Recently, I've been playing around with tense, aspect, and mood in my conlang, Hip'alŭk' [çiˈɸalʊkʰ]. A lot of this will probably change completely as it has in the past, but here's what I currently have.
Lexical Aspects
Before getting into tense and grammatical aspect, it's important to understand lexical aspect (a verb's sorta "inherent" aspect) in Hip'alŭk'.
Verbs in Hip'alŭk' can be split into three lexical aspects:
- Durative verbs involve active change over a duration. Examples include t'ʌt'ʌ ("to run"), kĭ ("to build"), and lŭk' ("to say"). However, durative verbs also include semelfactives (brief, repeatable events) like ɔkɔ ("to cough").
- Instant verbs are instant events with distinct end points (i.e., punctual telic verbs). Examples include har ("to throw") and k'o ("to strike").
- Stative verbs, as the name suggests, describe unchanging states. Examples include era ("to know"), qala ("to be red"), and šly ("to inhabit").
(The difference between semelfactives and instant verbs is what's considered a complete action. With ɔkɔ, a complete action is considered to be any number of coughs and can thus occur over a duration. With har, a complete action is always a single throw and is thus always a single instant.)
Lexical aspect determines which tenses and grammatical aspects a verb can take:
- Durative verbs distinguish between the perfective, continuous, and habitual aspects.
- Instant verbs can't be continuous, so they only distinguish between perfective and habitual.
- Stative verbs don't distinguish aspect.
Tense, Grammatical Aspect, & Auxiliary Verbs
In Hip'alŭk', tense and grammatical aspect are applied via auxiliary verbs. Let's start by looking at durative verbs.
By default, durative verbs are nonfuture continuous:
Öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
[ˈøluk ˈliza ˈqlakɔ]
Öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
eat Lisa bread
"Lisa is eating bread." (or "Lisa was eating bread.")
This can be changed to perfective using the auxiliary verb q'e, "to finish". However, in Hip'alŭk', the present and the perfective don't really mix — after all, if an action is occuring as you're talking about it, it must be ongoing. Thus, q'e just indicates a past perfective:
Q'e öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
[ˈqʰe ˈøluk ˈliza ˈqlakɔ]
Q'e öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
finish eat Lisa bread
"Lisa ate bread."
The auxiliary verb la, "to be" or "to sit", signifies a nonfuture habitual:
La öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
[ˈla ˈøluk ˈliza ˈqlakɔ]
La öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
be eat Lisa bread
"Lisa often eats bread." (or "Lisa used to eat bread.")
With instant verbs, all of this becomes a bit more complicated, as instant verbs can't take the continuous aspect. Thus, an instant verb with no auxiliary is construed as a recent past perfective, with q'e indicating a further past perfective:
Har Antona oku.
[ˈhaɾ anˈdona ˈoku]
Har Antona oku.
throw Antona small_sphere
"Antona just threw a ball."
Q'e har Antona oku.
[ˈqʰe ˈhaɾ anˈdona ˈoku]
Q'e har Antona oku.
finish throw Antona small_sphere
"Antona threw a ball."
Like with durative verbs, la indicates a nonfuture habitual.
And then there are stative verbs, which don't differentiate aspect at all. By default, they're in the present, and q'e brings them into the past tense:
K'leni tik'ĭ.
[ˈkʰleni ˈtikʰɪ]
K'leni tik'ĭ.
glow moon
"The moon glows."
Q'e k'leni tik'ĭ.
[ˈqʰe ˈkʰleni ˈtikʰɪ]
Q'e k'leni tik'ĭ.
finish glow moon
"The moon glowed."
Since there's no habitual with stative verbs, la signifies the perfect tense (yes I'm not counting it as an aspect shut up) — i.e., that the state did and still does hold with present relevance.
La k'leni tik'ĭ.
[ˈla ˈkʰleni ˈtikʰɪ]
La k'leni tik'ĭ.
be glow moon
"The moon has been glowing."
Finally, there's the auxiliary verb t'ʌ, "to go", which indicates a future tense. No aspectual nonsense attached here:
T'ʌ öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
[ˈtʰʌ ˈøluk ˈliza ˈqlakɔ]
T'ʌ öluk Lisa qlakɔ.
go eat Lisa bread
"Lisa will eat bread."
Modal Verbs
There are a couple of auxiliaries that mark different modalities.
First, there's hŭ, meaning "to want". This auxiliary creates an imperative modality with a second-person subject:
Hŭ t'ʌt'ʌ penǃ
[ˈhʊ ˈtʰʌtʰʌ ˈpen]
Hŭ t'ʌt'ʌ penǃ
want run 2SG
"Runǃ"
With any other subject, it expresses a hortative modality, insisting that something happen:
Hŭ t'ʌt'ʌ jype!
