Jan06 Post C TAM

Jan06 grammar is hierarchical with inverse marking. It also has noun classes.

Jan06 verbs have 4 aspects and 3 tenses. For each aspect or tense, there's a particular verb stem; either aspect or tense is marked, but not both. The tenses are absolute past, present, and future. The aspects are prospective, durative, perfect, and aorist; the implicit tense for these is relative to the context. Typically, a tense-marked clause will establish the time and be followed by aspect-marked clauses. Example:

3-see-Pst-1S c-cat. "I saw a cat."
3-hunt-Dur-NT m-mouse. "It was hunting a mouse."
Neg m-catch-Aor-OT. "It didn't catch it."
very fast-Dur-NT. "The mouse was very fast."

The moods are indicative, contrafactual, imperative, and subjunctive. Except for the indicative, the moods are marked by particles preposed to the verb. The stems marked for absolute tense are used only by the indicative and the contrafactual. The imperative implicitly has future time. The subjunctive, like the participial forms, has only relative time.

Subjunctive clauses can be used as temporal adjuncts. Here, the aspects act as relative tense markers: the perfect as relative past, the durative as relative present, and the prospective as relative future:

Ant-leave-Pst-M M-Mary Sub Ant-eat-Dur-J J-John.
"Mary left while John was eating."

Ant-leave-Pst-M M-Mary Sub Ant-eat-Prf-J J-John.
"Mary left after John had eaten."

Ant-leave-Pst-M M-Mary Sub Ant-eat-Pro-J J-John.
"Mary left before John ate."

The aorist can also be used:

Ant-eat-Dur-J J-John Sub Ant-leave-Aor-M M-Mary.
"John was eating when Mary left."
(or "John will be eating when Mary leaves.")

For reference, the tags are:

-Pst past
-Prs present
-Fut future
-Aor aorist
-Prf perfect
-Dur durative
-Pro prospective

Sub subjunctive

Ant- antipassive