Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

D.60 (e.g. Ha), and in some M languages of Zambia (Nurse 2008:205-206; Nurse 2006:193-
194); M languages with -la- listed in Nurse (2008) are M.42 (Bemba), M.54 (Lamba), and
M.64 (Totela’s close relative Tonga). 31 Its most common functions are marking present or
progressive-like meanings, and marking “disjunctive” focus, where the focus is on the verb
itself rather than its object(s). In Nurse’s words,
Conjunctive verb forms focus on a post-verbal complement/constituent, such
as object, adverbial, second verb, or new material. [They contrast] with disjunctive
forms, which indicate that there is no special relationship between
the verb and a following constituent. Emphasis is on the verb lexeme or one of
its categories. The verb often stands alone following constituents being optional
(Nurse 2008:116).
For example, in Bemba, contrasts such as the following can be made with -la-: 32
(248) a. tu-peepa sekelééti
1pl-smoke cigarettes
‘we smoke cigarettes, not a pipe’
b. bá-mó bá-la-lyá ínsoka
cl2-some cl2-pf-eat.prs snake
‘some people actually eat snakes’ (Sharman 1956:40 in Güldemann 2003:339)
The difference between these forms does not lie in marking of identificational focus,
which Kiss (1998:245) notes must represent “exhaustive identification” of the entire subset of
entities for which the predicate is true. Instead, they differ in the scope of focus. Disjunctive
-la- is, in many languages, a marker of “predication focus” – i.e. focus on a lexical verb or
“predication operator” marking tense, aspect, mood, or polarity (Güldemann 2003). Focus
on an argument or adjunct, found with -Ø- forms, is called “term focus” in Güldemann
(2003:332). Hyman & Watters (1984) note that tenses and forms otherwise not intrinsically
focused – in contrast to e.g. imperatives, progressives, negatives, etc., which have intrinsic
focus – are where the morphologically-marked focus contrast originates. The Totela case
confirms this.
In languages where -la- appears to be purely a marker of predication focus, it may cooccur
with a variety of tenses and aspects, as in Ha (JD.66):
(249) a. ba-Ø-ra-rim-a
3pl-Ø-foc-cultivate-fv
‘they cultivate’
b. ba-á-ra-rím-ye
3pl-p2-foc-cultivate-fv
‘they cultivated’ (Nurse 2006:193)
31Southern Bantu zone S languages have a -(y)a- vs. -Ø- focus contrast (Güldemann 2003:337-338), which
may also be related to -la- and -Ø-.
32Glosses are modified from Güldemann (2003). pf stands for “predication focus”.
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