which may or may not be
carried out. The obligatory modal is formed by the auxiliary verb
large
‘need’ following the principal verb in its future tense, as in:
|
| moy jabo lage |
‘I have to go’ |
 puni jabo lage |
‘you have to go’ |
| tay jabo lage |
‘he/she has to go’ |
| tay jabo lagise |
‘he/she had to go’ |
| tay khayle,
tay poya dibolage |
‘if he eats, he has to
pay the money’ |
| |
|
| These forms
are in opposition to : |
| jabi |
‘please go (imp)’ |
| dibi |
‘please give
(imp)’ etc. |
|
which occur in subject less
sentences but directed only to the II persons. The illustrative
examples given above also show that the obligatory modal shows
opposition in tense by suffixing the past tense marker -se to the
auxiliary verb (modal marker).
|
Potential :
|
It expresses the ability of
the person concerned to perform the verbal action specified. In this
language, this modal impinges on the tense by showing a two-way
opposition in tense, viz., past and non-past potential modals. The
potential modal is formed by the auxiliary verb pare ‘can’ postposed
to the verb in the future tense form, as in :
|
tay jabo pare
‘he can go’
moy gas katibo pare ‘I can cut tree’
|
The corresponding past tense
form of the potential modal is obtained by suffixing the simple past
tense marker se to the modal auxiliary.
|
tay jabo parise
‘he could’
moy gas katibo parise ‘I could cut tree’
|
The past potential form
indicates the ability, the person concerned had to perform the verbal
action specified.
|
Permissive :
|
It conveys the
permission granted to another person to perform the verbal action
specified. It is formed by the modal marker de suffixing to the future
tense form of the verb, as in :
|
tak jabode
‘let him go’
|
Conditional :
|
It expresses a
condition for performing the verbal action specified. In other words,
the probability of the occurrence of the verbal action specified would
depend upon the performance or the taking place of another action or
event. It is formed by suffixing the conditional marker le directly to
the verb root, as in :
|
moy jayle taybi
jabo pare ‘if I go
he/she can also go’
tay huyle moy kam koribo pare ‘I can do the work if he/she
sleeps etc.
|
Infinitive :
|
The infinitive
modal merely expresses a simple statement about a verbal action that
is going to take place. It is formed by suffixing the infinitive
marker le to the furture tense form of the verb concerned, as in :
|
moy tay lgot
jabole monse ‘I went to
go with him/her !
moy otu gorot jabole se
‘I am to go that house’ etc.
|
The inter-section
of the tenses, aspects and modals:
|
It was seen
earlier that the grammatical categories of tense, aspects and modals
impinge on each other, in particular the expression of time-past &
present-cannot be considered separately from aspect and the expression
of future is closely bound up with the modals.
|
As far as the
aspects are concerned, only the progressive aspect in this language is
involved with the time element and it shows a three-way opposition in
tense by postposing the different tense forms of the verb ‘to be’ to
the root of the principal verb.
|
With regard to
the modals, the close link between the future tense and modals at the
structural level is evident from the fact that three of out of the six
modals that show overt markers are formed by postposing the respective
modal markers/auxiliaries to the future tense form of the verb. The
conditional and imperative marker also refer to the verbal action in
the future. Only the potential and obligatory modals show a two-way
opposition between the past and non-past. Thus the modals in this
language are structurally and /or semantically linked closely to the
future tense and such could be treated as part of the future tense.
|
