TENSES and ASPECTS in ABCL
TENSES, ASPECTS and SUBJUNCTIVES/IRREALIS of ABCL
TENSES and ASPECTS
Verbs are conjugated for five tempus “future, simple present, present continuous, simple past (past 1) and imperfect/durational past/history” (past 2), with the corresponding vocals “a, e, i, o/ö, u/ü” placed after verbs as suffix. (“ö” and “ü” are for “prior” event in case of two linked events, otherwise u/ü and o/ö can be interchanged for the vocal harmony)
| Tenses | Suffix | Examples ABCL | English | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Future | _a | yog.a | will go | ||||
| Simple present | _e | yog.e.x | doesn’t go | ||||
| Present continuous | _i | vap.i.n.x | is not painted (passive) | ||||
| Simple past (past 1) | _o/ö | dol.o | (I) (have) boiled | ||||
| (“ö” for prior event if two events linked-past perfect) | |||||||
| Durational past/history (past 2) | _u/ü | vap.u.n | had been painted (in one week) | ||||
| (“ü” for prior event if two events linked-past perfect) |
Past 1 includes all verbs indicating a completed/finished action, independently when it had occurred in the past and happened recently or long time ago.
Past 2 includes all verbs inheriting a continuity. It doesn’t make a difference whether the effect of the act is still relevant at the presence (present perfect in English) or it happened before any relative time point. It matters only that it has a duration in the past. Also here it is not relevant whether it happened recently or long time ago.
Since the primary goal of ABCL is the simplicity, I tried to simplify various aspects used in many languages as far as possible without omitting any useful/necessary aspect utilized in spoken languages at different ways. Normally none of the aspects itself express the speaker’s intention alone. To overcome this, he needs additionally different auxiliary particles, especially temporal adverbs. In fact, a language missing one “useful” aspect of another language, is still able to express the same content by utilizing these auxiliaries. With other words, it is possible for people to express themself also by other means, without the help of a big range of the aspects.
ABCL has none of the complicated aspects requiring the usage of modals and root modification of the verbs such as in Germanic languages (progressive, perfect, past perfect, progressive perfect, past perfect progressive, future perfect progressive, conditional perfect progressive) nor in other languages (habitual, recent/far past, simultaneous, gnomic/generic etc.) All those aspects such as the frequency of occurrence and timely relation (recently, long time ago) will be expressed by the temporal adverbs and numbers where and if required. I considered e.g. the present perfect tense not necessary because whether or not a past event extends its affect in the presence, has no or very limited relevance for expressing the intent of the speaker. If it would be really necessary, he can describe it by the auxiliary particles. In fact, the differentiating of simple past and present perfect, as a relic of past, disappear slowly as seen in spoken German language.
The duration of an act in the past could not be easily described by adverbs and other means or by the inherit sense of the verb itself. Therefore, and because it could be important in many situations, I have introduced Past 2 in order to cover such aspects. Historical events are natural events of hearsay, which could not have been witnessed by the speaker. So transferred events will be also covered in ABCL with the past 2 with or without explicit duration of the event. Again, the adverbial auxiliaries can help also here in cases of uncertainty.
Future progressive, -perfect and -perfect progressive aspects could not easily be replaced by auxiliaries also. I introduced for these cases instead of modals as in English/German, the prefix “_s” in ABCL. It serves for future subjunctives followed by the aspect which is indicating the presence or past of the conjugated main event.
