36 ex. 63.. 19. 43 as direct past tense 56. 67 marks a profound regress 15. 209. 18 in the second person 51–53. 52 -ge 9. 141–144. 97 -eegüi baina 32 n. 172. 20 in the first person 71.. 171. 66 as evidential past tense 15. 38 -j (= -jee) 8. vs. 21 n. -ne 82. 6 -jana 37f.. 26f. 212 as indirect past tense 56. 81. -sen 10 n. 19. 15. 144. 13. 20. 17. 185.. see also -eegüi replaces -v 92–102 -eed 5 -eegüi 31–33.. 197–200 in questions 51. 50–54. 141. 63f. 85 marks the immediate/recent past 24. 6 -lüge 11 n. 1. 82–88 as present perfect 16. 38. 73. -jei 8 n. -lee 82. 197–200 in questions 45. 13 -deg 5. 212 as a non-past tense 12. 71–73 marks a distant past 36 marks a shallow regress 15. 6. 10 ex. 52.. 77. 11. 73. 33–37. 34f. 66. 165. 97. -v 19. 22f. 97 -legei 8 n. 208 as future tense 82. 92 -j (converb) 4f. 45. 85 vs. -ee 4f. 31 n. 46. 33 n.. 102. 5 ex. 5. 29 n.. 93–95. 171. 6f. 61. 79. 70. 3f. 11 n. 6 -ne xviii. 73 n. 45. 19. 120 vs. 19. 10. 22. 41 n.xviii.INDEX -be. 62. -lee 41. 212 in paragraphs 171.. 74. -sen 26. 79 in paragraphs 197–200 in questions 46. 6 ex. 102–111. 163 vs. 98 n. 144 in statements 132–146 in writing 74–79.‘be’ 28. 92–102. in response to -v question 100f. 95. 191. 142. 195.. adverbials 35. 141f. 203. 171. 101f. 37f... 212f. D. 209. 61. 164. -ee 26 vs. 135 -sen yum 138. 49. 17. actio perfecta 17 addressee 72f. 116. 50 n. 70 n. 31 n. 148 vs. 11. 74. 49. 138–142 in paragraphs 197 synonymous with -jee 61 n. 10 n. 5. aorist 21 n. 3c. 116 non-past uses of 48 not negated 92–102 vs. J. 93. 74. 3d -v xii. 135 -v (Kalmuck) 7 n. 9. 132.. 13. 93 -yü 18 n. 2. 51. 93 aspect 14–20 aspectual class 24 asterisk 53 n. 73. 164.230 index -sen (= asan) 28. 92. relative 37f. 15. 24 a. 41 Altangerel. 197–200 in questions 50 n. 68 anaphoric tenses 13. 99. 197–200 -sengüi 31f. 49. 140–145 -sen xii. 116. 12 n. 67 n. 61f. 25. et al. 70 n. binding of temporal 149 anchoring 149f. 56.138f. 56. 203 . 77. 79 vs. 142 neutral in evidentiality 102.. 45 “colourless” 46. -jee 10 n. as spoken form 93n. -lee 47. 48 modal neutrality of 46. -sen baina 138–140 vs. in response to -sen question 101f. 14. 99 anteriority. 13. 11 Am’draliin ödör 208 amnesia 65. 32 Aristotle 24 n. 20. 16. 97. 168. 50. 140 accidental form 56 accommodation 178 actio 18 actio imperfecta 17f. 197. 116. 74. 13. 12 n. 45. 77 vs. 6. 70 n. -tel 6 ex. 16. 17 in narrative 57. W. 161. 219 Austin. 6 ex. 95. 177. answers to questions 95. 93 -x xvii. 92–102. 73 n. 132–135 in response to -sen question 97 in response to -v question 101. 81 converbs as 5 Afro-American Vernacular English 139. 164. 164f. 203. 93 -sen baina 62. 99. as a written form 93n. 142. 73 n. 116. 132–138. 102. 66 modality of 46–50 neutral in evidentiality 102. 139 n. see Magnificent Mongolian. -v 26. 17. 5. 95 n. 65. 