The Armchair Linguist

odd tenses - English doesn't have a monopoly

In my first post, I mentioned the difficulties posed by the simple present tense for people with other language backgrounds, so it occurred to me that, to paint a more balanced picture, I should also introduce examples of unusual tenses in other languages.

In Modern Greek, there is a situation which has been causing me headaches for years. This is in complex sentences, where after the "na" particle either one of two forms can be used in most cases, producing a difference in meaning. The following is an example from an exercise created by Theodora Antonakopoulou:

The following two sentences can both be translated as "He is too young to smoke" in English.

1. Eínai polú mikrós gia na kapnízei.
2. Eínai polú mikrós gia na kapnísei.

The first example uses the "continuous" form - the same form as is used in the present tense (he smokes = kapnízei).
The second example uses the subjunctive form, which really has no translation in English except for the awkward "that he smoke", as in "I suggest that he smoke."

The first example implies that he has started smoking already and that the speaker doesn't approve, whereas the second example implies that he has not started smoking yet and the speaker feels that it is too early for him to start.

Here is another example:

The following two sentences can both be translated as "I can't write with that pencil" in English. Note that the letter w is used to represent the Greek letter omega and y to represent psi.

1. Den mporw na grafw m'autó to molúbi.
2. Den mporw na grayw m'autó to molúbi.

Again, the first example uses the continuous and the second uses the subjunctive.

The difference this time is that, in the first example, the implication is that for some reason I don't like the pencil, whereas in the second it isn't sharp so I can't write with it.

In Turkish, there is also an odd tense, but this one is of a different nature. I recently received an e-mail from a Turkish speaker, who wrote the following sentence to me, "You supposed to be right." If she had not forgotten the helping verb "are", the sentence would have been grammatically correct ("You are supposed to be right."), but it would not have conveyed the meaning she intended. I assume that she was translating the following sentence:

Hakliymis,siniz.

Note that the Turkish s with a cedille under it (pronounced like sh) is represented by s, (this is an e-mail convention) and that none of the i's should have dots.

This is the tense usually referred to as the "mis, tense" or "hearsay tense". It is a tense used to mean that the speaker/writer has heard that what he/she is saying is true. Thus, she meant that according to something she had read or heard I was right.

Here are some other examples:

1. Saat sekizde gelecekmis,.
2. Buraya yeni tas,inmis,siniz.
3. Çok iyi bir ogretmen imis,.

These can be translated as follows:

1. He said he would come at eight.
2. I heard that you just moved here recently.
3. She's supposed to be a great teacher.

In each case, the phrases "he said", "I heard that", and "supposed to be" are included in the tense.

If anyone reading this blog knows of other examples of languages with unusual tenses, I would love to hear about them.

posted by Laura Blumenthal @ 1:38 p.m.