How do languages encode tense and aspect?

Languages across the world utilize various methods to express tense and aspect. Tense relates to the time when an action takes place, while aspect emphasizes the structure or state of an action. They‘re fundamental linguistic categories affecting how we perceive events.

In English, tense is primarily indicated through verb modifications. The addition of “-ed“ to a verb often represents past tense, such as “walked“, while the present tense typically doesn‘t require an affix, as in “walk“. Future tense employs auxiliary verbs like “will“ or “shall“.

Aspect in English is expressed using auxiliary verbs and verb forms. The progressive aspect, indicating ongoing actions, combines the verb “to be“ with the present participle ending “-ing“. The perfect aspect, indicating completed actions, uses “have“ or “has“ with the past participle.

Conversely, Chinese predominantly relies on adverbs and context for expressing tense. It lacks a system of conjugated verbs to denote past, present, and future. Instead, words like “already“ can signify past actions, while the future might be implied by terms like “tomorrow“.

Aspect in Chinese, however, employs certain particles attached to verbs. For instance, the particle “le“ often signifies a completed action. Unlike English, the aspect in Chinese focuses more on the state of an action rather than its progress.

Morphologically rich languages like Russian encode tense and aspect directly into the verb through inflections. The endings of the verb change depending on tense, and different verb forms exist for imperfective (incomplete) and perfective (completed) aspects.

In some Indigenous Australian languages, such as the Walpiri, tense is not a grammatical category at all. Instead, these languages primarily employ aspectual distinctions, often marking whether an event was witnessed or not.

These examples illustrate the vast diversity in encoding tense and aspect among languages. While some languages use verb modifications, others employ context or adverbial markers. Still, others focus primarily on aspect, marking the nature of an action rather than its temporal occurrence.