What if We Look at the Same Things from a Different Angle? A Sign-Oriented Analysis of Russian Indicative Tenses

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Abstract

Tense as a category of grammar and its correlation with time as a fundamental concept that enables human beings to sequence events have been the focus of much debate. Tense is considered a grammatical and/or lexical way to reflect the location of actions, states, and events in time. They are assigned to a specific time point according to a time line that includes past, present, and future. In Russian, as in many other languages, tenses often reflect objective real-time relationships. However, this real-time match is often 'dislocated' for subjective (expressive) purposes. The data indicate the systematic absence of correlation between tense and time, revealing that the functions, attributed to tenses, are imprecise or overlap. This paper presents an analysis of tense uses in the Russian indicative, based on the Columbia School (CSL) sign-oriented linguistic framework. We address the problem of accounting for both the time-tense matched and mismatched uses in the language by suggesting a one-to-one correspondence between form and function, relating it to speakers' and/or writers' 'here and now' moment of speaking/writing.
Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)1-26
JournalForeign Language Studies
Volume20
StatePublished - 2014

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