Perfect in the Old Uighur Language

Abstract

The article discusses the semantic nature of the Turkic perfect, its semantic zone limitations and possible grammar tools of expressing Perfect in the Old Uighur language. Goals. The study aims to determine grammar tools of expressing Perfect meanings in the Old Uighur language. Morphological tools that are able to perform the meanings included into the semantic zone of Perfect are being studied. Perfect and description of its semantic zone are connected with the concepts of aspect, actionality and ways of verbal action. In this regard, the issue of the relevance of these terms, in relation to the Old Uighur perfect, is under discussion. The grammar tools expressing Perfect are studied according to the point of view that excludes Aspect as a grammar category in the Turkic languages. Studying aspectual and temporal meanings of Perfect diachronically on the basis of the Od Uighur material may give a hint to understand the Turkic perfect and its expressions in genetically related modern languages. Functional-semantic and typological methods are used to identify and describe morphological tools with a perfect meaning. Scripts of the Old Uighur language, dated back to 10th–11th centuries, are of biographical and religious-philosophical content. Work with scripts, comprehension of existing theoretical approaches to understanding Perfect as an element of aspectual functional-semantic field show that Perfect meanings in the Old Uighur language are expressed by morphological tools that can be correlated with models. The study concludes that means expressing the Perfect meaning in the Old Uighur language are able to mark temporal localization and/or aspect.