Symmetric and Retrospective Temporal Mobility in the Andic Languages

The article examines the typology of temporal mobility, defined as the ability of verbal forms to exhibit temporal opposition. Using data from several Andic languages (forms are equally marked, standing in equipollent opposition. In contrast, retrospective mobility assumes that verbal forms are in a privative opposition: a form referring to the past must have an overt temporal marker, while the basic form is temporally unmarked and its temporal reference is secondary to its aspectual properties. A verbal system may combine both techniques of temporal opposition, allowing systems to be classified according to the predominant type of mobility. Retrospective mobility is similar to the retrospective shift. However, data from the Andic languages suggest that this is not entirely accurate, and the marker of retrospective shift can only be postulated if the retrospective type of mobility predominates in the system. Additionally, several hypotheses can be proposed regarding the origins of retrospective mobility. From a diachronic perspective, systems with predominant retrospective mobility appear to arise from the loss of the present-tense copula in all basic forms. Sporadic retrospective mobility is much more difficult to analyze diachronically, as it remains unclear whether the local loss of the copula in individual forms should be assumed. Based on data from the Karata and Bagvalal languages, it can be suggested that this type of retrospective mobility characterizes the oldest forms in the system. The example of the Karata verbal system also demonstrates that, with the grammaticalization of new analytical forms, the relationships between forms of mobility are renewed: this idiom exhibits a diachronically intermediate “hybrid” type of mobility.

temporal mobility, tense oppositions, retrospective shift, plusquamperfect, Andic languages, Nakh-Daghestanian languages