74. 7. 161. in speech 74–79. 45 conclusive 194 disconnects from thread 195 evidential 77. 61. 94f. 101 n. xvii. 20. 102. 11 n. -jee 19. 213. -eegüi 31. 185. 144. 49. 74 n. 95 n.. 17. 37. 207. 97 -sengüi yum 171 -sn (Kalmuck) 7 n. 99–102. 141f. 144 in the first person 76 in writing 74–79 modal neutrality of 61 negated 31f. 209. 61. 7 n. 208 autobiography 164. 49. 144 marks distant (remote) past 34 marks future time 48 marks recent past 15. 68 n. 46f. 93–99. 162. 74. 171.. 99. 26f. 22. 61. 102 evidential 47. The “Altai” 208 Altaic languages 3–4. 5. 5. 73.. 180 Aldridge. 102. 102 marks hypothetical suppositions 17. 142. 5. 64. 20. 74. 101 vs. 74–79. 81. 85. see also -sengüi as short form of -sen bai. 132–134 in speech 74–79. 171 vs. 3a-b. 61. 95 n. 32. 9. 42 asan 28. 209 anaphors. 116. 92. 13 attentional coherence 158. -lee 73 n. 97.. 19 ajee ‘was’ 28 Aktionsart 24. 102. 47. 15. coming into Ayuuš 132 50f. 18 n. 206f. 89 China Radio International 132 Chinese 196 Chinese/Mongolian phrase-book 99 chronologies 212 231 Chuluu. R. 177. 91. J. 170. 48. 147–213. 30... 66 discours 202. see grounding “Badraa” 201 bai-. 12. 168.. 17 conclusiveness 191–194 consequence 159 contextual time 30 contingency 87 continuative converb xxi. 42. 6. 1. 31. 79. 216 certainty of past occurrence 15 Chakhar 2 Chenggeltei 23. 63 n. 55. 51–54. 202. 207–209 diegesis. 24. 19 n. 7 n. 36 n. 171. 8 n. 1. 56 n. 202 discourse functions 37–40. was’ 45 n. 19. 34–36. 17f. 56. 63. 13 n. 23 n. 48. 24 n. 34.. 207f. 44. and Hayamon. 32. 54 biography 164f. 147–161. 145f. types of 37f. 17 n.. 7 n. 44. 22. discourse. and Bat-Ireedüi. 33 n. 161.index awareness. 78. 3f bü. 37 deictic centre 80. discourse coherence 147–161. 201f. 57. 10. 37. R. 188. was’ 45. 3 n. 1. 58 n. 188–190. 70. 16.. 144. 10 n. 33 n. 49 n. see Sanders. 132 bounded occurrences 187 bounding point 23 bui ‘is’ 140 Bulchuluu 48 Buriat 2. 1 Dongxiang 3 . 80. 21. 20. A. 63 Baast. 57 BNMAU-iin soël gegeerliin ajiliin tüüxen zamnal 198 bol. 202f. 7 ex. 3f. 29. P. 12. 70–71. 202 coherence relation 157–159. distality 12. 6 ex. 53 n. 92 Benveniste. 46. 165 copula. 57. besprochene Welt 202 bi. 87 Bläsing. 94 n. 53f. 2. 37–39 Doerfer. 5. be going to 85–87 be/ve xvii. 27. 36. 82 critique of modal accounts 54–59 či ‘you’ xviii Činges xaany tüüxen on daraalal 212 “Činggis Xaan” 208 Clauson. 198. E. 48 Davaasambuu.5 bülüge ‘is. B. 23–25.. 179. diegetic genres 202f. 2. 200f. 140 č (particle) xxi n. 168. 4–5. G. 45. 200 biz 41. 5. 73. 21 n. 23. 45 n. 196. 39. 95 Beffa. 152 as adverbials 5 copula deletion 139 copular particle xxi n. Divaasambuu 208 Dobu 23 n.‘become’ 6 bolai ‘is’ 140 bolon ‘as well’ 6. 102–111. 11. 2 bilee ‘is. 4. 219 commenting on one’s own experience 68. converbs 5. 5.45n.‘be’ xxi n. 79–82. 26. 