Presenting the past in Middle Indic

Abstract

Up to three verbal categories are available for encoding past tense in Middle Indic: inherited finite pasts (lost in younger languages), old past passive participles, and morphological presents. I explore aspectual factors governing the choice of one verb form in preference to another in four texts in Pāli and Jaina-Māhārāṣṭrī, showing that finite pasts (where present) are compatible with multiple aspectual readings, participles almost always have perfective or anterior aspect, and presents have an association with imperfective aspect (exceptionless in Pāli but not in Jaina-Māhārāṣṭrī).