(Meadow Mari)
PerifA & SyntA
PerifA: Aspect is expressed periphrastically.
SyntA: Aspect is expressed through the use of a polyexponential synthetic affix.
| (1) | ončəč | məj | ere | kud | šagat-lan | küŋel-am | əl-e. |
|---|
| long_ago | I | always | six | clock‑DAT | get_up‑1SG | be.PST1‑3SG |
| ’I always used to get up at six o’clock.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 224) |
| (2) | samərək | godəm | te | počelamut-əm | voz-eda | ulmaš. |
|---|
| young | during | you | poem‑ACC | write‑2PL | AUX |
| ’You wrote poems when you were young, it turns out.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 226) |
| (3) | vuč-en-at, | da | tol-ə-m. |
|---|
| wait‑PST2‑2SG | and | come‑PST1‑1SG |
| ’You were waiting and I came.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 221) |
| (4) | təj | vuč-en-at, | da | məj | tol-ən-am. |
|---|
| you | wait‑PST2‑2SG | and | I | come‑PST2‑1SG |
| ‘You were waiting and I was coming.’ (T. E.) |
| (5) | urok | godəm | tunemše-vlak | dene | part | koklašte |
|---|
| class | during | student‑PL | with | bench | between |
| šinč-əlt-ən-na, | süretl-en-na | da | ser-kal-en-na. |
| sit‑REFL‑PST2‑1PL | draw‑PST2‑1PL | and | write‑FREQ‑PST2‑1PL |
| ’During classes we were sitting on the benches with the students, drawing and writing.’ (Arkhangelskiy 2019) |
| (6) | rejd-əm | ertar-en-ət, | kö | paša-ške | o-k | lek, |
|---|
| ambush‑ACC | organize‑PST2‑3PL | who | work‑ILL | NEG‑3SG | go.CNG |
| möŋgə-štö | jü-ən | ki-ja, | tugaj-vlak-lan | eskerə-še | |
| home‑INE | drink‑CVB | lie‑3SG | such‑PL‑DAT | examine‑PTCP.ACT |
| kommissij-əm | əšt-en. |
| committee‑ACC | do‑PST2.3SG |
| ’They organized a surprise check-up and set up a disciplinary committee for those who do not go to work but drink at home.’ (Arkhangelskiy 2019) |
| (7) | püčö | dene | kudal-me, | surt | soməlka-m | əštə-me | |
|---|
| reindeer | with | travel‑PTCP.PASS | house | work‑ACC | do‑PTCP.PASS |
| godəm | čon | jod-mo | počeš | ere | mur-em. |
| during | soul | ask‑PTCP.PASS | according_to | always | sing‑1SG |
| ’I always sing from the bottom of my heart while travelling with reindeer or doing the housework.’ (Arkhangelskiy 2019) |
| (8) | avaj | neralt-en | kolt-ən, | už-at. |
|---|
| mum | rest‑CVB | send‑PST2.3SG | see‑2SG |
| ’You see, mum has gone to have a rest.’ (Arkhangelskiy 2019) |
| (9) | ečan=at | inńə-ž-əm | lupš | dene | vitar-en | pu-əš. |
|---|
| Echan=also | horse‑3SG‑ACC | whip | with | whip‑CVB | give‑PST1.3SG |
| ’Echan also whipped his horse.’ (Galkin et al. 1990-2005. витараш) |
Meadow Mari marks aspect using the past tense system, grammaticalized converb constructions and the frequentative suffix. The first and second complex (analytic) past tenses (1) (2) are typically used for repeated, habitual events. Aspectual relationships are also encoded by the interaction of the simple past tenses within a sentence. Simple past tenses alone do not have aspectual meanings, though Riese et al. remarks that the second past tense tends to be used to express imperfective aspect relatively frequently (Riese et al. 2022: 221). In sentences with both the first and the second past tense the first is interpreted as interrupting or defining the endpoint of the second (3), in which case the second past tense has progressive interpretation. If the sentence only contains verbs in the second past tense, the events are understood as taking place in parallel (4). Habituality can also be expressed using different frequentative suffixes (-l, -ed, -kal, -ešt) (Riese et al. 2022: 389─390) (5). Imperfectivity can be expressed with aspectual converb constructions as well, where the auxiliary has a habitual meaning (6), or without grammatical markers, using lexical elements (7). The most common way to express perfectivity is using aspectual converb constructions, where the perfect meaning comes from a semantically bleached main verb functioning as an auxiliary (8)─(9) (Bradley 2017).
Author: Bogáta Timár
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