(Meadow Mari)

NoFut / 1Fut

NoFut: There is no grammatical distinction between future and non-future tense(s).

1Fut: A distinct grammatical tense is used to express future tense.

(1)kušk-ənšu-meketəjlij-at?
growCVBarriveCVB.PRIyouwhoCOP.FUT2SG
’What will you be when you grow up?’ (Riese et al. 2022: 300)

(2)məjmur-aštüŋal-am.
IsingINFbegin1SG
’I will sing.’ (Bereczki 1990: 54)

(3)paləme-mkoncert-əštegitardenešokt-aštüŋal-eš.
acquaintance1SGconcertINEguitarwithplayINFbegin3SG
’My acquaintance will play the guitar in the concert.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 207)

Meadow Mari only the copula lijaš ’to be, to become’ is associated with a future meaning (1), which follows the present tense paradigm (Riese et al. 2022: 300). With other verbs the present tense forms are used to express future reference. Future meanings are often expressed by combining the infinitival form of the lexical verbs with the inflected form of the verb tüŋalaš ’begin’ as well (2) (Bereczki 1990: 53–54).

Author: Bogáta Timár


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