Tense, Aspect, and Mood in Shekgalagari

Abstract

UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2009) Tense, Aspect, and Mood in Shekgalagari Thera Crane 1. Introduction and goals Shekgalagari (updated Guthrie number S.31d (Maho 2003) is a Bantu language spoken in western Botswana and parts of eastern Namibia. It is closely related to Setswana, but exhibits a number of phonological, morphological, and tonal phenomena not evident in Setswana. It has been described by Dickens (1986), but its complex Tense, Aspect, and Mood (TAM)-marking system remains largely undescribed. This paper represents an effort to initiate such a description. It is by no means complete, but I hope that it may spur further investigation and description. Data were collected in the spring semester of 2008 at the University of California, Berkeley, in consultation with Dr. Kemmonye “Kems” Monaka, a native speaker and visiting Fulbright Scholar from the University of Botswana. All errors, of course, are my own. Data for this paper were collected as part of a study of Shekgalagari tone and downstep involving Dr. Monaka, Professor Larry Hyman of the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of this paper. Data are drawn from the notes of the author and of Professor Hyman, and from personal communications with Dr. Monaka. Because the aim of the study was not the description of the TAM system as such, a number of forms were not elicited and are missing from this document. All need further investigation in terms of their semantics, pragmatics, and range of uses. Particular areas of interest for future study are noted throughout. 1.1. Structure of paper Section 2 gives a general introduction to tone in Shekgalagari and important tone processes, including phrasal penultimate lengthening and lowering (2.2), spreading rules including grammatical H assignment (with “unbounded spreading”; 2.3) and bounded high-tone spreading (2.4), and downstep (2.5). A basic introduction to Shekgalagari’s downstep, spreading, and lowering operations is crucial to understanding the tone of tense, aspect, and mood. Section 3 introduces verbs in Shekgalagari, including their basic lexical tone patterns, subject markers (3.1), object markers (3.2), and final vowels. (3.3). There are at least five distinct subject marker series in Shekgalagari, with distinct forms and tone/spreading patterns. Object markers appear to be the same across all TAMs, and final vowels pattern basically according to reality status, although several categories where irrealis marking might be expected do not take an explicitly irrealis final vowel. Section 4 gives a basic outline of tense, aspect, and mood marking in main clauses in Shekgalagari. 4.1 outlines morphologically marked distinctions of temporal distance (tense, including degrees of present and future marking). Past tense (4.1.1) also makes a clear distinction between perfective and imperfective aspect (sections 4.1.1.1 and 4.1.1.2, respectively). Present tense (4.1.2) functions as both perfective and imperfective (simple present, progressive, habitual), and includes a final morpheme not seen elsewhere in the system. The future (4.1.3) does not have as many or as clear distance or aspectual distinctions as the past. Section 4.2 outlines further TAM distinctions. Section 4.2.1 deals with anterior (perfect) marking, which overlaps with past-tense marking. 4.2.1.1 gives a brief description of forms ending in - ile , a common marker of anterior aspect or past tense (among other things) across