201 background(ing).-L. 195. 138. 3 n. 63. 79 n. 27f. 26 n. 6 ex. 19 n. 34 Comrie. 33. 192. 145 deictic tenses 13. verbal noun as predicate with(out) 9. U. 24 n. M. 23 n. xi. 72 completed past action or occurrence 15. 3 Caesar 16.. 70 bii xxi n. 126. 80. 55 n. 55. 3g Bonan 3 Bosson. bayi. J. 37 n. B. 1 coherence 147–161. J. 165 Dagur (Daur) 3. 29. 161 bailaa contrasts with baiv 47 Baoan 3 Bat-Ireedüi. G. 44. 105–111 degrees of remoteness 13. 25. 11. 164. direct past tense 56. 47 binding of temporal anaphors 149–152 Binnick. xii. 40. 56. 5. 37–39. 113 bögööd ‘and’ 5. 140 baij(ee) ‘(there) was’ 120. Dayaar Mongol 164 decisive form 55 dee 126 definite past tense 19 definite tenses 13. 40f. U. 57–59. . xvi. 171f. 115. S. 142. S. 208 Erdene bulsan aral. 80. 19f. 115. 4.. 210 . 7 gene ‘says. opposition of 61–80 explanation (rhetorical relation) 158f... see grounding Foreign Literature Reader 10 n. 5 ex. 62–70 infinitive(/future verbal noun) 21 n. 20–25. 26 imperfect present tense 19 n. expressive function 147f. 144. 164–168 histoire 202 historical matter 165. 22. 171–188.. 38. 2. 40 durative Aktionsart 37 n. 30 hypotactic language. see -ee imperfectivisches präsens 18. K. 70–74 evidentiality/inferentiality. 85 n.. 34. 18 n. 40–46. S. K. 57 folk tales 38. 218 Invisible Man. 54. focus 57 focus particle xxi n. 170 frequentative verbal noun 29 futurate constructions. 202 ga (subject marker) 189 n. 172. 172 imperfective participle 29. ese ‘not’ 45 evidential past tense xii. 43. see also -ee imperfective past tense 182 imperfective present tense 18 imperfective verbal noun. 1. 21 habitual verbal noun 29 Hangin. 197 historical present tense 208 n. 164. xv. quotative auxiliary 46. 33f. 19 n.. hypotaxis 129.. 53f. 196 hypothetical fact 47 fiction 164. 34–36 headlines 161.. 122–132 Intuition Test 117–120. geǰü ‘that’ 55 n.. J. 199 Gongor. 23. 63f. 50f. 11. ge. 93 n. see Treasure Island ert urid tsagt ‘once upon a time’ 161 erzählte Welt 202 es. 30 imperfectivisches präteritum 19 n. 212 Grønbech. 160 n. 38. 163. 209 gev ‘said’ 209 Gongor. 31 indirect past tense 44. 161 general present tense 37 n. D. and Krueger. S. 31 firmness of the statement 22 first person in questions 74 focalization 206f. 182 imperfective aspect 5 n. 2c. 80 imminent future 24 imparfait 106f. 92. 56. 95 Hashimoto. 3. think’. 20–25. 27. 182–184 imperfect aspect 5.. 28 imperfect tense(s) 25. 12 intention(ality) 86. 39 n. 57. 25. xvii n. 33 n. 46 edüge/odu-a čaγ ziγaqu khelber 19 n. 82 genre 13. 51 gej. 57 duus. 89 echo question 93f. 209. biz as 41 inferential past tense xii. The 124. English 85. 148f. xii. 198–213. see Sodnomdorj Gongor immediate future tense 82 immediate past tense 34. they say’ 143f. 11. 129 Engkebatu 48 epistemic modality 87 Erdene. 41. 