Referentiels aspecto-temporels: imparfait et aoriste en bulgare et imparfait et passe simple en francais [Видовременная референциальность: имперфект и аорист в бoлгарс-ком языке, и imparfait и passe simple вo французском языкe]

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that aspectuality and temporality have scope over the entire predicative relation, giving it aspectual specification which is integrated in the temporal frames of reference by specifying the relations therein (concomitance, anteriority, posteriority, succession,…). The discussion will be conducted, in line with cognitive linguistic research, within the theoretical topological framework inherent in the topology. The paper starts with a sketch of the important distinction between ‘state’, ‘process’, and ‘event’ and of the notion of boundary which is relevant to the analysis of aspectuality, then moves on to some aspectual values denoted by the Imperfect and the Aorist in Bulgarian and the Imperfect and the Passe Simple in French. It shows that grammatical tenses must be explicitly linked to basic notions such as stability, change, process, transition, etc. which take on specific semantic meanings depending on the type of temporal reference anchoring (speech act, deictic temporal reference, non deictic relative temporal reference).