Naming the so-called continuous past tenses of the south-eastern Bantu languages with particular reference to Zulu

Abstract

Scholars have used terminology such as ‘tenses of the participial’, ‘compound tenses’ and ‘continuous past’ or ‘durative past tenses’ to refer to a wide range of compound tenses of Zulu and the southeastern Bantu languages in general. Doke (1981) even refers to those forms that denote ‘unfulfilled or unaccomplished intention’ as the ‘contingent mood’. These terms are all inapt, and have probably misled generations of Bantu grammarians to believe that these verbal forms constitute a combination of two tenses with an implication of continuity inherent in them. It is proposed in this article that the term ‘relative tense’ be used as an umbrella term to denote the 16 so-called compound tenses of Zulu and the other south-eastern Bantu languages collectively. A brief overview is given of the difference between the absolute and relative tenses whereafter the array of relative Zulu tenses are investigated. After considering the labels used to refer to the so-called continuous past tenses collectively and individually, and considering the established terminology used in general linguistic sources on tense, appropriate terminology is suggested for the relative tenses collectively and individually. The relative tenses are unique in that they express a relation between coding time, reference time and event time. This salient characteristic of these tenses serves as the basis for their naming.