In the studies reported in this thesis the temporal framework of Klein, named Basic Time Structure (1994), was adopted because it is a language-neutral framework, which permits not only cross-linguistic comparisons, but also allows for comparisons of learners' varieties. Furthermore, this framework makes it possible to account for the interplay between morphosyntactic (i.e., auxiliaries and affixes) and lexical (temporal adverbials and verb characteristics) means.
Klein’s framework consists of three parameters: (1) the topic time (TT), (2) the time of utterance (TU), and (3) the time of situation (TSit). The TT is the time span in the past, present, or future for which an assertion is made in a given utterance. The temporal relation between the TT and the TU gives past, present, or future tense. The relation between the time for which an assertion is made (TT) and the time at which a situation occurs (TSit) is referred to as aspect. As illustrated in (3), based on Klein (1994:108), TT can contain TSit (3a), it can be partly or fully contained in it (3b), it can follow it (3c’) or it can precede TSit (3c’’). For explanatory ease, the examples given here are taken from English. In section 1.7.1 examples will be provided from the languages involved in the present study.
11 Pingu is a British-Swiss stop-motion clay animated television series created by Otmar Gutmann. The
series centres on a family of anthropomorphic penguins living in an igloo at the South Pole. The main character is the family's son and title character, Pingu, who frequently goes on adventures with his little sister, Pinga, and often gets into mischief with his best friend, Robby the Seal.
(3) a TT incl TSit imperfective (He is sleeping) b TT at TSit perfective (He slept) c’ TT ex (after) TSit perfect (He has slept) c’’ TT ex (before) TSit prospective (He is going to sleep)
The notions of pre- and post time introduced in (4) will clarify the definition of the various aspects presented in (3). The notion of pre-time (the time before the situation) plays a crucial role in the definition of prospective and imperfective, and the notion of post time (the time after the situation) plays a role in the definition of perfective as well as of perfect aspect. Consider a time line as in (4) – (7), where --- represents the lexical content (sleep) and [TT] the topic time:
(4) He is going to sleep
[ TT ] ______________
Pre time { TSit } Post time
In this case (4), TT is excluded from TSit, and it is in the pretime of the situation. This is the PROSPECTIVE aspect.
(5) He is sleeping
____ [ TT ] ____
Pre time { TSit } Post time
In this case (5), TT is interpreted as fully included in TSit. It is the IMPERFECTIVE aspect.
(6) He has slept
____ [ TT ] ____ Pre time { TSit } Post time
In example (6) TT is excluded from TSit situation and is placed in its post time. Here, the action of sleeping has ended before TT is reached. This is the PERFECT aspect. It refers to the result of an action or to the present relevance of the accomplished action. In many languages, the perfect may be used when the present relevance of the past situation referred to is simply one of temporal closeness, meaning, the past situation is very recent. In this case TT includes the present, and TSit is close to it.
(7) He slept
________________ [ TT ] ____
Here (7), TT is partly included in TSit. The act of sleeping is shown to be completed within TT, and it has no relevance to the present. This is the PERFECTIVE aspect.
Temporality is marked not only through tense and aspect markers, but also through lexical means such as temporal adverbials, temporal particles, compound temporal expressions, and through inherent temporal characteristics of the verb and its arguments.
From all the above it can be concluded that morphosyntactic and lexical means interact to express temporality. Temporal adverbials serve to specify the topic time or the time of the situation, but they do not have the same unambiguity as grammatical tense and aspectual markers. This implies that learners’ varieties have to evolve from a phase in which temporality is mainly expressed by adverbials and other lexical means, to a phase in which they grammaticalize. According to Starren (2001) a lot of learners ‘fossilize’ at a basic level in which they use temporal adverbials and do not develop morphosyntactic tense and aspect marking.
1.7.1. Markers of temporality in the languages in this study
In order to be able to account for possible L1 interference, and/or influence of the target language itself on learners' comprehension and production of the structures in question, relevant markers of temporality in the languages involved are presented in Table 1-2. The following aspectual distinctions will be considered: prospective, imperfective, perfect and perfective.
As can be seen from Table 1-2, Dutch has multiple ways of expressing imperfective aspect and Tarifiyt has different forms to express prospective. Turkish uses synthetic forms, whereas the other three languages often make use of analytic forms to express the temporal aspects pertinent to the present study. In Tarifiyt and Moroccan Arabic perfect and perfective aspects are each expressed with a different form, whereas Turkish has only one form for both aspects. Dutch is peculiar in that it has two forms to express perfective aspect, one of them being the same as the form used to express perfect aspect. That is, both simple past and present perfect can be used to express perfective aspect.
Table 1-2. Markers of temporality in Dutch, Tarifiyt, Moroccan-Arabic and Turkish
Basic
order Prospective Imperfective Perfect Perfective Dutch
(SOV) gaan+INF zijn+aan het+inf present tense posture
verbs+INF
zijn/hebben
+PPART simple past zijn/hebben
+PPART
Tarifiyt
(VSO) ad+ traḥ+ad/ġa+AOR AOR
qa+traḥ+ad/ġa +AOR
qa+IMPRF qa+PRF PRF
Moroccan Arabic (SVO)
ġādi+IMPRF ka (ta)+IMPRF active PART PRF
Turkish
(SOV) stem+ -(y)acak/ ecek stem + -yor stem + -DI stem + -DI
Note: AOR = aorist; IMPRF = imperfect; INF=infinitive; O = object; PPART = past participle; PRF = perfect; S = subject; V = verb.