현대 아제르바이잔어에서의 시간관련 표현 연구

A Study of the Time-expressions in the Contemporary Azerbaijani

This paper suggests that aspect is more basic category in Azerbaijani than tense.In summary, Azerbaijani appears to have five distinct markers for aspect: the perfect of direct experience {-dİ}1, the perfect of indirect experience {-mİş}1, the progressive {-(y)İr}, the prospective {-(y)AcAQ}, and the habitual/iterative {-(A)r}. These considerations lead to the view that the present tense receives zero marking in Azerbaijani. This proposal is certainly one which needs further investigation, particularly in view of the formal asymmetry between the past and the non-past is aspect marking, with there being no aspectually unmarked present tense in Azerbaijani. In conclusion, I hope that this paper, in raising some questions as well as answering some, has revealed the necessity for more systematic analyses of the thense-aspect-mood system in Azerbaijani within a perspective not determined by the categories of the Indo-European languages, in order to explain the intricacies of a most interesting system.