Notes on Verbal Aspect in Three Vedic Prose Narratives

Abstract

This article summarises the synchronic system of verbal aspect manifest in three Middle Vedic prose narrative texts, investigating the use of various morphological categories with past reference (especially the imperfect, perfect and aorist). I show that the imperfect and perfect are both compatible with multiple aspectual readings (perfective, imperfective and anterior); in the terminology of Dahl (2010), both may have neutral aspect. The aorist is largely restricted to anterior readings but can be perfective. Additionally, I consider the diachronic context of this system, outlining differences from the earlier one visible in the Early Vedic of the Rigveda and discussing the probable diachronic trajectory connecting the two. After commenting on the possibility of characterising the synchronic system within the alternative framework of Altshuler (2014), which lacks the category of neutral aspect, I conclude with notes on the use of the sentential particles ha, nu and vai in the text samples. The first of these seems to be associated with perfective aspect, while the latter two are both associated with anterior aspect.