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A. The Many Ways to Open a Door. The data sets in this section are designed to illustrate processes of sentence formation and the signaling of tense, aspect, and mood. For each language, a basic sentence about a woman opening a door undergoes a series of changes in verb tense, aspect, and mood. There are 13-20 sentences in each language. The sentence numbers are keyed to one another across languages. For example, sentence 3a in Bemba has roughly the same meaning as sentence 3a in Samoan. Students can work through the data sets to identify morphological processes and to make typological comparisons. A set of homework questions is at the end of the Opening Doors data sets. Click on the underlined sentences to hear audio clips.

How many different ways can Natasha open the door?

This set of sentences illustrates the different ways that a single verb stem can be inflected with different morphemes to convey tense, negation, aspect, and mood. 

In total, Russian has: 1 non-past tense; 1 past tense; and 2 aspects. These sentences are just a selection of examples.

The first line indicates the standard transliteration from cyrillic to latin for Russian. The second line indicates the grammatical breakdown. The third line provides grammatical glosses and English translations of the morphemes.
 

1/2	Natasha otkrivaet dver'				Natasha opens/is opening the door. Present, Imperfective
1/2	Natasha	otkrivaj	et	dver'
1/2	Natasha-Nom	open-Impf	3sg	door-Acc

 

3a	Natasha otkrila dver'					Natasha opened the door. Past, Perfective
3a	Natasha	otkrij	l	a	dver'
3a	Natasha-Nom	open-Perf	Past	Fem	door-Acc

 

3b	Natasha otkrivala dver'					Natasha opened the door. Past, Imperfective
3b	Natasha	otkrivaj	l	a	dver'
3b	Natasha-Nom	open-Impf	Past	Fem	door-Acc

 

4a	Natasha otkroet dver'				Natasha will open the door. Future, Perfective
4a	Natasha	otkrij	et	dver'
4a	Natasha-Nom	open-Perf	3sg	door-Acc

 

4b	Natasha budet otkrivat' dver'					Natasha will open the door. Future, Imperfective
4b	Natasha	budet	otkrivaj	t'	dver'
4b	Natasha-Nom	be-Perf-3sg	open-Impf	Inf	door-Acc

 

5a	Natasha ne otkrila dver'						Natasha didn't open the door. Past, Negative, Perfective
5a	Natasha	ne	otkrij	l	a	dver'
5a	Natasha-Nom	not	open-Perf	Past	Fem	door-Acc

 

5b	Natasha ne otkrivala dver'						Natasha didn't open the door. Past, Negative, Imperfective
5b	Natasha	ne	otkrivaj	l	a	dver'
5b	Natasha-Nom	not	open-Impf	Past	Fem	door-Acc

 

6a	Natasha ne otkroet dver'					Natasha won't open the door. Future, Negative, Perfective
6a	Natasha	ne	otkrij	et	dver'
6a	Natasha-Nom	not	open-Perf	3sg	door-Acc

 

6b	Natasha ne budet otkrivat' dver'						Natasha won't open the door. Future, Negative, Imperfective
6b	Natasha	ne	budet	otkrivaj	t'	dver'
6b	Natasha-Nom	not	be-Perf-3sg	open-Impf	Inf	door-Acc

 

7	Natasha dolzhna otkrit' dver'					Natasha should open the door. Subjunctive, Perfective
7	Natasha	dolzhna	otkrij	t'	dver'
7	Natasha-Nom	should-Fem	open-Perf	Inf	door-Acc

 

8a	Otkroite dver'			Open the door! Imperative, Perfective
8a	otkrij	jte	dver'
8a	open-Perf	Imp	door-Acc

 

8b	Otkrivajte dver'			Open the door! Imperative, Imperfective
8b	otkrivaj	jte	dver'
8b	open-Impf	Imp	door-Acc

 

9	Natasha otkrila dver' ?					Did Natasha open the door? Question, Perfective
9	Natasha	otkrij	l	a	dver'
9	Natasha-Nom	open-Perf	Past	Fem	door-Acc

 

10	Natasha vsegda otkrivaet dver'.					Natasha always opens the door. Present, Imperfective
10	Natasha	vsegda	otkrivaj	et	dver'
10	Natasha-Nom	always	open-Impf	3sg	door-Acc

 

11	Natasha otkrila dver' snova i snova.								Natasha opened the door over and over again. Past, Perfective
11	Natasha	otkrij	l	a	dver'	snova	i	snova
11	Natasha-Nom	open-Perf	Past	Fem	door-Acc	over	and	over

How many different ways can Mulenga open the door?