Below, some examples for the cases explained above for the tenses and aspects used in English and their equivalent in ABCL:
Aspects of English present tense and their equivalent/counterpart in ABCL:
| Present simple | "I eat" | A den.e | ||
| Present progressive | "I am eating" | A den.i | ||
| Present perfect | "I have eaten" | A den.ö | ||
| Present perfect progressive | "I have been eating" | A den.ü | ||
| I have been eating last year often outside. | (This year I eat at home) | A den.ü oyüx camya us em. |
Aspects of English past tense (and in brackets, how it is expressed in ABCL reverse translation with the help of auxiliaries):
| Past simple | "I ate" (once) (often) | A den.o (üs) (us) | ||
| I used to eat | (I ate habitually) | A buso deneş/ A den.o (sihir) | ||
| Past progressive | "I was eating" (for a while) (sweets) | A den.u (öt) (densö) | ||
| Past perfect | "I had eaten" (already) (as you have arrived) | A den.ö (oy) (he o yaro) | ||
| Past perfect progressive | "I had been eating" | A den.ü | ||
| Past perfect (for “prior” event) | A den.ü | |||
| I had been eating always outdoor, | (after 2018 I have cooked at home) | A den.ü (as) em, (şa 2018 a don.u ….) |
Aspects of the future tense: (“The prefix “s_” is indicator for future aspects)
| Simple future: "I will eat" | A den.a | |
| Future progressive: "I will be eating" tomorrow at time of your arrival. | A s.den.i ot … | |
| Future perfect: "I will have eaten" tomorrow at time of your arrival. | A s.den.ö ot... | |
| Future perfect progressive: "I will have been eating" | A s.den.ü ot... |
Subjunctives of Future:
Forfuture aspects the prefix “_s” and for subjunctivity (would) the suffix “_k” (see below) (for hypothetical/ conditional reference) have been combined: (for Level 2)
| Simple (conditional) subjunctive: "I would eat" (if...) | A dene.k | |
| Future conditional progressive: "I would be eating" | A s.deni.k | |
| Future conditional perfect: "I would have eaten" | A s.denö.k | |
| Future conditional perfect progressive: "I would have been eating" | A s.denü.k (ot…) |
Present Subjunctive
Event is hypothetical, but possible, expressing: dependency, emotion, hopes, expectation, wish, desire, possibility, probability, likelihood, uncertainty, doubt, dubiousness, judgment, opinion, obligation, inferential (hearsay), not confirmed, necessity, imploring, asking, guessing, requiring, encouraging or action that has not yet occurred.
This case will be expressed in depended phrases, (as in subordinate clauses such as conditional “if” or as conjunctions (mainly “du”=”that” in English)) as real tenses of ABCL without the usage of any suffix, subjunctive modal and modification of the verb stem but with suitable adverbs, and special particles. Subjunctively in the head phrase will be indicated by the suffix “_k”.
Examples for Presence Subjunctives:
| If I could (have) slept ) | fe a bdare(o).k … |
| If-clauses (conditional present): (fe) | |
| I would eat, if I were hungry : | fe a dene.k (fe a babe ohu) |
| We would stay at home if it snowed | e yaşe.k pasha fe vense ven.e |
| That-clauses(du): | |
| I suggested that Paul should eat an apple | a fus.o du Paul gdeno.k şer pa |
| He recommends that you be careful | u nor.e du bece.k |
| It is important that she stay (with you) by your side | Eji du u yaşe.k (ne o) oz vunku |
| Desirative-Wish-clauses (an): | |
| I wish I had a car then I wouldn't get on the bus | an (a biv.e) a mahe.k vitka ar a rege.kx vitba |
| I wish I knew Japanese | an, a böne.k Nippon.sa |
| Necessity/must-modal-clauses: | |
| I should be able to sleep (I ought to be able to sleep) | a g.sabo.k dareş |
| Hearsay-inferential | |
| "He must have gone" or "he is said to have gone " (supposedly) : | (a sehö/bite/gaye) (du) u yogo.k öv (u yogo.v öv) |
| Martina says that she be in love with you (can be true or not): | Martina ças.e du u bole.k o öv. |
IRREALIS in ABCL
Event (counterfactual) cannot occur anymore because the prior dependency, necessity and condition set in the past, had not been fulfilled. Also an event cannot be realized in future because the required condition for its realization could not be met. Irrealis are expressed in various world languages by modal verbs in past tense (as would, should, might), by modification of verb stem (Arabic: yaktubu-yaktuba), by adjectives, by conjunctives (if, that), by suitable verbs in subordinate clauses, by special particles and by suffixes to the verbs or by combinations of that.
Examples for Irrealis:
Irrealis clauses are all irreal subjunctive events mostly with conditional (if-clauses) and other dependent sub clauses. Unreality in this sinse is generally possible in past only (But there are cases for simple present too). Also hypothetical future events which cannot be realized because dependent conditions of other events in the past are not fulfilled, are included here. There are also irrealis clauses with “hidden/not outspoken” dependencies. This item includes further unreal desires and wishes (I wish/ if only) and necessity/must cases (should) as well. This events in ABCL will have “the contrafactual suffix –ç” added to the conjugated verb, indicating that all clauses with this verb suffix are irrealis past subconjunctive.
