Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

(253) a. Durative verbs:
a-Ø-fik-ite
3sg-def-arrive-cmpl
‘s/he arrived’ (earlier today) (Kershner 2002:138)
b. Change-of-state verbs:
ulusoko lu-Ø-iisul-ite
cl11.river cl11-def-swell-cmpl
‘the river is swollen’ (is at flood stage now) (Kershner 2002:140)
Unlike what has been shown for Totela -a-, Kershner does not indicate that -ite in
Chisukwa can also locate a state coda prior to perspective time. This is accomplished
instead with the addition of “post-terminative” (PoT) -aa-, 39 as in (254):
(254) ulusoko lu-aa-iisul-ite
cl11.river cl11-PoT-swell-cmpl
‘the river was swollen’ (was at flood stage) (Kershner 2002:140)
While Chisukwa -ite denotes nuclear completion, -ku- asserts non-completion. Like Totela
-la- (and -Ø-), -ku- can have present and future readings:
(255) a. Durative verbs:
a-ku-sab-a
3sg-noncmpl-swim-fv
munyaanja
‘s/he is swimming (now) in the lake’
‘s/he will swim in the lake’ (Kershner 2002:103)
b. Change-of-state verbs:
amalima ga-ku-ton-a
cl6.bean cl6-noncmpl-ripen-fv
‘the beans are becoming ripe’
‘the beans will ripen’ (Kershner 2002:104)
39 In Chisukwa, “post-terminative” -aa- also references the right edge of a situation nucleus, rather than
the situation as a whole. The difference between -aa- and -ite is not totally clear to me, but seems to be that
-aa- selects the “immediately preceding time unit” to perspective time, usually speech time, although other
time units may be selected (Kershner 2002:100), resulting in an immediate past reading with -aa-. . . -a (e.g.
(a)-aa-sab-a munyaanja ‘s/he has just swum in the lake’ (Kershner 2002:97). -ite, in contrast, seems to mark
the completion itself, which occurred in the “current time unit” (Kershner 2002:137). The two forms have
slightly different interactions with situation type that are too complex to discuss here. Combining the two
allows for the expression of completion in an immediately preceding time unit (rather than the current time
unit), resulting in a yesterday/last week/last month reading, or an ‘already’ reading with -aa-. . . -ite: tuaa-cha-ite
imiyeenda ‘we washed the clothes’ (yesterday) or ‘we have already washed the clothes’ (Kershner
2002:99).
208