This set of sentences illustrates the different ways that a single verb stem can be inflected with different morphemes to convey tense, negation, aspect, and mood. 

In total, Bemba has: 1 present tense; 3 basic past tenses (past today, past recent, and past remote); 2 past perfect tenses (today and remote); 3 future tenses (inceptive, today future, and later future); 2 progressive aspect markers; 1 habitual aspect marker; and 5 other mood markers for imperatives, hypotheticals, and conditionals. These sentences are just a selection of examples.

The first line indicates the correct spelling in Zambia's standard orthography for Bemba. The second line indicates the grammatical breakdown. The third line provides grammatical glosses and English translations of the morphemes.

How many different ways can Sina open the door?

This set of sentences illustrates the different ways that a single verb stem can be inflected with different morphemes to convey tense, negation, aspect, and mood. 

Samoan, like most Polynesian languages, is a verb-initial language where the verb complex normally comes first in the sentence before either the subject or the object. This verb complex consists of the verb root which is preceded by a particle that marks tense and aspect. The verb root itself does not change except with a few important exceptions to mark number. Tense and aspect are signaled by the 11 different tense-aspect markers that precede the verb root in the verb complex. The Samoan language has: a present indefinite tense; a present progressive; a present immediate/completive; two past tenses (simple past, past perfect); a future tense; and aspect markers including a prescriptive (marking that an action should take place) and a desiderative (marking the desirability of an action). The following sentences are just a selection of examples and do not demonstrate the full extent of Samoan's tense-aspect system.

The first line indicates the Samoan transcription of the sentence. The second line indicates the grammatical breakdown. The third line provides grammatical glosses and English translations of the morphemes.

1	E tatala e Sina le faitoto'a						Sina opens the door. Present
1	E	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
1	Pres	open	Erg		art	door

2	'Olo'o tatala e Sina le faitoto'a						Sina is opening the door. Present progressive
2	'Olo'o	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
2	Prog	open	Erg		art	door

3a	Na tatala e Sina le faitoto'a						Sina opened the door. Simple Past
3a	Na	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
3a	Past	open	Erg		art	door

3b	Sa: tatala e Sina le faitoto'a						Sina opened the door. Past Perfect
3b	Sa:	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
3b	PstP	open	Erg		art	door

4	'Ole'a: tatala e Sina le faitoto'a						Sina will open the door. Future
4	'Ole'a:	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
4	Fut	open	Erg		art	door

5	E le'i tatala e Sina le faitoto'a ananafi.								Sina didn't open the door yesterday. Neg Past
5	E	le'i	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a	ananafi
5	Pres	Neg-Past	open	Erg		art	door	yesterday

6a	E le tatala e Sina le faitoto'a.							Sina will not open the door. Neg Present/Future
6a	E	le	tatala	e	Sina	le
6a	Pres	Neg-ImpFut	open	Erg		art	door

6b	E le'o tatala e Sina le faitoto'a.							Sina isn't opening the door. Neg Pres Prog
6b	E	le'o	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
6b	Pres	Neg-Prog	open	Erg		art	door

7	E tatau ona tatala e Sina le faitoto'a.								Sina should open the door. Subjunctive
7	E	tatau	ona	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
7	Pres	should	aux	open	Erg		art	door

8	Tatala le faitoto'a.			Open the door. Imperative
8	tatala	le	faitoto'a
8	open	art	door

9	Sa: tatala e Sina le faitoto'a ?						Did Sina open the door? Question
9	Sa:	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
9	PstP	open	Erg		art	door

10	E ma:sani ona tatala e Sina le faitoto'a.								Sina always opens the door. Habitual
10	E	ma:sani	ona	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
10	Pres	always	aux	open	Erg		art	door

11	Sa: tatala ma toe tatala e Sina le faitoto'a.									Sina opened the door over and over again. Subjunctive
11	Sa:	tatala	toe	ma	tatala	e	Sina	le	faitoto'a
11	PstP	open	and	again	open	Erg		art	door

Opening Doors

Study the data sets for Bemba, Russian, and Samoan and write up a 850-1000 word (typed, single-spaced) discussion of the following questions:

1 What are some of the key differences in the ways that Bemba, Russian, and Samoan handle verb tense (past, present, future)?

2 Which language seems to have the greatest number of options in tense, aspect, and mood marking? Explain.

3 Do you see any places where tense/aspect/mood nuances in the language seem to get lost in the translation into English?

4 How is the syntax of questions different from the syntax of statements in these languages?

5 Do you see anything interesting going on in sentence 11?

6 Other remarks?

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