Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

7.2.1.2 Analysis of -na-
Although -na- is the only tense/aspect marker in hodiernal imperfectives, I analyze it as a
general past for the following reasons:
1. It appears in all past negatives, aside from prehodiernal imperfective negatives (409).
2. The negation of hodiernal completives and hodiernal imperfectives is identical in form
(410).
3. Affirmative uses are not always straightforwardly imperfective (411)-(412), and it is
incompatible with some true statives (413)-(416).
4. It appears with completive -a- in past anteriors (pluperfects) (417).
Affirmative pasts with -na- are not always straightforwardly imperfective, although they
may usually be interpreted as such. For example, -na- was used by at least some speakers
as a sort of experiential perfect within the hodiernal domain, as in (411).
(411) nasunu, munayi kwaNawinda?
na=sunu mu-na-y-i kwa-Nawinda
com=today 2pl-pst-go-fv.pst cl17(loc)-Nawinda
‘And today, have you gone to Nawinda?’ (ZT2007Elic67)
Also, examples like (412) may call into question a straightforwardly imperfective analysis.
(412) ndìnéèzá bùlyó òkúmìlàànà
ndi-na-iz-a bulyo oku-mi-laan-a
1sg-pst-come-fv only inf-2pl-greet-fv
‘I only came/ I was only coming to greet you’ (said upon taking leave) (ZT2009Elic-
100)
Additionally, -na- has co-occurrence restrictions with true statives, which is somewhat
unexpected if it is an imperfective marker. As shown in (413), -na- is incompatible with
stative marker -ite (see 7.3.5.1 and chapter 6). Prehodiernal (dissociative) imperfective ka-,
in contrast, is perfectly felicitous with -ite.
(413) *ndinachisitwe
*ndi-na-chis-it-w-e
1sg-pst-hurt-ite-pass-ite
(intended) ‘I was sick’ (earlier today) (ZT2009Elic34)
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