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TENSE AND ASPECT IN JAPANESE:
'TOKORO-DA' AS A REFERENCE TIME MARKER
Yukinori Takubo Kyoto University and Carleton College Tuesday, June 5, 5:30pm, MJH Rm 126 In this talk, I will discuss the basic uses of tense/aspect forms in Japanese, 'ru. ta, tei(ru/ta)' and how the uses are constrained by the addition of 'tokoro-da.' 'Tokoro-da', a combination of 'tokoro', a formal noun meaning 'location' and 'da' the copula, restricts the uses of 'ru' 'ta' and 'tei(ru/ta)' forms to immediate future, past and progressive, respectively. I will show that the meaning of immediacy imposed by 'tokoro-da' can be described by the constraint which says that the reference time be included in the interval denoted by the predicates, i.e., the same interpretation of tense for stative predicates. I will show that the interpretation can be reduced to the meaning of 'tokoro' as 'a reference point marker', i.e., basically the same function of 'tokoro' used as a locative noun, e.g., John-no tokoro (John's place) or (i): (i) kono tizu-no *-no tokoro this map-GEN *-GEN location (the point where the * mark is on this map). Cosponsored with the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages 
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