Tense and aspect

要旨

Abstract Chapter 11 compares the tense and aspect systems in Japanese and Korean, which are similar but differ from each other in subtle ways. The temporal point of reference in English is basically the moment of utterance (absolute tense). Although it is the same in Japanese and Korean when the tense of main clauses is in question, the time of the main clause can serve as the point of reference in a subordinate clause (relative tense) as well as the time of utterance. Which temporal point of reference is allowed depends on the type of a subordinate clause. This chapter focuses on aspectual constructions with a verb followed by an auxiliary verb of existence (V-exist), which can denote either imperfective (progressive) or perfective (resultative) situations depending on various factors. The same V-existpattern can express ‘perfect’, a subtype of imperfective, in Japanese. Korean has a construction with double past tense.

主題