Cyclic tense: Discontinuous temporal reference in Djambarrpuyŋu

Abstract

This paper presents a formal proposal for the semantics of Djambarrpuyŋu tense and temporal reference in Djambarrpuyŋu, a Yolŋu (Pama-Nyungan) variety spoken in northern Australia. On the basis of novel data, elicited in the field, it comprises the first formal treatment of “cyclic tense” phenomena, where formal devices encoding temporal remoteness are ostensibly “recycled” and posits a hypothesis about the diachronic development of cyclic tense systems.