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Preterit and imperfect of the verb “to be” in Tocharian: Contextual analysis against “fine semantics”
Tocharian languages (Tocharian A and Tocharian B) have two past tenses, traditionally named as “imperfect” and “preterit”, however their exact semantic and functional correlation remains disputable. The verb A nas- / B nes- “to be” whose grammaticalized Ipf and Pt forms are used as copula with different parts of speech represents a special case in this problem. It is usually claimed that Ipf of the verb "to be" describes a lasting state in the past, while Pt has an ingressive meaning, but several contexts can be found which contradict this interpretation. We argue, that at least in constructions with non-finite verbal forms, in particular with gerundives and past participles, both copula forms show differencies in lexical and/or grammatical compatibility.