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This article reports on the existence of actual clause morphology and interpretation in selected Bantu languages. Essentially, we treat the actual clause as an embedded assertion whereby the utterer is committed not only to the truth of the proposition described by the actual clause: It must be the case that the event in the proposition cannot be unrealized (or describe a future state) at the time of the utterance. The Bantu languages in our sample mark the actual clause by a verbal prefix in a typical tense position on the lower verb. This prefix occurs as a single vowel or as a consonant/vowel combination. When the actual clause is a syntactic complement, it co-occurs with verbs that may be incompatible with indicative clauses. The clause is also semantically distinct from other clause types such as the infinitive and the subjunctive. Our analysis of actual clauses as assertions explains why they are not complements of factive verbs. We argue that the source of the speaker’s commitment to truth arises in part from the way actual clauses are licensed by the clauses they are dependent on. That is, we propose that actual clauses are licensed by a “contingent antecedent clause” which is taken to be a precondition for the actual clause assertion. Our approach generalizes to explain other non-complement uses of actual/narrative clause types, typically described as “narrative” tense in Bantu, which bears the exact same morphology
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Reanalyzing K’iche’ as a Tensed Language
Mayan languages have been claimed to lack the category Tense. Temporal interpretation is instead said to be guided by grammatical Aspect (see e.g. Larsen 1988 for K’iche’, Vázquez Álvarez 2002 for Chol, Bohnemeyer 2002 for Yucatec Maya, Coon 2016 for an overview, a.o.). In this paper, I examine the distribution and interpretation of the Tense/Aspect markers x- and k- in K’iche’, traditionally said to mark perfective (completive) and imperfective (incompletive) Aspect, respectively. I consider the co-occurrence possibilities of these markers with temporal adverbials (including temporal clauses), aspectual adverbials (‘in/for an hour’), the adverb na ‘still’, and individual level predicates. The evidence converges on the conclusion that the K’iche’ prefixes x- and k- mark (past and non-past) Tense rather than Aspect. The analysis is also shown to make the correct predictions for temporal matching in embedded clauses. Finally, I consider some uses of k- in past contexts and conclude that they are best seen as instances of the narrative present.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1941733
- PAR ID:
- 10432500
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the 24th Workshop on American Indigenous Languages
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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