Resumen de Why and How Do New Tense Formations Arise? – On the Emergence of the Vedic So-Called Periphrastic tā-Future
This article examines the emergence of the Vedic Sanskrit so-called periphrastic tā-future as it is encountered from Middle Vedic prose texts onwards. An initial synchronic account of the morphosyntactic and functional properties of the tā-future contrasting it with the comparable syá-future shows that the former is essentially finite in nature and not periphrastic, and that it instantiates future actuality denoting future actions taking place with certainty, while the latter instantiates future potentiality in denoting future actions intended or supposed to take place without certainty. The subsequent diachronic survey seeks to give a complete account of the emergence of the tā-future. It is demonstrated in detail that and how the tā-future originated in NOM.SG.M. oxytone agent nouns or sequences of such nouns and the copula in constructions denoting general truths and acquired its function as a modal replacement of the prospective subjunctive which was lost in Middle Vedic.
