"G.P." <gdotpdot@newsguy.com> wrote:
>In present day languages, having to use
>tenses forces the speaker to add some clues >on whether (s)he refers to past, present or >future circumstances. In the "posthuman >languages" one would also be forced to add >clues on the degree of reliability of
>statements.
Actually, some languages already have have this feature. The following is a quote from the Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia:
Both [Bulgarian and Macedonian] have a special set of verb forms that indicate that an event has not been witnessed or is not vouched for-for example, in Bulgarian: Ivan napravi tova (Ivan did that, and I witnessed it or vouch for the truth of the statement) and Ivan napravil tova (Ivan is alleged to have done that, but I did not witness the act or do not want to vouch for the truthfulness of the statement). Another set of verb forms in each language indicate disbelief or doubt-for example, in Bulgarian: Ivan bil napravil tova (Ivan is supposed to have done that, but I doubt it).
Contributed By:
Charles Edward Gribble
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:23 MDT