Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

utterance time; however, when the perspective time has been “relocated” to a previously
invoked discourse domain, -ka- is no longer used for situations completed in that domain,
as in the final clause of (302a). In (302b), the first two clauses are linked to utterance time.
The speaker arrived (before the day of utterance) on Tuesday. The speaker’s discovery is
also indicated as being before the day of utterance. At this point, the perspective time
shifts to the time of discovery, and the complement clause, communicating that the person
in question had died, is marked as either on (302a) or before (302b) the day of discovery. 21
(302) a. [Context: the person described died on the morning of the speaker’s arrival]
. . . ndàkàmùwàànà áfwà
nda-ka-mu-waan-a
a-fw-a
1sg.cmpl-prehod-3sg-find-fv 3sg.cmpl-die-fv
‘I found him [having] died’ (= ‘I found him dead’) (ZT2009Elic84)
b. [Context: the person described died on Tuesday; the speaker arrived on Wednesday]
ndàkàsìká lwàtátù; ndàkàwàànà àkáfwà kàlê
nda-ka-sik-a
lwatatu; nda-ka-waan-a
1sg.cmpl-prehod-arrive-fv cl11.Wednesday 1sg.cmpl-prehod-find-fv
a-ka-fw-a kale
3sg.cmpl-prehod-die-fv already
‘I arrived on Wednesday; I found that he already died [on Tuesday]’ (ZT2009-
Elic84)
The choice of hodiernal or prehodiernal marking at least sometimes privileges the perspective
of the addressee, as in this letter, composed by me with a team of Totela editors.
Although the situations described took place on the day of writing (lwaSanu, Thursday),
I was instructed to use the prehodiernal past because the addressee would be reading the
letter the next day.
21 Another example without perspective time shift is (1), where the imperfective sets the temporal frame
and prehodiernal -ka- describes an event within that frame. Both situations are represented with respect
to perspective time of utterance; the perspective time does not shift. However, the situative relative clause
does have shifted perspective time. (See chapter 7 for more on situative aspect.)
(1) àwà kándìlàwúkà, ndàkàwààná òmùntù nàlyâ
awa
ka-ndi-lawuk-a, nda-ka-waan-a omuntu na-li-a
cl16.loc(dem) prehod.ipfv-1sg-run-fv 1sg.cmpl-prehod-find-fv cl1.person sit.cl1-eat-fv
‘while I was running [e.g. yesterday], I came upon a person [who was] eating’ (ZT2009Elic29)
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