PLUPERFECT – ABSOLUTE, RELATIVE OR ABSOLUTE-RELATIVE TEMPORAL FORM?

The article is devoted to the problem of grammatical status of pluperfect forms of German and Ukrainian languages. The study differentiates the views of scientists on pluperfect forms in terms of their relative or absolute interpretation. The definition of the pluperfect with the future temporal reference is given, confirmed by applied representations and analysis of the studied units in the sentence structure. From the point of view of traditional linguistic interpretation, pluperfect is a form that expresses either “precedence over another past action” or “distant past”. However, in this study, we look at new meanings of this grammar: “present” or “future”.The article raises the problem of the futural orientation of pluperfect forms, based on two positions: when pluperfect is used in the sense of “past” in relation to another past action. That is, when this gram is in opposition to its conventional meaning; when the plusquamperfect expresses the meaning of “counterfactual” with the future temporal reference, when the subject of the statement knows that in the real world certain actions cannot be realized because they contradict the objective laws of human existence. The use of the pluperfect forms in such constructions indicates that language not only does not limit us by means of expressing real knowledge about the world, but also provides such for the reproduction of hypothetical, unreal or counterfactual statements.It is concluded that from the point of view of temporality, the conjunctive forms of the pluperfect are timeless and can express the action that occurs at the time of speech, occurred (or could occur) before the moment of speech or will occur after the moment of speech, the temporal nature of the verbal form recedes into the background. It is proposed to consider plusquamperfect as an absolute-relative time form.Key words: pluperfect, absolute time, relative time, moment of speech, counterfactuality. Статтю присвячено актуальній проблемі граматичного статусу плюсквамперфектних форм німецької та української мов. У дослідженні диференційовано погляди науковців щодо плюсквамперфектних форм із боку їх відносної чи абсолютної інтерпретації. Подається визначення плюсквамперфекта з майбутньою часовою рефе-ренцією, підтверджене прикладними репрезентаціями й аналізом досліджуваних одиниць у структурі речення. З боку традиційного лінгвістичного трактування плюсквамперфект – це форма, яка виражає або «передування щодо іншої минулої дії», або «віддалене минуле». Однак у дослідженні звертаємо увагу на нові значення цієї гра-меми: «теперішнє» чи «майбутнє».У статті висувається проблема футуральної спрямованості плюсквамперфектних форм, виходячи з двох позицій: коли плюсквамперфект вживається в значенні «післяминуле» щодо іншої минулої дії, тобто коли ця грамема опозиціонує своєму загальноприйнятому значенню; коли плюсквамперфект виражає значення «контр-фактичність» із майбутньою часовою референцією – суб’єкт висловлення знає, що в реальному світі певні дії не можуть бути реалізовані, оскільки суперечать об’єктивним законам людського існування. Вживання плюсквам-перфектних форм у подібних конструкціях свідчить про те, що мова не лише не обмежує нас засобами вираження реальних знань про світ, а й надає такі для відтворення гіпотетичних, ірреальних чи контрфактичних висловлень.Зроблено висновок, що з позиції темпоральності форми плюсквамперфекта кон’юнктива є позачасовими й можуть виражати дію, що відбувається в момент мовлення, відбувалася (чи могла відбутися) раніше моменту мовлення або відбудеться після моменту мовлення, оскільки в зіставленні часу й способу переважає спосіб дієслова, а часовий характер вербальної форми відходить на другий план. Запропоновано розглядати плюсквампер-фект як абсолютно-відносну часову форму.Ключові слова: плюсквамперфект, абсолютний час, відносний час, момент мовлення, контрфактичність

Variation and change in future temporal reference with avoir and être

ABSTRACT Variation and change in the future temporal reference (FTR) sector in French has been the subject of numerous studies, from a variety of perspectives. Most studies consider the patterns of variation and evidence for change by looking at the verbal system as a whole. However, there are indications that some verbs differ significantly in their preference for one or other variant. Avoir and être are two such verbs. This study first examines the overall distribution of the inflected and periphrastic future with these two verbs in the ESLO corpus of spoken French, and considers the evidence for change. A multivariate analysis of the linguistic factors affecting variant selection in FTR with these two verbs reveals no exceptional effects; we thus explore other possible explanations for the exceptional distribution of FTR variants with these two verbs.