[ˈhʊ ˈtʰʌtʰʌ ˈjype]
Hŭ t'ʌt'ʌ jy-peǃ
want run 1PL-1+2
"Let us runǃ"
Second, there's jek, "to ask". As you can probably guess, this is for questions:
Jek t'ʌt'ʌ pen?
[ˈjek ˈtʰʌtʰʌ pen]
Jek t'ʌt'ʌ pen?
ask run 2SG
"Are you running?"
The Subjunctive Mood
One inflection that verbs do get is what I'm tentatively (and lazily) calling the subjunctive mood: -n (or -ne if the verb ends with a consonant). On a surface level, this mood applies a dubitative modality, expressing uncertainty:
Šk'an Dansi oku nö.
[ˈʃkʰan ˈdansi ˈoku ˈnø]
Šk'a-n Dansi oku nö
collect-SUBJ Dansi berry PL.AN
"Dansi might be picking berries."
However, if there's an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary takes the subjunctive, and such makes for a lot of interesting constructions.
For example, take q'en, the subjunctive of the auxiliary q'e. Often, it's just the dubitative past perfectiveː
Q'en šk'a Dansi oku nö.
[ˈqʰen ˈʃkʰa ˈdansi ˈoku ˈnø]
Q'e-n šk'a Dansi oku nö.
finish-SUBJ collect Dansi berry PL.AN.
"Dansi was maybe picking berries."
However, q'en can also be used to create a condition. Since it usually indicates a past perfective, it can be thought of in these cases as meaning "with this being done".
T'ʌ šk'a Dansi oku nö, q'en jype t'ʌ öx ʌk'.
[ˈtʰʌ ˈʃkʰa ˈdansi ˈoku ˈnø ˈqʰen ˈjype ˈtʰʌ ˈøx ˈʌkʰ]
T'ʌ šk'a Dansi oku nö, q'e-n jy-pe t'ʌ öx ʌk.'
go collect Dansi berry PL.AN finish-SUBJ 1PL-1+2 go PREP.COM 3SG.SUPAN
"Dansi will pick berries if you and I go with him."
A counterfactual conditional can be created by applying the subjunctive to both the condition and the result.
Šk'an Dansi oku nö, q'en era hukɔr son jype.
[ˈʃkʰan ˈdansi ˈoku ˈnø ˈqʰen ˈeɾa ˈhukɔɾ ˈson ˈjype]
Šk'a-n Dansi oku nö, q'e-n era hukɔ-r son jy-pe.
collect-SUBJ Dansi berry PL.AN finish-SUBJ know hunger-GER PREP.POSS 1PL-1+2
"Dansi would be picking berries if he knew that you and I are hungry."
Lan is just la but dubitative: either dubitative nonfuture habitual or dubitative perfect depending on the main verb's lexical aspect.
Likewise, t'ʌn is a dubitative future. However, when used in conditionals, it can indicate a possible but unlikely result.
T'ʌn šk'a Dansi oku nö, q'en jype t'ʌ öx ʌk'.
[ˈtʰʌn ˈʃkʰa ˈdansi ˈoku ˈnø ˈqʰen ˈjype ˈtʰʌ ˈøx ˈʌkʰ]
T'ʌ-n šk'a Dansi oku nö, q'e-n jy-pe t'ʌ öx ʌk.'
go-SUBJ collect Dansi berry PL.AN finish-SUBJ 1PL-1+2 go PREP.COM 3SG.SUPAN
"Dansi might pick berries if you and I go with him."
While hŭ indicates an imperative modality, its subjunctive hŭn indicates an optative modality, expressing a strong wish for something to happen.
Hŭn ška Dansi xer oku nö!
[hʊn ˈʃkʰa ˈdansi ˈxeɾ ˈoku ˈnø]
Hŭn šk'a Dansi xer oku nöǃ
want-SUBJ collect Dansi 125 berry PL.AN
"May Dansi pick 125 berriesǃ"
Finally, jekne is relatively rare and usually only used formally. It's used to especially politely ask a question, the subjunctive emphasizing that the request might not be fulfilled and by no means has to be:
Pen Dansi, jekne ška pen oku nö?
[ˈpen ˈdansi ˈjekne ˈʃka ˈpen ˈoku ˈnø]
Pen Dansi, jek-ne ška pen oku nö?
2SG Dansi ask-SUBJ collect 2SG berry PL.AN
"Dansi, would you be so kind as to pick berries?"
I hope all of this was at least somewhat interesting. Trying to write everything out in an explanation really helps to clarify things and flesh out details. What do you think of all this?