Aspect: aspect
| Values: | Dur | Imp | Iter | Perf | Prog | Prosp |
Aspect is a feature that specifies the temporal structure of an action, such as its duration or whether it is completed. In Middle Armenian some tenses are combinations of tense and aspect.
Note that some aspectual meanings in (secondary) compound tenses may be expressed at participles.
Imp: imperfect aspect
The action took, takes, or will take place over a period of time, without specifying whether or when it was, is, or will be completed.
Examples
- կու գրեմ/kow grem “I write / am writing”,
- կու գրէի/kow grēi “I was writing”
- սիրտս է դողալիս/sirts ē doġalis “My heart is trembling”
Perf: perfect aspect
The action is presented as completed. Since this aspect focuses on the point of completion, it does not work well with the present tense.
Forms with resultative participles might better be defined as ‘perfect stative’.
Examples
- գրեցի/grec’i “He/she wrote”,
- գրել եմ/grel em “I have written”,
- խօսել(ր) էի/xòsel(r) ēi “I had spoken”,
- գնացած եմ/gnac’aç em “I am gone”,
- գնացած էի/gnac’aç ēi “I was gone”
Prosp: prospective aspect
In general, prospective aspect can be described as relative future: the action is/was/will be expected to take place at a moment that follows the reference point; the reference point itself can be in past, present or future.
In some contexts, subjunctive and conditional forms may also indicate prospective aspect and signal an event that is expected to take place. The prospective meaning is especially common in conditional imperfect forms.
The future-II participle also indicates prospective aspect.
Examples
- գրելոյ (գրելու) եմ/greloy (grelow) em “I shall write”,
- գրելոյ (գրելու) էի/greloy (grelow) ēi “I should write”,
- գրեմ//grem “(I’d better) write”,
- գրէի/grēi “(If only) I wrote”
Note that in Middle Armenian the present and imperfect tenses of the conditional mood have the same form as the present and imperfect tenses of the indicative mood․ They cannot be distinguished without context:
- կու վազեմ/kow vazem “I will run; I am running”,
- կու վազէի/kow vazei “I would run; I was running”
Dur: durative aspect
A situation or action that has persisted over a period of time and still continues.
The subject participle expresses durative aspect.
Examples
- այրեցող ջերմ/ayrec’oġ ǰerm “burning fever”
- չարին ատեցող/čarin atec’oġ “one who hates evil, hater of evil”
Iter: iterative
Denotes repeated action, with multiplicative or distributive meanings. Middle Armenian has three main iterative markers -ատ/-at, -ոտ/-ot, -տ/-t or root reduplication.
Note, that in Middle Armenian iterative is considered as a lexical feature of verbs, thus they have morphologically related non-iterative counterparts, but it is not a regular system and the two verbs are represented by different lemmas. We mark them as biaspectual.
Examples
- կոտրել/kotrel “break”, կոտրտել/kotrtel “break into pieces”,
- ծռիլ/çṙil “warp”, ծռկտիլ/çṙktil “squirm”,
- փնտռել/p’ntṙel “search”, փնտռտել/p’ntṙtel “search several times”
Aspect in other languages: [arr] [axm] [bej] [bg] [bm] [bor] [cs] [ctn] [egy] [el] [eme] [ga] [gn] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [hyw] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [la] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [naq] [nci] [nmf] [oge] [pcm] [ps] [qpm] [ru] [ruc] [say] [sl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl] [xmf] [yrl]