Future temporal reference in French and Gascon

This study presents a variationist sociolinguistic analysis of the expression of future temporal reference (FTR) in two related varieties of Gallo-Romance, French and Gascon, that find themselves in a situation of long-term language contact. In both languages, the inflected and periphrastic futures are used as alternative ways of expressing FTR; this study identifies the linguistic and social constraints that condition variability between the two forms in spontaneous speech data, with the aim of investigating bilateral grammatical transfer between French and Gascon. The discussion considers the ongoing grammaticalization of periphrastic constructions in both languages, as well as evidence for the existence of a bilingual grammatical system in which cognate variables in each language and constraints on variability are stored in the same abstract mental representation.

The changingfuture: competition, specialization and reorganization in the contemporary English future temporal reference system

The English future temporal reference system has long been recognized as a variable system undergoing change. The main variants in contemporary English (willandbe going to) have both been argued to have gone through (and to potentially still be undergoing) grammaticalization. At the same time,be going tohas been gradually increasing in frequency relative towillover the last 500 years. However, investigation of the ongoing development of this system has been sparse. This article makes use of a large contemporary sociolinguistic corpus of a mainstream variety of North American English and the apparent-time construct. Several factors that have been implicated in the development of this system (Sentence Type, Clause Type, Proximity, Verb Type, and the Animacy and Grammatical Person of the Subject) are considered and a multiplex series of changes are uncovered. Underlying an overall, albeit slow, change in frequency towardsbe going to, we find evidence for specialization of one or the other variant in different linguistic contexts, neutralization of a constraint consistent with ongoing loss of variant nuances through semantic bleaching, and the persistence of constraints consistent with morphological doublet competition.

An extension of the comparative sociolinguistics approach for sociosyntax

This paper integrates aspects of both generative theory and variationist sociolinguistics. To compare the structure of two varieties of French (Acadian French and Laurentian French), I adapt the comparative sociolinguistics approach to compare the syntactic structure of these varieties. Specifically, I focus on the effects of a single linguistic constraint across multiple sociolinguistic variables. I argue that such a comparison provides insights into the underlying grammatical structures of the varieties under comparison, differences that may have remained hidden otherwise. To illustrate the approach, I focus on a single constraint, sentential polarity, and I analyze its effects on two sociolinguistic variables, yes/no questions and future temporal reference. Results show that the polarity constraint is operative in Laurentian French for both variables, but inoperative in Acadian French. To account for this difference, I argue that Laurentian French negative structures involve a negative head above the tense phrase while Acadian French does not.

Breaking down temporal distance in a Continental French variety: Future temporal reference in Vimeu

This article examines future temporal reference (FTR) in the French spoken in Vimeu, a rural area of France where French evolved alongside Picard, a Gallo-Romance regional language. Unlike most French varieties, which favour periphrasis, Vimeu Picard favours the inflected form. By comparing French data from Picard–French bilinguals and French monolinguals, we assess the potential effect of Picard contact on Vimeu French. We hypothesized that bilinguals may favour the inflected form more than monolinguals, a hypothesis that was not verified. Instead, education is the best social predictor: speakers with a baccalauréat or higher disfavour the periphrastic future. Regarding linguistic constraints, we expected sentential polarity to constrain FTR (negation favours the inflected form), as in many varieties. Surprisingly, only temporal distance constrains FTR in our data: proximate events favour periphrasis, and do so even more strongly with events to occur within the minute. These results suggest that Vimeu French marks imminence through periphrasis.

So sick or so cool? The language of youth on the internet

This article presents the results of a two-year study of North American youth which produced a 179,000 word corpus of internet language from the same writers across three registers: email, instant messaging, and phone texting. Analysis of three linguistic phenomena—(i) acronyms, short forms, and initialisms; (ii) intensifiers; and (iii) future temporal reference—reveals that despite variation in form and contrasting frequencies across registers, the patterns of variant use are stable. This offers linguistic evidence that there is no degeneration of grammar in internet language use. Instead, the young people are fluidly navigating a complex set of new written registers, and they command them all. (Internet, language change, youth)*