Prospective aspect in Tlingit ...

• Main Author: Burge, Heather
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Subjects: tlingit; Alaska; Yukon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0357255; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0357255

This research investigates how future oriented phrases are constructed in Tlingit, a branch of the Na-Dene Athabaskan language family, spoken in Southeast Alaska, the Yukon, and parts of northern BC. Utilizing semantic fieldwork elicitation methods this work presents a thorough semantic analysis of a prospective trimorphemic aspect cluster necessary for a future reading, and contributing to a missing part of theoretical understanding in the Tlingit linguistic literature. Because the three morphemes under discussion are triggered in other verbal environments, a clearer semantic understanding of how they function will also present interesting theoretical questions for future research, as well as provide the building blocks for teaching second language learners about this cluster. ...