Multiturquoise wrote:I also didn't mean to derail your thread
You didn't derail anything; this is after all a linguistics thread, so any linguistic questions or discussions are welcomed.
Multiturquoise wrote:For example in Greek:
Imperfect tenses: Ενεστώτας (Present)*, Παρατατικός (Past Continuous), Συνεχής Μέλλοντας (Future Continuous)
Perfect tenses: Αόριστος (Past Simple), Απλός Μέλλοντας (Future Simple), Παρακείμενος (Present Perfect), Υπερσυντέλικος (Past Perfect), Προστακτική (Simple Imperative)
* Greek has no separate tenses for present simple and present continuous.
Could you give an example of the present (imperfect) versus the present perfect? Is the present perfect (and I guess past perfect as well) similar to English where it's used to contrast two points in time?
vijayjohn wrote:For example, in Bats, a language somewhat closely related to Chechen but spoken in Georgia, there are two ways to say 'I fell'. One is:
So vož-en-so.
PRO.1SG-ABS fall-AORIST-1SG:ABS
Another is:
As vuiž-n-as.
PRO.1SG-ERG fall-AORIST-1SG:ERG
In the first sentence, the subject is in absolutive case, but in the second, it's in ergative case. In that sentence, the ergative case implies a greater degree of control. It could mean that the speaker deliberately fell down or, more likely, that they could have avoided falling down but didn't. (In other words, they failed to exercise the control they could have had over the situation).
There are also languages that aren't ergative-absolutive but have similar distinctions, though. For example, Sinhalese is nominative-accusative but observes the following distinction:
Mamə naʈənəwa.
'I dance (deliberately).'
Maʈə næʈəenəwa.
'I dance in spite of myself.'
What is the aorist tense? If I remember correctly, I've seen this term used in reference to the Greek verbal system as well, but I've never fully understood it. Also, I understand your examples in and of themselves, but I don't get the connection to unergative vs unabsolutive. (Ok I know the response wasn't directed at me, but now I want to understand what these terms mean.)