27 imperfektnyi prezens 19 n. 28 indefinite tenses 13 indicative tenses 18. 38 future hypothetical 48 future participle 21 n.. 18f. 82 Inner Mongolian dialects 2.‘finish’ xviii grounding 16.. extended past tense 15. 203 finite indicative verbs 18. 116. 83 future tense 87. 27 imperfektnyi preterit 19 n. xvi. 46. 31 emphatic forms 126.‘say. 207. 23 Galsang. 201–207. 147. J. 31 effectif non passé 19 n. 34. 63. 188 imperfective converb 4f. 219 interjections 126 internal focalizer 206 Internet. 161 foreground(ing). 40. 15. 60. G.. 93 intentional coherence 157f. 66 indirect quotation 54 inferential. 160f. language of the 14. 55. 50–54.232 index Dugarov. 86. 12. 65. see Tserenchunt. 163f. 113 Kara. 188. 196f. 209 narrative advance 151. 2–3. 25 n. xiii.index ireedüin tsagt üilt ner is going to 85–87 83 James. 95. The 124. L. 97. xii. 21 n. see -sen nominalization 5 non-focalized narrative 206 non-narration 13 non-neutral (past) tenses xii non-past tenses 164. xxi n. 3. 20 Konverbum abtemporale xxi n. xix n. Leuthy. 62. 170f. D. 30. 207 mirativity 12. 1 mart. 99 Johanson. et al. 26. levels of usage 113–116. omniscient 124 Nasunbayar et al. G. 9 linking vowel 8 n. 61 Monguor 3 Montgomery. 1. 164. L. 17. 97. B. 33. 14. 15 Luvsanjav et al. 52. 31 odoo tögssön tsag 80 odoo tsag zaax xelber 19 n.. 7. 207f. 144 n. 20. 13 n. 32. 113f. 41 Johanson. 89 Kullmann. 10.. 164. 92 keeps on xxi n. 48 Jančivdorj. D. Z. 141 Life of Pi 181 linguistic coherence 149–157. 42. 45. Menges. J. 219 linking consonant xvii. C. 93. 34. 161 n. 132–146. 30 Miller. 58 n.. 16. 54 233 metric tenses 13.. 3 n. xix. 30f. 202. 12 neutralization 108–110. 13 n. Mongolic languages 1–10. and Ragčaa. 79 n. 11. 66 modal distinctions 11. 179f. 37f. 41f. 122–132. S. 184f. 209 odoo ‘now’ 43 n. 70 n. 75. 23 Jiriin xümüüs 95. 15. J. 128 n.. 184 modi. 215 modal account of the tenses 40. 13 n. 44–46. 63. 198 n. 3. 58. T. 140. 79. 16. L. 198 n. 33 n. 177f.. 31 . 45. 126. 34 nedavno zaveršivšeesja prošedšee vremja 80 negation 27. 5 n. 83. 145 nidonon ‘last year’ 34 ex. see -ee nomen perfecti. 189 n. K. 1.. 206 modal uses 17 modality 87. 3 Kas’yanenko. 3. 130. xvii n. 101. 32 n. D. 15 Krueger. 7 Lodoi. 1–3. 12. Koschmieder. 171 mön xxi n. xii. 1 Korean 3. 144. 43. 18. 35 Japanese 3. 11 n. 13. 11 n. 41. 69 Martel. 18. 114 n. 45 n. S. 179f. 93 n. E... modus 17f. 79 n. 44 n. 56b nom verbal du passé fini 26 nomen futuri 83 nomen imperfecti. 51. 140 n. 73 n. B. 55. 105 Nelson. 80. 31. 57.. 30 metric theories of the tenses 33–37. 19 n.. 14 n. narrative tenses 19. 181 Marvelous Mongolian. 5. 99 Manchu 3 markedness 25. 93. R. 32. 1 metalinguistic function 147 metric tense system 33 n. 159. 142. 208 not yet 33 novels 37f. 114 n.. 114 n. 23 n. 82. 26 neutral past tenses xii. 12 n. and Leuthy. 