A Feature-Geometric Approach to Grammatical Tense and Aspect in Persian

Feature Geometry is an applied paradigm for the study of morphological-syntactic processes. In this approach, the verb inflection system consists of three parts of aspect, grammatical tense, and mood, and each has universal characteristics, which are sometimes represented by explicit inflectional morphemes. In this paper, while introducing this notion, we show that the interaction of aspect, tense, and mood in Persian geometric characteristics, explains the properties of verb inflection in this language. In Persian, [Event] and [Non-atomic] features are active in aspect subsection. [Non-atomic] derives imperfectivity versus perfectivity. So, the default value of viewpoint aspect is perfective and (mi-) explicitly spells out imperfectivity. In Persian, the functional head of AspA is active in INFL domain, but the AspQ head is active in the root modifier position and the predicate level. [Precedence] encodes the meaning of past versus non-past in Tense subsection, (-d /-t) spell out this feature in Persian. They position the topic time before the temporal anchor of the utterance. And finally, (-de / -te) are not the markers of narrow tense or viewpoint aspect in Persian. They denote the [Perfect] feature.