Chapter 6: Tense, aspect and mood

(3) a. nara kv-mvdhilyakbv-na
NEG IRR.1-cough-P2
‘I did not cough’ (ainin2_pw_au_004)
b. nara ngv-mvdhilyakbv-ma
NEG NEGNP-cough-NP3
‘I will not cough’ OR ‘I am not coughing’ (anin2_pw_au_004)
The verbs that signal atomic aspect express instantaneous ‘point’ events that cannot be interrupted
and then resumed (Caudal 2005a). The atomic events are realised by phonologically null suffixes
in these examples, but in some conjugation classes (see Table 6.2) they are marked by the
phonologically overt suffix -ya, as in k-engkvrrvki-ya [IRR.1-hear-NP1] in (5b) below. These
atomic events contrast with verbs marked with an aspectually neutral tense suffix, which have no
such implication.
Cross-cutting the TAM system, we find the very common suffix -ma, and its less common
variant -mvrra, which directly follow the tense/aspect inflections, as in (1). This suffix is analysed
as a ‘first person focalisation’ marker, which entails that the speaker or narrator expresses his or
her perception of an event or state of affairs. Thus a more accurate gloss of (1a) would be “I
saw/thought/am of the opinion that the fish died”. The suffix is glossed as -ma in this thesis, for
reasons outlined in section 6.7.
Both the Enindhilyakwa TAM system and the -ma ~ -mvrra suffix have received wildly
differing analyses in the previous work. Only Heath (n.d.) observes an aspectual distinction in the
tense suffixes, which he labels ‘Punctual’ and ‘Continuous’ aspect (similar to how he analyses the
inflectional suffixes in Wubuy in Heath 1984). By contrast, Reid, Stokes & Waddy (1983),
Leeding (1989) and Waddy (n.d.-a) assume that these suffixes encode only tense, not aspect. Reid,
Stokes & Waddy (1983) and Waddy (n.d.-a) do not discuss aspect, and in the stories collected by
Judith Stokes and Judie Waddy (which constitute a major source of my data), the phonologically
null NP1 and P1 suffixes are often glossed as ‘Unidentified Verbal Suffix’. Leeding (1989), on the
other hand, claims that all tense suffixes are optional (p.437). She argues that aspect is represented
by the -ma ~ -mvrra suffix, which encodes both imperfective aspect and tense. The suffix has two
more variants in her analysis: -ama ~ amvrra denotes non-past imperfective, while -ma ~ -mvrra
denotes past imperfective. Thus in Leeding’s account tense may be marked twice: by the ‘regular’
tense suffixes and by the ‘imperfective’ suffix. As both of these are optional, tense and aspect can
also remain unmarked. According to Leeding perfective aspect is identified by the absence of a
suffix (1989: 441). This means that the lack of a suffix in her analysis is ambiguous between
perfective aspect, and any tense/aspect due to omission of the suffix.
Whereas Leeding takes the -ma ~ mvrra suffix to be a marker of imperfective aspect, Heath
(n.d.) suggests it to be meaningless. Stokes (1982), Reid, Stokes & Waddy (1983) and Waddy
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