The Bulgarian future in light of the temporal frames of reference

Considering the core meaning of the Bulgarian Future as presenting an action “posterior to the moment of speech”, many scholars explain its modal uses as derived by the context. In contrast with previous studies, we argue that future time reference is not symmetrical with the past and has a branching time structure giving rise to different temporal frames of reference. We show that the posteriority of a situation (aspectualized as a state, a process or an event) is understood as being posterior to a reference point situated in a not-actualized temporal reference frame. The Future in Bulgarian can therefore be described as posterior to the enunciative temporal reference T₀, or in relation to an indirect speech act or any other temporal reference providing a prospective view, whether in the past or ongoing.