The Evaluation of Present Tense Markers in Tavas D ialects in the Frame of A spect, A ctionality and Taxis

Abstract

In this contribution, imperfective markers in Tavas dialects, which belong to the group of Southwest Anatolian Turkish dialects, are examined in the frameu/ork of aspect, actionality and taxis. Ali of those markers are originally actional forms that were configured by periphrastic means. Some of them, having completed the stages of their grammaticalization to a great degree, became aspectual markers, while others have not moved out of the zone of actionality. One may observe that some of those which have completed their stages of grammaticalization are stili used in Turkic languages as actional markers. Because actional markers can be conjugated with a limited number of verbs that carry certain features, when they are matched with verbs that do not bear the necessary features, they naturally cease being actional markers and come to function, due to the converb they are attached to, in the framework of taxis relations that take into account the location of events on the time axis such as anteriority-posteriority-simultaneity. In this article, these concepts are examined on the basis of the rich inventory of present tense in Tavas dialects.