3 n. 9 n. xviii n. R. 1 Khalkha 1f. 203 Kalmuck 2. 1. L. 208 narration. 14. 145 odoo ba ireedüi tsagiin dagavar 19 n. 48. 79 n. 55 n. 206 l (particle) 206 Legden. 207. 1 mimesis. see Tserenchunt. D. Y. 208 Lonely Planet Mongolian phrasebook 11 n.. 40 Moghol 3 Mongolian language 2.. 66. and Utas. narrative 13. 25. 2.‘forget’ 52. 15. 41 journalistic language 132. 202 narrator. 41 modal particle xxi n. 7 n. 63. 167. 69. S. 167. 19. 17. Known Past Tense 44. 68. 2. mimetic genres 202f. and Tserenpil. see also perfective aspect perfect participle. 23. 196 parfait immédiat 33. do for someone else’ 4 ex. xviii. 32. 5. 25 perfect verbal noun. 26. 8. present participle 27 present perfect tense 15. 92f. 41 perfective participle 29 perfective past tense 182 perfective present tense 18 perfective verbal noun xvii. 44 öngörön ürgeljilsen tsag 21 n. parataxis 160f. 6. 35. see -v past tenses 58. see perfective verbal noun perfective aspect 5 n. 19 n. 202 forms xi. 44 önggeren ürgülzilegsen caγ 21 n. see perfective verbal noun perfect tense(s) 15. 83. 26 perfectum 11 perfektnyi preterit 19 n. 170. 26. 89 performative utterances 82 n. 26–30.. 56. 21 n. 4. 191 n. 82 n. English 37 n. 139f. 26 öngörön tögsson tsagt üilt ner 26 n. 208. 63. 4 . 85. 25. 17. 121. 16. 33 n. 202 Poppe.. 81 Ödriin Sonin 164 ög. 63 past participle 27. N. 195–198 paratactic language. 31 perspective 79 n. 26 n. 28 past progressive tense 172. 3c. 53. 28. 191f. Plato 202 pluperfect 15. 5. 24. 1. 63 önöö öglöö ‘this morning’ 145 önöödör ‘today’ 81. 32 öngörön tögssön tsag 19 n. 18 n. 7 n.‘give. 26 pragmatic particle 126 pragmatic theory of the tenses 11. 89. B. 20. 21. 188 perfective converb 24 n. 160 n. 1c önggeren tegüsegsen caγ 19 n. 202 -eegüi as 32 -lee as 19. and grounding 171–188 and temporal reference 161–171 and topical threads 188–195 in questions 92–102 in the spoken language 61–111 in the written language 113–146 in various genres 198–213 the problem of the 10–14. 28 past-based tenses 202f. 19 n. 5 n. 216 participles 5. 26 perfektnyi prezens 19 n. 168. 44. 6 ex. 29 perfectivisches präteritum 18. see also -ne -jana as 37 n. 1. 171. 113 öčigdör. 8. perfect aspect 18 n. 115. phases 152f. 8. 89–93. 66.. 23. 171. present-future tense. 188 past tense 19. 19 n. see -ne present-future verbal noun xvii. 27. 14–17. 126. 139. see also -sen past perfect tense 19f. 2.234 index Oirat 2. 47 pričastnaya forma nastoyaščegobuduščego vremeni 83 progressive construction. 28. 28–29. 147 passé prolongé 21 n. 23 French 62 German 11. 120. 206f. 161 post-terminal viewpoint 38 praesens imperfecti 19 n. 23 n. 95. passé simple 62. 57 present result 16 present tense 18 n. H. 45. 27 praeteritum perfecti 19 n. 3 n. 8 n. 29. perfectivisches präsens 18. 36 past assertive tense 44 past imperfect tense 19f. 80 Partee. 