Tense, directedness and verb stem types

Greenlandic verb stems can be classified along a number of dimensions; for example according to their voice (i.e. active, passive), semantic valency (the number of logical roles in the verbal action), and aspect (how the action is viewed relative to the present).

Another group of classifications relate to the tense of a verb. Greenlandic verbal bases can generally be read as either past or present without any special marking, whereas future tense requires the addition of an affix such as V{ssa}V. This is in contrast to English, which groups the present and future together, but requires a special marking (inflection) of the verb to denote past or perfect tense. Consider the following example:

• Peter goes to the city now (present).
• Peter goes to the city tomorrow (future).
• Peter went to the city yesterday (past).

Present and future use the same form of the verb (goes), but past has a special form (went). Compare this with Greenlandic:

• Ippassaq Piitaq illoqarfimmukarpoq, Peter went to the city yesterday (past).
• Massakkut Piitaq illoqarfimmukarpoq, Peter goes to the city now (present).
• Aqagu Piitaq illoqarfimmukassaaq, Peter goes to the city tomorrow (future).

Here, past and present have the same form (illoqarfimmukarpoq), but the future requires adding an affix, here V{ssa}V. However, the issue of tense in Greenlandic is more complicated than this. In particular, some verb stems are inherently perfect(ive) in meaning, e.g. ilikkarpaa, 'he has learnt it', and in order to make such a verb describe a present event (e.g. 'he learns it'), an affix such as V{-liq}V is required. Thus, part of the purpose of any dictionary of Kalaallisut must be to describe the tense inherent in verbal stems, and how various affixes can alter it.

Tense and verb stem types

According to Bjørnum [7], a key factor determining the inherent tense in verb stems, is whether the stem describes a state of being or a transition. This difference is important, because states of being can be either past or present, whereas transitions are always past (unless they are modified with an affix, that moves the action forward in time). This classification is further elaborated by Nielsen [8], who divides verb stems into three classes:

• Static stems are verb stems denoting a state of being or a property of the Subject. The meaning can be both past and present. Nielsen [8] gives the examples: ammavoq, 'it is/was open'; asavaa, 'he loves/loved him'; issiavoq, 'he sits/sat'; kaappoq, 'he is/was hungry'; mikivoq, 'it is/was small'; nillerpoq, 'it is/was cold'; ungasippaa, 'it is/was far from it'.

• Dynamic stems describe a change og state or process. Some describe an undirected process or action (without an explicit goal or direction), for example arpappoq, 'he runs/ran'; nerivoq, 'he eats/ate'; igavoq, 'he cooks/cooked food'. The meaning of these can be both past and present.

  Others describe a directed process or action, and Nielsen [8] further subdivides these as follows:

  • Event stems describe a directed, verbal action of some duration; for example nerivaa, 'he eats/ate/has eaten it'. The action can either be on-going, past, or finished, which can be understood as present, past or perfect.
  • Transitional stems describe a transition from one state of being to another; for example toquvoq, 'he dies/died'. In the sentence, the focus can either be on the exact moment of change, or on a present state that is the result of a past change. Thus, the meaning can be either past or perfect (when focusing on the event), or present (when focusing on the state after the event).
  • Punctual stems (semelfactives) describe an event, that only only happens once and only lasts a moment; for example tangajorpoq, 'he sneezes/sneezed'; tupappoq, 'she is/was frightened'. The meaning can be past or present.
    
    

• Resultative stems describe the result of a directed action (and with the Subject denoting the Patient role of the action). Nielsen [8] gives the following examples: kalerrippoq, 'he is/was informed of something'; matuvoq, 'it is/was closed'; nillorpoq, 'it has/had become cold'; nivinngarpoq, 'it has/had been hung up'; peerpoq, 'it has/had been removed'; qaavoq, 'he has/had been asked out'; uummarpoq, 'he has/had come to life'. The focus is on the state of being after the event, so the meaning is perfect(ive).

Telicity

Telicity is a Grammaric term, which, according to Nielsen [8], denotes whether a verbal action is directed at a specific goal. Atelic verbs are undirected, and telic verbs are directed. This distinction is closely related to the tense and types described above. Nielsen classifies the verb stem types along the atelic/telic distinction as follows:

• Static stems are atelic, since they describe a state of being.
• Dynamic stems can be atelic or telic.
  • Atelic stems describe an on-going or past activity or process.
  • Telic stems cover all three subcategories, i.e. events, transitions and points.
• Resultative stems describe the result of a telic process.