Re: Voice, Mood, Tense, a minimalist perspective

Suraq nda Herman Miller:


> On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 08:53:21 -0800, Gary Shannon wrote:
>
> >Who votes for which tenses?
>
> I think the most you'd need would be a past / non-past distinction, as long
> as the language has some distinctions of aspect (at least perfective vs.
> imperfective). ... Moods could be mostly worked around, but a basic realis /
irrealis
> distinction would be useful; you'll also need imperatives. You can almost
> get by without voice distinctions if your nouns are marked for case,
> although reflexives would be useful to have. But if your language has
> participles, it'd be nice to have an active / passive distinction.
I wanted to give the same list replying directly to Gary before I read yours,
Herman :))
That's pretty close to the scheme I was designing for my pseudo-Austronesian
ergative/stative project (yet unnamed). Now it's lying on a shelf waiting for
its turn, 'coz I need time and much more preparatory work for an a posteriori
Semitic-based project I've got recently interested in.

-- Yitzik