The Verb: Tense and Aspect

Basic Notions and Terminology

Tense

Tense concerns the location of an action in time relative to some other moment. A distinction can be made between absolute tense and relative tense:

• Absolute tense concerns the location of an action in the past, present or future, relative to the moment of speaking:

  The Noldor burned Alqualonde. past
  The Noldor are burning Alqualonde. present
  The Noldor will burn Alqualonde. future

• Relative tense concerns the location of an action in time relative to another temporal reference point given in the context, either prior to that reference point (anteriority), at the same time as that reference point (simultaneity), or after it (posteriority):

  We arrived when the Noldor had burned Alqualonde. anterior to a moment in the past
  We arrived when the Noldor were burning Alqualonde. simultaneous with a moment in the past
  By the time we arrive, the Noldor will have burned Alqualonde. anterior to a moment in the future
  The Noldor said that they would burn Alqualonde. posterior to a moment in the past

The indicatives of the Quenya verb, when used in main clauses, express absolute tense:

• the present indicative and perfect indicative refer to the present (i.e. the moment of speaking);
• the imperfect and preterite refer to the past;
• the future indicative refers to the future:

EXAMPLES

Outside main clauses, indicatives frequently receive a relative-tense interpretation in addition to, or instead of, an absolute-tense interpretation (@@ below).

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Aspect

Grammatical Aspect

Grammatical aspect (usually simply called 'aspect') concerns the way in which an action is presented or regarded, particularly with respect to its internal composition: it can be presented as a single and complete whole (an action in its entirety), without any separate component parts of the action being envisaged, or as incomplete (an action that is ongoing or repeated, that can conceivably be interrupted), with several component parts being envisaged. Note that what matters is not whether an action has component parts, but whether the speaker is interested in presenting these component parts as relevant.

The tense-aspect stems of the Quenya verb express three different aspectual values:

• The present stem presents an action as incomplete, focusing on one or more of its intermediate stages, but leaving its boundaries (beginning and end) out of focus. It thus normally signifies that an action is ongoing or repeated. This is called continuous aspect.

• The aorist stem has a temporal value but no aspectual one: they are aspectually neutral, and make no formal distinction between an imperfective (incomplete) or perfective (complete) presentation of actions. This is called simple aspect.

• The perfect stem presents an action as a state resulting from a preceding completed action, or it signifies that the effects of the completed action are somehow still relevant.

As the above definitions indicate, the selection of a specific stem (grammatical aspect) depends not so much on any objective properties of the action itself (for such objective properties, →@@), but on a speaker's (subjective) needs and choices in presenting an action in a certain way. What matters most is whether a speaker is interested in drawing attention to any component parts (or conversely, the boundaries) of an action.

Lexical Aspect

Lexical aspect refers to the temporal structure of a specific action inherent in the verb's meaning: does it have duration, and is it directed towards an end-point? As opposed to grammatical aspect, lexical aspect thus has to do with the objective properties of an action, rather than with subjective ways of presenting that action.

Tense and Aspect Combined: The Indicative in Main Clauses

Basic Values of the Indicative; Narrative and Non-Narrative Text

The Ten Indicatives of Quenya: Basic Values

Sections @@-@@ give an overview of the use of indicatives in main clauses (for indicatives in subordinate clauses, →@@ and chapters @@-@@). The interpretation of indicatives depends in the first place on the interaction between tense and grammatical aspect. Combining the aspectual and temporal values described above, the Quenya indicative expresses the following tense/aspect-distinctions (using the verb carë make as an example):

• The present simple (or present aorist) expresses an action, located at the moment of speaking (i.e. in the present), that is presented as repeated:
  carin I (habitually) make
• The present continuous (or simply present) expresses an action, located at the moment of speaking (i.e. in the present), that is presented as ongoing:
  cáran I am making
• The past simple (or past aorist) expresses an action, located in the past, presented as a complete whole:
  carne I made
• The past continuous (or imperfect) expresses an action, located in the past, that is presented as ongoing or repeated: cárane I was making / I (habitually) made
• The future expresses an action (either as a single occurrence or as ongoing/repeated), located in the future:
  caruva I will make / I will be making
• The perfect expresses a state, located at the present, that is the result of a completed action; or it expresses that the effects of the completed action are still in some way relevant at the present: acárien I have made (< and it exists)

The following table provides an overview of the seven indicatives:

		Tense
		Present		Past
		non-prospective	prospective	non-prospective	prospective
Aspect	Simple	aorist	future	past (aorist)	past future
	Continuous	present		imperfect
	Perfect	perfect	future perfect	pluperfect	past future perfect

Narrative and Non-Narrative Text

The type of text in which an indicative (in a main clause) is used is often significant in interpretation. A (rough) distinction may be drawn here between narrative and non-narrative text:

• Narrative text is storytelling: it relates (usually in chronological order) a sequence of actions that took place in the (real or fictive) past, and how they are related to each other. It normally contains a mix of imperfects/pluperfects and past aorist indicatives together with historical aorists. Examples: historical accounts and tales.
• Non-narrative text is everything else. Main verbs will normally be indicatives of the aorist, present, past, perfect and future, with other moods used apart from the indicative. Examples: most dialogues, discussions, arguments, general descriptions of habits and customs.

The use of indicatives in narrative is treated in detail in @@.@@-@@, including some phenomena which are peculiar to narrative contexts.

Present

Basic Uses

The present continuous refers to actions that occur at the moment of speaking. By virtue of its intraterminal aspect (incomplete), it is used by default to refer to actions which are ongoing at the moment of speaking:

1. órenya quéta nin [VT41/13]. My heart is saying to me
2. Sinar Orome i·tauresse faralye [MQ: PE22/116]. Today Orome is hunting in the forest.

