Universal #1198

Legacy number: 1198

 Number  1194
 Original  With a few exceptions, if a language has inflectional tense or aspect, it will have a past or perfective gram.
 Standardized  IF there is inflectional tense or aspect , THEN there will be a past or perfective gram.
 Formula  inflection (aspect v tense) ⇒ past v perfective gram
 Keywords  verb, inflection, tense, aspect, past, perfective
 Domain  inflection
 Type  no genuine implication; rather: provided that
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  76 languages from the GRAMCATS database in Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca 1994
 Source  Bybee & Dahl 1989: 95; Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca 1994: 119

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Greenlandic Eskimo (Eskimo-Aleut), Diegueño (Hokan) (Bybee & Dahl 1989: 95);Abipon (Ge-Pano-Carib) has the future, habitual, progressive, and various directionals marked with suffixes, but there is no report of any past or perfective gram (Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca 1994: 119).
Notes
GRAMs are all forms of grammatical morphemes, including affixes, stem changes, reduplication, auxiliaries or particles.Implicationally:IF grams for tenses or aspects other than past or perfective, THEN also for past or perfective.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
GRAMs are all forms of grammatical morphemes, including affixes, stem changes, reduplication, auxiliaries or particles.

Implicationally:
IF grams for tenses or aspects other than past or perfective, THEN also for past or perfective.