Re: [racchabanda] Verb tenses in Telugu

[Suresh Kolichala]

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 6:46 AM, Savithri Machiraju <savit...@gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> I have been puzzling over why so many native speakers of Indian languages
> have trouble with verb tenses in English. The most common areas of
> confusion are treating the simple form of the verb in whatever tense (I
> write; I wrote; I will write) and the progressive form of the verb (I am
> writing; I was writing; I will be writing) as equivalent. Less frequent,
> but
> still common, is using the subjunctive mood instead of the indicative mood,
> usually in the future tense ("I would write to you after you leave" instead
> of "I will write to you after you leave").
>
The 'funda' is that much of the language acquisition primarily occurs
through imitation and repetition, and not through formal learning of
grammar. Although localisms like 'you missed the bussaa?' and 'I told you,
no?' are clearly reflections of the speaker's first language, many of the
other Indianisms are simply a result of repeating what we read in the
newspapers and hear in our own environment. While the phrases like
"prepone", "eggitarian", "non-vegetarian" are our own innovations, there are
many other phrases which are the remnants of old British usage. It is
remarkable to note that the usages like ""please do the needful and
oblige", "you will be intimated shortly", "2 into 2 is 4" dates back all way
into 17th century of Queen's English.

Regards,
Suresh.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------------------

To Post a message, send it to: racch...@yahoogroups.com

Courtesy: http://www.kanneganti.com/

[Hemantha Kumar]

Interestingly, this strengthens my belief that even in time, there always is just past and future and never a present, as present is a journey from past to future. Even if we are talking, between one syllable and the other, it is just that one is over and the other is to begin.
�
I had had my share of arguments on this and am ready to start a few more :-)
�
Best wishes
Hemantha Kumar

--- On Tue, 3/1/11, Velcheru Narayana Rao <vn...@wisc.edu> wrote:

<Snip>
Telugu has two tenses:
1. covering events completed up to this minute. We usually call it Past.
2. covering all events that have not begun yet. We usually call it
Future.

There is no such a thing as Present tense in Telugu. ( At least in what
linguists call the modern standard Telugu, a term fraught with problems
I do not want to get into.)
<Snip>

[Savithri Machiraju]

I have been puzzling over why so many native speakers of Indian languages
have trouble with verb tenses in English. The most common areas of
confusion are treating the simple form of the verb in whatever tense (I
write; I wrote; I will write) and the progressive form of the verb (I am
writing; I was writing; I will be writing) as equivalent. Less frequent, but
still common, is using the subjunctive mood instead of the indicative mood,
usually in the future tense ("I would write to you after you leave" instead
of "I will write to you after you leave").

In the past I used to think this confusion arose because there are not as
many verb tenses in Telugu as in English, but I am not sure if this is
really correct, not having studied Telugu grammar formally at any time. But
anyway, that argument doesn't apply now, because most of the present
generation of Telugu immigrants to North America have been educated in
English all their lives, and so should be more comfortable as well as more
knowlegable in English. And yet the same confusion persists. Why is this?

So my question to the Telugu pandits here is: What are the different verb
tenses in Telugu? I am only aware of the three simple tenses, past, present,
and future. Are there more, corresponding to the "perfect" tenses, for
example, in English? If so, what are the rules for when they should be
used? Is there such a thing as verb mood in Telugu? From my reading of
classic Telugu literature (i.e., the kind written in graandhikam, rather
than vyaavahaarikam, I don't think there are more tenses or moods, but I am
no scholar. So I would appreciate it if our more learned members can shed
light on this question.

For your reference, here are a couple of resource sites on English verbs:
A summary of verb tenses:
http://www.athabascau.ca/courses/engl/155/support/verb_tenses.htm

A summary of verb moods:
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/english-grammar-101-verb-mood/

After this question is answered, we can go on to ponder the philosophical
implications of the different approaches to time in different languages, and
what that tells us about the cultures out of which those languages grew. :)

Thanks for your help,

Savithri Machiraju

[Velcheru Narayana Rao]

Dear Savitrigaru: You asked a very important question. I don't think I
can answer this as fully as it deserves. May be I can send you my
grammar, which I use to teach my students. But let me briefly
present the tense in Telugu. You know that tense is purely a
grammatical feature of language, as opposed to time, which is universal.

Telugu has two tenses:
1. covering events completed up to this minute. We usually call it Past.
2. covering all events that have not begun yet. We usually call it
Future.

There is no such a thing as Present tense in Telugu. ( At least in what
linguists call the modern standard Telugu, a term fraught with problems
I do not want to get into.)

Each of these two tenses have two modes: Progressive and Non-Progressive.

Every event has two modes: the fact of its occurrence and the duration
of its occurrence.
If you want to draw your listener's attention to the mere fact of its
occurrence, you use non-progressive.
If you feel that there is a need to draw your listener's attention to
its duration, you use progressive.

There is a mistaken perception that -- nEnu NaDustunnAnu -- which is a
progressive form of 1. above, is present tense. But you can say in
Telugu ninna mIru mA iMtI muMdu naDustunnAnu, nEnu mimmalni cUsAenu
kAni palakariMcalEdu.

All the other subtleties you present from English are handled by the
many aspects -- obligative, -- Ali forms, permissive, --vaccu forms,
prohibitive, --kUDadu, oddu, forms conditional -- itE forms, and their
negatives.
Several of them are handled by syntactical strategies.

Thanks for asking the question.

vnr

On 3/1/2011 5:46 AM, Savithri Machiraju wrote:
>
> I have been puzzling over why so many native speakers of Indian languages
> have trouble with verb tenses in English. The most common areas of
> confusion are treating the simple form of the verb in whatever tense (I
> write; I wrote; I will write) and the progressive form of the verb (I am
> writing; I was writing; I will be writing) as equivalent. Less
> frequent, but
> still common, is using the subjunctive mood instead of the indicative
> mood,
> usually in the future tense ("I would write to you after you leave"
> instead
> of "I will write to you after you leave").