The present is also frequently used with states which are true at the moment of speaking:

1. hísie untúpa Calaciryo míri oiale [LotR/377]. Mist covers the jewels of Calacirya forever
2. sinan Elessar Aran séra Arkimbelesse [MQ: PE22/125]. At present King Elessar is at Rivendell
3. enyasse Manwe hára [MQ: PE22/125]. There far away dwells Manwe

The present can also be used to denote a bouletic future with the sense of immediate urgency:

1. vá ménanye [PE22/162]. I am not coming (I say)

Specific Interpretations

With telic verbs such as ???, the present stem may refer to an (unsuccessful) attempt, because it indicates that the end-point of the action has so far not been reached. This is called the conative interpretation of the present:

EXAMPLES

Aorist

The aorist indicative is used very often in narrative texts (for details on its use there, →@@); however, it also has a few specific uses outside narrative.

For the 'modal' use of the aorist (in counterfactual statements, unrealizable wishes, etc.), →@@.

Basic Uses

The aorist is used to refer to repeated or habitual actions:

1. Orome tauresse fara Orome hunts in forests [MQ: PE22/116]

The aorist is used to refer to general or timeless truths which are continuously in effect:

1. imbi Menel Cemenye mene Ráno tie [VT47/11]. Between Heaven and Earth goes the path of the Moon

The aorist is also used in:

• proverbs:

  • csaráre psare zúle longing frets the spirit

• vivid present as in telling stories or jokes:

  • auta i·lóme the night is passing
  • laurie lantar lassi like gold fall the leaves
  • antanen hatal sena I cast a spear at him
  • zindanóriello caita mornie out of a grey country darkness lies

• common expressions:

  • mecin please

Verbs of state of mind, e.g. know, believe, think, love, express state that involves no change, and both the present and the aorist effectively carry the same aspectual meaning, could be considered nearly synonymous, and thus, could be interchangeably used to entail certain meanings:

• istanye·s I know it
• istyanye·s I know it

An aorist form of these verbs is certainly more common, however, particularly with quasi-modal verbs:

1. polin quetë I can speak [PE17/181]

Specific Interpretations

The aorist indicative of tulë come and similar verbs normally refers to the future:

1. ni qete sa e·tule I say that he is coming [PE22/119]

Observe that this does not normally hold for forms other than the aorist.

In certain contexts, speakers can refer to a single action begun and completed at (approximately) the moment of speaking — the instantaneous aorist. A frequent context for this use is that of performatives, first-person indicatives which describe the speech act of which they are part (and thus refer to actions that are completed as soon as the utterance is completed):

1. la navin caritalyas mára I do not advise you to do so [PE22/154]

The instantaneous aorist also occurs, rarely, in 'simultaneous narration', i.e. when a speaker narrates a sequence of actions as they occurin the present. This in fact also occurs when speakers present actions in the past as if they occur in the present — the 'historical aorist'. This use is treated separately in @@.@@ (cf. also the 'aorist for the future', @@.@@).

Quenya morphology allows the aorist, present, and future affixes to be used in combination with additional past suffixes. It is common to omit the second suffix except for the first verb in series [PE22/129-130]:

• tuldes mardanna, latya fendi, yalë, ú-hlarë hanquenta, cezë i-zambessen... he came home, opened the doors, called, heard no answer, searched all the rooms...

For the use of the aorist in conditional and counter-factual clauses, →@@.

Perfect

Basic Uses

The perfect indicative signifies that an action has been completed in the immediate past and that the effects of that action are in some way relevant in the present. Cross-linguistically focus of its functions lie on the spectrum between this past action and its current effect. In the extreme cases it can become then either a general past tense or a state, abstracted from its actional component.

The following perfect functions are the most common:

• resultative perfect expresses a more or less permanent state in the present which exists as the result of a completed action in the past: Mary has already arrived

  • yéni avánier ve lintë yuldar years have passed away like swift draughts [RGEO/58]

• experiential perfect: I have never been to Paris

  • → not attested → past aorist

• continuative perfect: Mary has lived in London for five years

  • → not attested → present

• recent past perfect: The Orioles have just won

  • ni·utúlie nyariello ve atarella *I have just come from talking with your father [PE22/119]

Past Aorist

The past aorist is used very often in narrative texts (for details on its use there, →@@.@@-@@); however, it also has a few specific uses outside narrative.

Basic Uses

The aorist indicative is used to present the occurrence of an action in the past, without reference to its duration or process, but presenting the action asa single, uninterruptable whole. As such, the aorist is the default tense in narrative texts to record single, complete actions:

1. sustanë Manwëo súlë ten i indo Sindicollo ar he lastanë ar carnes the spirit of Manwe blew unto the heart of Thingol and he listened and did it [NM/239]

In non-narrative text, the past aorist is typically used to observe or conclude that an action has been completed by the moment of speaking. This is sometimes called the constative aorist:

1. manen lambë Quendion ahyanë How did the language of the Elves change? [PM/395]

Future

The future indicative presents the realization of some action in the future as (virtually) certain (more so than, for example, the 'potential' optative, @@.@@). Depending on the context, the future indicative can be used for various communicative purposes, such as predictions, statements of intention, announcements, promises, threats, suggestions, etc.:

1. Anar caluva tielyanna The sun shall shine upon your path [UT/22]

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Sources:

• "The Turkish Aorist and Progressive: Present Tense, Future Tense, or What?" by Mehmet Kanik
• "Semantics of the Turkish Non-Past" by Ryan Caro
• "A cross-linguistic perspective on the Greek perfect" by Konstantinos Askitidis
• "Synchronic variation in the Old English Perfect" by Morgan Macleod