RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Herring, Susan C. YR 1993 T1 Functional Stability in Language Change: The Evolution of Tense and Aspect in Tamil JF Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” VO 17 IS 2 SP 313 OP 341 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17.2.03her PB John Benjamins SN 0378-4177, AB This article addresses the question of whether tense markers in Modern Tamil were historically aspectual in function, as Zvelebil (1962) has claimed. The methodological approach employed is that developed by Hopper (1979a, 1979b, 1982) for the analysis of foreground and background in narrative discourse. Narrative texts representing three historical periods — Old Tamil (5th c), Middle Tamil (12th c), and Modern Tamil (20th c.) — are analyzed for correlations between foreground-background marking and the distribution of alleged 'tense' forms. On the basis of the grounding analysis, it is discovered that the forms function aspectually in Old Tamil, analogous to the functioning of aspectual auxiliary verbs in the modern language. The overall diachronic picture which emerges is one in which surface forms and categories undergo change, while underlying functional contrasts remain remarkably stable over time., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/sl.17.2.03her