On Sat, 31 Aug 2013 18:43:05 +0200
"Rolf" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Dear Kimmo,
> 
> It is good to hear from you again.
> 
> If tense is defined as "grammaticalized location in time (Comrie)," I have 
> problems with your statement: "traditional past tense (as a grammatical 
> category) does not correspond exactly to the semantic past tense." If we 
> accepts Comrie's definition, "semantic past tense" should have have read 
> "semantic past reference. We cannot have two different kinds of "past tense." 
> This is not nitpicking, but highly significant in a discussion of tense and 
> aspect.

To me the difference seems purely terminological. I am fine with your "semantic 
past reference". My point is that we should not expect 100 % correspondence 
between past reference and a past tense grammatical form even in tense 
languages.

> For example, are the WAYYIQTOLs in narrative YIQTOLs with past reference, or 
> do they have an intrinsic  past tense, or do they represent the perfective 
> aspect? 

My point is that we need not expect all of them to have past reference or all 
of them to describe a perfective situation to say that TMA is relevant for the 
analysis of the meaning of the form.

Kimmo Huovila
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