19 n. 16 present progressive tense. 43. 29. see -lee in -sen. 48. 213 pragmatics identified with modality 121 present imperfect tense 19f. 35. 33. 105 n. xxi n. 32 “past” 23 n. 202. 89 praeteritum imperfecti 19 n. see -jee in -lee. 18 historical 208 n. 8 n. 19 n. 56. 79 n. 102. 78. 12. 19 n. 62. 26 önggeren tegüsegsen caγ-tur üiletü ner-e 26 n. 1. 28 praesens perfecti 19 n. 28 n. 19 n. 25–37 passé antérieur 147. 7 in -jee. 27. 83. 32. 93 preterite tense(s) 22.. 19 n. 37–59. 201f.. English 4. öcögedür ‘yesterday’ 24. 24. 25. 182 passé compose. 27. 145 paragraph 168. 57 -lee as 13 n. 30 present-based tenses 202f. see -sen in -v. 82. . xvii. 47. 44. degrees of 13. 11 n. 93. xix. . 44.. 33 n. 19 n. 16. 144. 63 recent past time 24.. 207. 72 remoteness. Z. W. 8 n. 56 Ševernina. 218 Sodov. 177–180. 15. 21. 14–37 semantics identified with tense/ aspect 121 Sengee. 140f. xii. 35f. 33. 161–163. 55 Schlepp. 158. 105 Secret History of the Mongols. 11. 99 repetition 63 n. 94 n. 46.. 9 235 n. 41. 91 proximity. 201 Sprachbund 3 Stevenson. 63. stylistic features 12 n. 33 n.. 29. 77–79. 26–27. 74 n. 14. 1. 129 surcomposé tenses 147 Svantesson. 5 pronoun. 170 Song. 11 n. 29 Sanžeev. 44. 16. 16–20. 193f. 89. 31 n. 22f. 19 n. 114 n. 15. 93. 2–3. 74. 63. I. 44. xviii. sayaxan. xii. 65. 141 regress 15 Reichenbach. 19 n. 1. 19 n. recent past tense 15. 10 n. 46. J. 149–151. 22 präteritum imperfectum 11 n. J. xviii. 15. D. 132–146 sentence adverbials 104 short stories 37f. A. 68. 74. 192. 63 n. 33. 26 n. 29 n. 2. D. 37. sayaxan öngörsön tsag 80 sayaxan tögssön tsag 33 n. 10 n. 62. 61. D. 81. 13 präteritum imperfecti 19 n. 14. 102 spoken and written language 113–132. 50. 89 Schmidt. 13 scope 29f. 126. sayi ‘just (now)’ 24. 90f. 41 n. 19 n. 51. 3 n.. 65. 89 saya. 119. 41. V. 71. 30 n. G. L. Ts. 66f. 11 n. A. 83. 85. 54. 22. 43–46. relative 13. 36. 29. 139 style. 32. 80 proximality 12. 45 n. 102. 14. 92–102 Ramstedt. 23 n. The 202 restrictive focus particle 206 result state 153 Reversal Test 120.. J. 21. 97. 219 Rudnev. 32. 11. and Bat-Ireedüi. 63 proximal past tense(s) 34. xxi n.. 188 since xxi Sodnomdorj Gongor xii.. 55 sayiqan önggeregsen caγ 33 n. 55. 185. 47 warns against his labels 20 recall 53. 13 n. 62. 120. R. 26 question particle 8. 55 Sandag. 8. 19 n. xxi n. 1b Tamiriin ber 95. 82 n. 26. 19 n. 117 n. 11. 218 and modal account 37. 37 responses to questions 95. 79–82. 63 präteritum perfecti 18. 29–30. 51. 65.‘match’ 4 ex. 1. 56f. 97 n. 31. 43 n. second person xviii prošedsee dlitel’noe vremya 21 n. 46. see Treasure Island still not 33 story 202 Street. 114 n. The 192 seit ‘since’ xxi semantic theories of the tenses 11. 117.-O. 34. D. xix n. 64 n. 66. 50 n. G. 74 n. 17 n. 70–71. 16. 47 recency of discovery 64f. 142 Sanders.index prolongation in time 20f. 52. 