Encoding of Tense, Aspect, Modality, and Mood (TAM) in the Sampang Language: A Typological Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the tense, aspect, mood, and modality (TAM) system of the Sampang language within a typological framework. The study is based on primary data gathered through elicitation and audio recordings from native speakers. The findings reveal that Sampang exhibits a high degree of morphological complexity, in which tense, aspect, mood, and modality interact closely. They are sometimes not separable, but not always.  Tense in Sampang is realized through a binary distinction between past and non-past. The past tense is typically marked by the morpheme <-a>, while the non-past is marked by <-i>. Typologically, Sampang aligns with other members of the Kirati languages in exhibiting this basic past vs. non-past opposition.  Aspect in Sampang is expressed through both lexical and grammatical categories. The grammatical aspects include perfective, imperfective, and perfect categories. Among these, the perfective is generally unmarked morphologically, whereas the imperfective is overtly marked. Mood and modality in Sampang are primarily realized at the discourse-pragmatic level rather than through dedicated morphological markers. Their interpretation depends largely on context, speaker stance, and interactional factors, rather than on explicit verbal morphology.