On the interpretation of the participle -GAn in Uyghur

Abstract

Most previous research argue that the suffix -GAn in Uyghur is a past participle and conveys perfectivity, contrasting with the simple past tense marker -D (Asarina 2011; Major 2014). However, the translations presented in the previous research only indicate that sentences with -GAn have both a past and a perfective reading, but fail to determine the specific contribution of -GAn in such contexts.This study examines the tense and aspect contribution of -GAn in both root and complement clauses, comparing it with the simple past tense marker -D. I argue that -D always contributes to a past and a neutral perfective interpretation in both root and complement clauses. In contrast, -GAn functions as a neutral perfective marker but not a past marker as it does not consistently convey past tense. I also show that -GAn-clauses are indicative.