Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

(120) twá ! twá èchífùmò chònsê
twa-tu-a
echifumo chonse
1pl.cmpl-pound-fv cl7.morning cl7.all
‘we pounded all morning’ (ZT2009Elic67)
In fact, even if the situation described had its beginning one or more days before the time
of utterance, -a- may be used if nuclear completion obtains (121) or is relevant (122) in the
domain of perspective time (here, utterance time). In (121), the nuclear completion of a
two-day walking event ends at perspective time.
(121) twàyèndá àmázùbà òbílè, ndétùsìkà
twa-yend-a amazuba o-bile, nde-tu-sik-a
1pl.cmpl-walk-fv cl6.day cl6-two dm-1pl-arrive-fv
‘we(’ve) walked two days, now we’re just arriving’ (ZT2009Elic67) 7
Example (122) refers to the time after planting. The sprouting and growth of plants is a
process taking multiple days. However, the perspective time here is the time when they have
grown enough for weeding, i.e. the completion of a subjective nucleus of sufficient growth. 8
(122) ezilya zamena nokutawula
ezilya za-men-a
noku-tawul-a
cl10.crop cl10.cmpl-sprout.up-fv com.narr-weed-fv
‘the crops have sprouted up, then [we] weed’ (ZT2007Elic89)
3.2.3 Anterior or perfective marker?
In a number of Niger-Congo languages, Bantu and otherwise, the same forms are used to
describe both past events and present states; as shown in previous sections, Totela -a- can
also be with both past (eventive) and present (stative) meaning, although the distinctions
are not only lexically, but also pragmatically determined. This section examines analyses of
past event/present state morphemes analyzed as perfectives or anteriors in Bantu and other
Niger-Congo languages, concluding that a nuclear completion analysis better explains the
7 Note that (121) contains a zero-marked non-completive (ndétùsìkà); see chapter 4 for further details.
8 When the relevance of a change-of-state’s completion is prior to reference time, prehodiernal -ka- is also
used, as in (1).
(1) ilya inako yonse mani twa-ka-kul-a
cl9.dem cl9.time cl9.all until 1pl.cmpl-prehod-grow.up-fv
‘that [was what it was like] all the time until we grew up’ (ZT2007Narr14.VK, Akale-kale)
See chapter 5 for more details on prehodiernal -ka-.
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