The Semantics of Tense and Aspec in Karitiana

• Grant number: 18/17029-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Ana Lucia de Paula Muller
• Grantee: Ana Lucia de Paula Muller
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This Project aims at investigating the semantics of tense and aspect in Karitiana (Amazonian, Tupi) under a perspective of convergence among the fields of Formal Semantics, Typology and Descriptive Linguistics. The Project focusses on the semantics of tense and aspect in the Karitiana language. It has at its background two current relevant questions to Formal Linguistics and to the typology of TAME (tense, aspect, modality, evidentiality) categories: (i) The existence (or not) of languages with legitimate future vs. non-future temporal orientation systems; (ii) The existence (or not) of symmetry between past vs. non-past and future vs. non-future systems. Its general goal is advancing in the resolution of these questions. The project tackles its general questions through the in depth investigation of some specific questions about the Karitiana language: (i) what is the semantics of the future inflexion in Karitiana?; (ii) what is the semantics of the interaction between imperfective/progressive aspect and the non-future inflexion?; (iii) how does Karitiana express the distinct possible temporal combinations between matrix and subordinate clauses?; (iv) what is the semantics of complementizers with purported aspectual values in Karitiana subordinate clauses? (AU)