COMPARACION SEGÚN GPT AL DIAGNÓSTICO: Normal vs alterada

As regards the pasts in -jee and -lee there exists an alternative to the two-tenses/two-aspects theory, in which the distinction of the pasts is seen as temporal, but not as having to do with the difference between the time spheres of past and present. Instead, what is purportedly involved is a kind of metric tense distinction or distinction of degrees of remoteness.⁵⁴ In this alternative theory, the past in -lee represents a recent or immediate past,⁵⁵ and that in -jee a remote past.

53 Poppe (1970: 132) glosses ireegüi ‘has not come’.

54 What have sometimes have been called, as here, metric tense systems and today are more usually called remoteness systems, 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. The most comprehensive study to date is that of Botne (to appear). For example, Kikuyu, a Bantu language, has three past tenses and three futures, defined respectively as recent/immediate, intermedi-ate, and distant. In many languages without metric tense systems there are ways of expressing recency in the past (e.g., she just ate, French elle vient de manger) or imme-diacy in the future (she’s about to eat, French elle est sur le point de manger).

55 Hangin writes of the immediate past (1968: 99, 1976: 17) and similarly Beffa and Hayamon of the parfait immédiat ‘immediate past’, in Mongolian sayaxan tögssön tsag, sayiqan önggeregsen čaγ, literally, ‘time not long passed’ (Beffa and Hayamon

Thus Kas’yanenko (1968: 20) writes that “the verbal form in [-lee]

properly expresses past time concluded not long ago: garlaa ‘went out’. . . .” Hangin similarly says (1968: 99), “The immediate past denotes an action just completed.” Hangin offers the example (54). The gloss

‘it’s gotten late’ would have been more appropriate to his comment that this form represents recently completed action.

54. Oroi bol.loo, odoo yava.x.güi yüü?

late become-past, now go-ifvn-neg qp

‘It’s getting late, aren’t you going?’ (Hangin 1968: 99)

As has been pointed out by Hangin (1968: 99) and Wu (1995: 95), amongst others, -lee can also be interpreted as a near or immediate future. Thus example (55) (from Nasunbayar et al. 1984: 310) Wu also interprets, depending on the context, as meaning ‘The signal for the army to leave is about to be given.’

55. čirig mordo.qu dokiya talbi.la army leave-ifvn signal release-past

‘The signal for the army to leave was given.’

If -lee is a recent past, the -jee past is a distant or remote past. Wu (1995: 86f.) cites the examples in (56) in criticizing this view, which was presented by Nasunbayar et al. (1984: 308):

56. a. Bold.un mal neliyed ös.čei Bold-gen livestock quite increase-past

‘Bold’s livestock increased quite a lot.’

b. tere nidonon mori.ban gege.ǰei.

that last year horse-rp lose-past

‘He lost his horse last year.’

Hashimoto (1993) generalizes this into a theory in which three of the four tenses differ principally in their relationship to the present time.

The verb form with the -v ending represents (p. 16) a past tense which is distal, cut off altogether from the present, while the form in -jee is proximal, and takes as its scope the past up to the present moment;

1975: 82). Wu (1995: 94f.) cites Nasunbayar et al. (1982: 310) as saying that -luγa indicates “the recent past tense.”

the form in -lee adds to this the near future. Diagram 1 above is after Hashimoto’s diagram (21).

Wu is critical of at least the traditional type of metric analysis, pointing out that, out of context, (56a) says nothing of how distant the event is in the past, while the remoteness evident in (56b) is due to the adverb ‘last year’. Wu further observes (p. 87) that -jee can be used with an adverb of recent time, as in (57), to indicate a recent event.

57. bi sayiqan tegün.tai aγulǰi.ǰai.

I just that-com meet-past

‘I just met him.’

Indeed, perhaps anticipating an analysis such as Hashimoto’s, Street (1963) views the -jee form as a kind of present perfect, indicative of recent past time, writing (p. 122f.) that it “either has the meaning of a recent past, or emphasizes the present result of a past action or of a state that existed in the past (and may continue into the future). A variety of English translations are required.” He offers the examples (58–60):

58. Baga toirg.oor . . . 3 km boxir usn.ii Baga Toirog-instr . . . 3 km drain water-gen töv šugam barigda.j duus.jee.

main line build-impfc finish-past

‘They have just finished building a main sewer line 3 km. long along the Baga Toirog.’

Present

Future Past

-v

-laa -jee/-čee

Diagram 1

59. Mongol orn.iig toir.j üze.x.eer ir.jee.

Mongol country-acc tour-impfc see-ifvn-instr come-past

‘He has come to visit around Mongolia.” (Street 1963: 122: Street explains,

“the person has just arrived at the airport.”)

60. . . . odoo arvan xoyor myanga šaxam mal.tai . . . now ten two thousand nearly cattle-com bayan aj axui bolo.n xög.jee.

wealthy farm become-modc grow-past

‘. . . has now grown into a wealthy farm with nearly 12,000 cattle.’ (Street 1963: 122)

But examples such as (16, 61) show that -jee cannot, pace Street and Hashimoto, (simply) constitute a recent past.

16. Dašdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 on.d tör.jee.

Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj 1906 year-dat be born-past

‘Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj was born in 1906.’ (Yatskovskaya 1976: 8) 61. Ene üe.d “Gamlet” (1601), “Otello” (1604),

this period-dat “Hamlet” “Othello”

“Lir Van” (1605), “Makbet” (1606) zereg jüjg.üüd n’

“King Lear” “Macbeth” sort play-pl the gar.čee. (Sodov 1967: 62)

come out-past

‘In this period were produced the plays “Hamlet” (1601), “Othello”

(1604), “King Lear” (1605), “Macbeth” (1606), etc.’

Ujeyediin (1998)⁵⁶ is critical also of the view that -luγa represents a recent past:

In [certain] examples . . ., 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. However, this use is not unique nor the sole feature of the suffix, 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, if the speaker remembers them clearly” (Svantesson 1991: 193). For instance, in [the examples in (62)], the speaker uses the [-lee] suffix to express this sense.

62. a. ene nom.ibi baγa.un üye.degen ongsi.la this book-acc small-gen period-dat/rp read-past

‘I read this book during my childhood.’

56 No pagination is given here for quotations from Ujeyediin (1998), which derive from a draft computer file.

b. tos ügülel.i arban jil.un emüne biči.le this article-acc ten year-gen before write-past

‘(I) wrote this article ten years ago.’

Accordingly, he concludes that degree of remoteness is derived from context and that the past tense marker does not by itself distinguish it. To distinguish these past tense morphemes by the degree of the remoteness is a problematic solution, since none of the past tense markers in Mongolian distinguish recent or remote past without the help of a certain context.

3. Toward A Pragmatic Theory