Abstract

VINOGRADOV, Igor. On the semantics of completive/incompletive in Mayan Languages. Cuad. Lingüíst. Col. Méx. [online]. 2016, vol.3, n.1, pp.5-44.  Epub Nov 25, 2024. ISSN 2007-736X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/clecm.v3i1.25.

The paper argues that completive and incompletive in Mayan languages are neither strictly aspectual nor strictly temporal categories; their meanings embrace several semantic domains. The term taxis is introduced. It is defined as a variety of tense that characterizes the event relative to some other event determined by the context without making reference to the moment of speech. It is proposed that the semantics of completive / incompletive is a combination of both taxis and aspectual meanings. Though the majority of Mayan languages apparently complies with this general semantic principle, there is significant variation within the family. This is, in the first place, the result of different internal structures of the verbal system and different sets of tense/aspect categories in particular languages.

Keywords : Mayan languages; aspect; tense; completive; incompletive.

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