Focal Present Continuous Tense Markers in Konya Local Dialect

Abstract

Focal present continuous tense means the formation process of an event and the speech time overlaps with respect to timing. In this tense, the event is expressed at the speech time during its process of formation. It is known that in Old Turkic, the aorist affix also marks focal present continuous tense. Then in the following periods of Turkic, new focal present continuous markers were developed in different ways, in a sense the focal present continuous tense marker was renewed. It is a characteristic property of Konya local dialect to use -A(r) ~ -X(r) ~ -r ~ -Ø aorist markers in place of focal present continuous tense. With respect to the aorist marker, in most Turkic languages, there is a diachronic progress from its being a high focal marker to a non-focal marker. In Konya local dialect this progress did not take place and the function of marking focal present continuous tense was not transferred to the marker -(X)yo(r). In Konya local dialect, -(X)yo(r) marker is generally used to express non-focal instances. The structure of -(y)Xb batır, which is used in Konya local dialect on the other hand, indicates that the action denoted by the verb has started to take place, or it is close to starting to take place. These functions of -(y)Xb batır depend on the aktionsart of the verb it is attached to. In Konya local dialect, -(y)Xb batır is not used to express focal present continuous tense.