Tempus och Tid
i ‘Nonstandard’
Engelska
Joe Trotta
Språk och Literaturer/Engelska
SPRÅKWORKSHOP II, 5 november 2010
‘Hur skapas betydelser för tid och
tidsförhållanden i olika språk?’
Dagens presentation
•
Tempus vs. Aspekt
•
Tempus, tid, tidsformer och tidsrelationer
Standard vs. nonstandard engelska
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•
•
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Exempel på tempus i nonstandard engelska
En närmare titt på AAVE
Sammanfattning/slutkommentarer
Tempus, tid, tidsformer & tidsrelationer
► A grammatical category vs ’real’ time referred to
example: The train leaves at midnight.
► Verb inflection or whole vp ?
example: He walks to work.
He walked to work.
Tense?
Tense?
He will walk to work.
► Whole utterance
example: I want to go when he comes back.
I can do that for you tomorrow.
In 49 BC, Ceasar crosses the Rubicon.
Standard English (from ‘above’) vs.
Non-standard English (from ‘below’)
Yo, wassup, yo, yo, yo! What's
poppin’, dawg? I'm-a give it to ya
straight up like ya don't know what hit
ya. You're work is THE shit! I can't live
without it, yo. Damn, niggah. Ya got it
goin’ for y’all!
"How do you do, Madame. I am
extremely delighted to make your
acquaintance. It would give me great
pleasure if you would accept my
invitation for a cup of tea, let's say,
around five-ish?"
Standard vs. nonstandard engelska
A
B C
D
E
Standard ----|-----------|-----|---------|----------|--- Nonstandard
A continuum of standardness
(from Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 2006)
Exempel på tempus & tidsformer i
nonstandard engelska
A wider range of uses of the Progressive:
I’m lovin’ it.
So what are you wanting from me?
A much more important role of habitual marking:
He be sick. (AAVE)
He be’s at home. (IrE)
He does catch fish pretty. (Creole)
A weakening of the strict division between the
Present Perfect and the Simple Past:
Did you eat yet? / Were you ever in London? (AmE)
I know him since my school days (IrE).
Some of us have been to New York years ago.
Exempel på tempus & tidsformer i
nonstandard engelska
A weakening of the division between the Past Tense
forms and Past Participle forms:
He shoulda did that yesterday.
You coulda took more time.
We seen him do that.
Be as a perfect auxiliary:
They’re not left school yet. (IrE)
Do as a tense and aspect marker:
This man what do own this. (English Southwest)
Wen ai did smaal tin woz chiyp. (Panamanian Creole)
Reduction of have after auxiliaries:
We shoulda left sooner.
They coulda done better.
Exempel på tempus & tidsformer i
nonstandard engelska
Completive/perfective done:
You don ate what I has sent you?
Past tense marker been:
I been cut the bread. (AAVE)
Was sit/stood with progressive meaning:
When you are stood there, you can see the flames. (BrE)
The general use of gonna as a future marker:
I’m gonna do that later.
It’s gonna rain soon.
He gonna do it. (AAVE)
Tempus/Aspekt i AAVE & SE: likheter
SE
AAVE
present
He walks
He walk
past
He walked
He walk(ed)
pres. prog. He is walking
He (is) walking
past prog.
He was walking
He was walking
perfect
He has walked
He done walked
past perf.
He had walked
He had done walked
Tempus/Aspekt i AAVE & SE: skillnader
Phases/Tenses of AAVE
Phase
Example
Pre-recent
Past
Recent
Pre-present
Past Inceptive
Present
She done work
We did sing
I do sing
We singing
Immediate
Future
I been seen him
I'm a-sing
Post-immediate
I'm a-gonna do it
Indefinite future
He gonna sing
Några exempel på ‘aspekt’ på AAVE
Aspect
Habitual/
continuative
aspect
Intensified
continuative
(habitual)
Intensified
continuative
(not habitual)
Perfect
progressive
Example
SE Meaning
He be workin'
Tuesdays.
He works frequently
or habitually.
He stay workin'.
He is always working.
He steady workin'.
He keeps on working.
He been workin'.
He has been
working.
Irrealis (future He finna go to
intention)
work.
He is about to go to
work.
Några intressanta hjälpverb i AAVE
Stressed been (BIN)
(Remote BIN)
She BIN tell me that.
She BIN eating.
I BIN know him.
He BIN a preacher.
Completive done
I done pushed it.
You done changed.
Invariant BE
(Habitual BE)
I be looking for somewhere to go.
Your phone bill be high, don’t it?
It be knives in here.
I be in my office by 7:30.
Sammanfattning & slutkommentarer
• Förhållanden mellan tempus, tid, tidsformer och
tidsrelationer är komplicerade
• Nonstandard engelska kan uttrycka tidsrelationer
på många sätt
• Nonstandard engelska är inte mindre logisk,
systematisk eller nyanserad än standard engelska
• Tidsformerna på nonstandard engelska kan ge en
insikt om eventuella språkförändringar
• Fråga: Kan skillnader i SEs och NSEs tidsformer
spegla olika tidsuppfattningar?
TACK!