On the Tense-Aspect system of Bolivian Chaco Guaraní

This paper is a full-fledged description of the tense-aspect system of Bolivian Chaco Guarani (also known as Chiriguano). Particular attention is devoted to the special status of "nominal verbs", i.e. nouns that share important inflectional features with verbs proper. The possible restrictions are examined also with respect to the actional values of the predicates. It is shown that the divide verbs / nominal predicates does not coincide with the opposition dynamic / stative. Finally, the status of the so-called "nominal tense" (here more appropriately called "(nominal) stage") is examined, also in relation to the syntactic status of nouns in this language. It is proposed that Guarani (at least in its Bolivian variety, but this is most probably true of Tupi-Guarani languages in general) belongs to the "omnipredicative" type, where all lexical terms have an intrinsically predicative nature, as shown by their morphological shape.