143.. 104 relative past meaning 8. 17 präsens imperfecti 18.. 26–27. 73f. 34 reference time 13. 56. H. 82f. J. 98 n.. 32 n. 13. 221f. 15. 17 “Šine baišin” 168 šüü (dee) 126 ta ‘you’ xviii taar. xii. 35. 43. 145f. 92f. 46. 96 n. 95 questions 45f. written tenses do not differ from one another 117. 25. 68 n. 3. 43 n. 1. 99 Republic. 11 n. 5 repetition of the verb 97. 10. 41 n. 11. rhetorical function 209 rhetorical relation 157–159. 47. 182. 27. 26 reminders 70.. 99 tempora (indicativi) 17f. 43 n. 30 präsens perfecti 18. 206 n. 21 n. 32. 102–105. 10. 97.. 42. 29–30. 95. 19 n. 9. 49. 40. 188–190. 122–132. 209 registers 113–116. 209 simple past tense 15. 8. terminal converb 5 text 147–161 textual functions 147f. 98 n. 1.‘lose consciousness’ 66 ügüi ‘without. G. 11 n. 18 n. see Kullmann. 93. C. 23 thread. verbs of motion 25 verification questions 74 n. 42 Vendlerian class 24 verbal nouns 5. 6. 167. 14. 128 n. no’ 31f. 21. 202f. Vendler. 19. sleep’ 52.-P. L. 92. 46. 117. 132–146 Wu. 188–195. 24 n.. 27. 63 n. 70. xxi n. 14. 99 “Xyaruu unasan tsagaar” Yatkovskaya. 49. 73. 41. 41 Turkish 3f. 23 topical thread 13. 8 n. K. X. U. 61. 11 “Toogiid öngörüülsen negen ödör” 208 topic 189 n. B. 95 n. D. 27f. 42 Turkic languages 3. 207 Tserenchunt.‘fall asleep. 11. 93 vertical script written Mongolian 2 Vietze. 94f. 25 transliteration 65 n. 45. 92. see Chuluu. 10. 31. 73 n. 4. 25 Tserenchunt. 140 n. xix n. 95 Vovin. Treasure Island xi. 64.236 index temporal adverbials 202 temporal coherence 160 temporal reference 161–171 temporal relations 219 tense 13–20. L. 69 usages. 140 unt. 67.. 44–46. 2. 33. 141.. 218 will 87 witnessed occurrence 15 written tenses 116–122. D. 50. 124f.. 130. 83. 94 n. L. 47. Wells. xiii. 23. see Invisible Man. N. 69. 171 Vangan. 24 tenses xi. R. 75 n. 61. see topical thread tiim(ee) ‘yes’ 94. 201 . 164. see Chuluu. 200 Yellow Uygur 48 yum xxi n. 208 168. 20. A. 144 n. ül. 41 uu/üü 8. 202f. evidential/inferential in 41. ülü ‘not’ 45 Ünen 132–146. 18. the WH questions 101 n. 74 n. 1. 158. 24 Weinrich. and Tserenpil. 219 theme 13. 70 n. 191 n. not. 6–7. 31. 55–56. 14 n. 3. 3 n. 65. X xii. 9. 66. unbounded occurrences 187 Unknown Past Tense 44. 118f. 64 udaqu ‘soon’ 24 Ujeyediin Chuluu. 124. 26 in questions 30 predicative 5. 80. 126f.. 189 n. 61 n. 11. 44. Z. H. 1 wa (topic marker) 189 n.. xix. 64. Tserenpil. “Xaltarxüü” 168 Xalx tovčoon 199 Xuvia Bodogčid 70. 19. 24. 123f. 100 n. and Leuthy. 43 n. 63f. 126 n. 69. H. 50–52. M. 189f. 26 n. 62 n. 23 warnings 48 Weiers.. 140 Tu 3 Tunghsiang 3 Tungusic languages 3.... 95 variation 114. H. 51. U. 95 uxaan ald. 20. varieties of 14 Utas. 8. Documents Similar To The Past Tenses of the Mongolian Verb. 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