| If-clauses:(Because the sub-ordinate clause is priorly, the tense of its verbs will be “ö” and “ü” respectively) | |
| If I had felt well (were I well/if I were well) I would have sung | fe a sevö (bab.o ani) a tiso.ç |
| Would you have helped me if I had asked you ? | jo feh.o.ç a fe a çayö o? |
| If I had been hungry, I would have eaten | fe a dakö (bab.o ohu) a deno.ç |
| Without your help (hidden condition) I could not have finished it | nex oz feh.ha a b.rifo.çx |
| If you would be my son... | fe o babo.ç az salsa … |
| That-clauses: | |
| My mother had suggested that I should have eaten an apple | az salma fuso du a gdeno.ç şer pa |
| I drunk so much, that my head would have almost exploded. | a didö fo oşu du az sinha çozo.ç ah |
| Necessity/must-modal-clauses: | |
| I should have been able to sleep (I ought to be able to sleep) | a gsabo.ç dareş |
| You should have attended the meeting yesterday | o gfato.ç pösma et |
| Wish-clauses (incl. desiderative mood): | |
| Only if I could have slept | an, a bdar.o.ç … |
| I wish I had a car so that I hadn't got on the bus. | an, (a biv.e) a baho vitka du a rego.çx … |
| I should have learned German | an, a g.bönö.ç Deutsch.sa |
| Future-clauses: | |
| I would have got fresh air outdoor if it had not rained this morning. | a s.rego.ç ofe venye em fe venre venö.çx osa cemmü |
ABCL considers the subjunctive in subordinate clauses as not essential for the expression of intent of the speaker and omit it accordingly. For example: Instead of the subjunctives "I suggest that you be careful", we can say "I suggest that you are careful" without losing the sense intended. “Suggest” implies that the case is “irrealis” even though from the grammatical point of view it is “real”. If a subordinate clause implies beside conditionality also timely priority (such as with the “if”-clauses) the tenses “ö and ü” will be used instead of “o and u”.
Subconjunctive and irrealis: How far are they required? How are they in natlangs?
In case of inferential (indirect reported), not witnessed, doubted and not confirmed subjunctives, such as “He said he was a physician” (German: Er sagte, er sei Arzt), the speaker can express his intention by telling it directly, i.e. he can say “He said he was a physician, but I cannot confirm it”. An adverbial auxiliary such as “allegedly or supposedly” would express the same circumstance. Also past subjunctive “He said he had no time” (German: Er sagte, er hätte keine Zeit) can be expressed the same way. The past subjunctive can be replaced also with suitable adverbs such as “He has apparently/supposedly been there” (er sei da gewesen ) and for the future as “He will assumably be there” (er werde da sein) Turkish has a separate tense for inferential: “O git.ti” translates “o git.miş”. If it were necessary, English constructions "he must have gone" or "he is said to have gone" would partly translate this Turkish inferential sentence. Even though it is very convenient to build the subjunctive by simply adding the suffix “–miş” to the verb root “git”, it must be learned by some effort. Instead of it I preferred also in such cases using direct real clauses with suitable phrases to cover the intent of the speaker. Here we would say: “I was told that he has gone” or better “He has supposedly gone.” Even though I defined the suffix “_v” for this case for Level 2. (a bduro.v cemrü = I was able to fall asleep at midnight supposedly (or as I was told next morning)=uyuyabil.miş.im Past subjunctive (irrealis) is also used to form the conditional tense (as Konjunktiv II in German with modal “würde”). Grammatically/formally irrealis “I would not help him if I were you” can be transferred as “I do not help him if I am you” Here even though both phrases are real, with the meaning of the “conditional if…” it is implied that it is not real because in reality “I cannot be you”. In French present and past subjunctives used mostly with verbs or adverbs. It is preceded by the conjunction que (that). In case of jussive: Il faut qu’il comprenne cela ("It is necessary that he understand that"), the “necessity” implies “the order” so that there is no need for the further subjunctive moods of the verbs. This idea has been also partially implemented in ABCL as already stated. Italian has also similar subjunctive setting, for example with credo che, è possibile che. I believe (that) she is the best (opinion). Arabic : Indicative yaktubu "he writes / is writing / will write" → Subjunctive yaktuba "he may / should write" could be transfer in to “It is possible (that) he writes” and “it is required (that) he writes”.
Some examples of the means for transferring the subjunctives of other languages and English into modified format to be used by ABCL:
Optative : "May I be loved!" transferred to “I wish that I will be loved”
Jussive : "Everyone should be loved", “I ask that everyone is to be loved”
Potential mood : “She probably/possibly loves me"
Dubitative mood : "I think she loves me."
Hypothetical : "I might love you [if...]"; "May I love you" as “I don’t expect that I love you”
Admirative : "Wow! She loves me!", "Apparently she loves me."
Hortative : "Let us love!" Eventive : "I would probably love you [if...]" as “I probably love you, if …..”
Eventive : "I would probably love you [if...]" as “I probably love you, if …..”
