Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

Chapter 3
Semantics and Pragmatics of
Completion
3.1 Introduction
At first glance, Totela seems to have two general past markers in the perfective aspect; a
present/hodiernal future; and a posthodiernal future, as shown in table 3.1.
Form (Apparent) Use Example
-ka- Prehodiernal ndàkànèngà ‘I danced’ (yesterday or before)
-a- Hodiernal ndànèngà ‘I danced’ (today)
-la- Present/Hod. Fut. ndìlànèngà ‘I am dancing/will dance’ (today)
na- Posthodiernal nándìlànèngà ‘I will dance’ (tomorrow or after)
Table 3.1: Forms that appear to mark tense in Totela
A few things may be noted about these forms. First, it can be observed that the “prehodiernal
perfective” and the “posthodiernal future” forms -ka- and na- co-occur with the
“hodiernal perfective” and “present / hodiernal future” forms -a- and -la-, respectively. 1
This co-occurrence is a clue that the forms, while having something in common, are not
competing values for a single function. The relevant morphemes are highlighted in (99).
(99) Co-occurence of TAM markers
Hodiernal ndà-nèng-à → Pre-hodiernal ndà-kà-nèng-à
Hodiernal ndì-là-nèng-à → Post-hodiernal ná-ndì-là-nèng-à
A second important observation – not evident from (99) and table 3.1 – is that there is
some functional overlap of the forms. While -a-marking (without -ka-) is usually restricted
to hodiernal situations, it may also refer, in some cases, to situations at least partially located
1 Note that na- may also occur without -la-; for more on this, see chapter 5. Prehodiernal -ka- always
co-occurs with -a- when it appears in that position.
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