Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

morphemes typically grammaticalize to word edges. Common in this position are locatives,
object pronouns, and a variety of other markers (Nurse 2008:31-40). 21
The following sections (2.3.1.1-2.3.1.7) briefly discuss the verbal slots as they appear in
Totela. Unless otherwise noted, the positions in Nurse’s template may be assumed to hold.
2.3.1.1 Negation: pre-SM and internal negation
In all but infinitives, non-periphrastic negation occurs at pre-SM, with the negative marker
ta-. Negative ta- precedes all other pre-SM markers and can co-occur with every other verbal
marker (although the negation of the post hodiernal future is periphrastic with tali, as in
(47)). Pre-SM negation with ta- is found in both main and relative clauses (see 2.3.2 for a
brief introduction to relative clauses).
(46) tàndìnàkáchìhálìkà
tà-ndì-nà-ká-chì-hálìk-à
neg-1sg-pst-prehod-cl7-roast-fv
‘I didn’t roast it (e.g. yesterday)’ (ZT2009Elic26)
(47) tàlí ! nándìlwê
! tà-lí ná-ndì-lu-ê
neg-be sit-1sg-fight-fv.sbjv
‘I won’t fight (e.g. tomorrow)’ (ZT2009Elic53)
Internal negation was observed only with infinitives, where it takes the form of H-tone
carrying ´-ta- or ´-sa-, triggering downstep before H-toned roots
(48) a. òkúsàsèkà
òkú-sà-sèk-à
inf-neg-laugh-fv
‘to not laugh’ (ZT2009Elic82)
b. òkú ! sáyàsà
òkú- ! sá-yàs-à
inf-neg-spear-fv
‘to not spear’ (ZT2009Elic82)
The initial tandi- in negation with 1sg subjects is often suppleted by si-. Suppletion is
not possible with any other subject marker.
21 This templatic structure represents a very basic and simplified approach to Bantu
verbal morphology. One particular flaw may be its lack of hierarchical structure;
a hierarchical structure seems to be motivated both prosodically and functionally:
[Pre-SM+SM+NEG2+TA+[OM+[[Root+Ext] derivational stem+FV] inflectional stem] macrostem+PostFV] verbal word
Unfortunately, further discussion of these issues is outside the scope of the present work (but see Nurse
2008:40-42 for further details and references).
82