Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

7.3.4 “Perfect” meanings
Totela may express all of the four major subtypes of perfect (/anterior) functions given in
Comrie (1976): perfect of result (448), experiential perfect (449), perfect of
persistant situation (450), and perfect of recent past (451), but does not have a
specific form dedicated to these meanings. Candidate for a perfect/anterior form in Totela are
completive -a- and stativizing -ite, but arguments in the chapters describing these markers
(3 and 6, respectively) show shows that such analyses is not tenable. Detailed discussions of
perfect semantics and types of perfects, as well as their expressions in Totela, may be found
in 3.2.3. Because there is no simple form-to-function correspondence, the utterances listed
here are only examples of how perfect functions may be expressed in Totela, and should not
be taken as exhaustive. Rather, they merely give possibilities for the expression of what
in English takes a Perfect form; the same meaning might also be expressed with different
morphology.
(448) Perfect of result:
ezilya zamena nokutawula
ezilya za-men-a
noku-tawul-a
cl10.crop cl10.cmpl-sprout.up-fv com.narr-weed-fv
‘the crops have sprouted up, then [we] weed’ (ZT2007Elic89)
(449) Experiental perfect:
a. mubupono bwenu mwanayi kwaLusaka?
mu-bupono bwenu mwa-na-y-i
cl18(loc)-cl14.life cl14.2pl(poss) 2pl.cmpl-pst-go-fv
kwa-Lusaka?
cl17(loc)-Lusaka
‘in your life, have you been to Lusaka?’
(ZT2007Elic67)
(past anterior: lit. ‘had you gone’)
b. mwali kukalisa okupona, mwakaya kwaLusaka?
mwa-li ku-kalis-a oku-pon-a, mwa-ka-y-a
2pl.cmpl-be narr-begin-fv narr-live-fv 2pl.cmpl-prehod-go-fv
kwa-Lusaka?
cl17(loc)-Lusaka
‘in your life (since you began to live), have you been to Lusaka?’ (prehodiernal:
lit. ‘did you go’) (ZT2007Elic68)
(450) Perfect of persistent situation:
íswè tùlàchìswà òkùzwá èzílìmò zòbílè
iswe tu-la-chis-w-a oku-zu-a ezilimo zo-bile
1pl.pron 1pl-pres-hurt-pass-fv narr-come.out-fv cl8.year cl8-two
‘we’ve been sick for two years’ (ZT2009Elic67)
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