Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

Describes Describes
past situation present situation
buy play
sow laugh
build cook
run
lie
Table 6.5: Interpretations of -ite with several predicates in Subiya, Linyanti, and Fwe
Speakers consistently produced -ite forms for the translations in (402). They consistently
produced non-ite forms for the translations in (403). I note where speakers accepted alternate
-ite versions I offered, without any additional context from me. Speakers themselves
sometimes gave context for understanding these forms, as I discuss below. It is possible
that, given adequate context, the other verbs in (403) could also take -ite forms. Volunteered
forms were mixed -ite and non-ite in (404), with some speakers even rejecting the -ite
forms, likely due to lack of context, since all forms in this example were produced with -ite
by other speakers.
(402) Speakers consistently produced -ite forms:
a. I am tired
b. I am angry
c. I am hurrying
d. I am busy
e. I am confused
f. It’s broken
g. It’s dirty
h. I’m fat
i. I’m thin
j. It’s round
k. It’s cheap
l. They’re rich
(403) Speakers consistently did NOT produce -ite forms:
a. I am sick (-ite accepted)
b. I am running
c. I am eating
d. He is dead (-ite accepted)
e. She’s refusing to go 41
41 As seen above in (365), this example is not incompatible with -ite given sufficient context.
300