Temporal Expressions In Balinese: Focused On The Semantic Functions Of Temporal Adverbials

Abstract

This paper focuses on temporal expressions in the Balinese language. The discussion of temporal expressions is based on theories of temporal semantic functions proposed by Haspelmath (1997) and Pan (2010). The results show that Balinese temporal expressions can be classified into four semantic functions, which can be further classified into several subcategories. The four semantic functions are (1) temporal locations, (2) temporal extent, (3) frequency, and (4) miscellaneous functions. The choice of temporal adverbial marking in Balinese is influenced by speech register. Another important point in Balinese temporal adverbial marking is the notion of definiteness. Definiteness in Balinese is not only marked on the linguistic unit of a particular temporal adverbial, but also on the marker itself, particularly for temporal adverbials, which indicates a situation as the reference time.