Abstract
The framework proposed in the works of Robert Botne and Tiffany Kershner has been widely used to classify verbs in Bantu languages. In this framework, verbs encode events which consist of maximally three phases: onset (represents the coming-to-be phase), nucleus (represents the state change itself; can also be represented as a coming-to-be phase if the verb lacks an onset) and coda (represents the result-state phase). Hence, verbs are defined depending on which phases they encode and whether particular phases are punctual or durative. The phasal structures of verbs can be diagnosed using various tests. The application of these diagnostics to Nyamwezi (a Tanzanian Bantu language, [nym]) produces three significant variations. First, Botne and Kershner’s conception of statives as events with no phasal structure is not tenable in Nyamwezi. The tests show that in Nyamwezi, statives have structure. Second, some classes described in Botne and Kershner do not occur in Nyamwezi. Third, in Botne and Kershner’s works, classes are described depending on whether particular phases are punctual or durative. In addition to this characteristic, the classes in Nyamwezi can also be described depending on whether particular phases are dynamic or static, and whether the result state is permanent or reversible.
References
Bar-el, Leora. 2015. Documenting and classifying aspectual classes across languages. In Ryan M. Bochnak & Lisa Matthewson (eds.), Methodologies in semantic fieldwork, 75–109. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190212339.003.0004Search in Google Scholar
Behrens, Leila. 1998. Ambiguität and Alternation: Methodologie and Theoriebildung in der Lexikonforschung. Munich: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Habilitation thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Botne, Robert. 1983. On the notion “inchoative verb” in Kinyarwanda. In Francis Jouannet (ed.), Le kinyarwanda: Études linguistiques, 149–180. Paris: SELAF.Search in Google Scholar
Botne, Robert. 2003. To die across languages: Toward a typology of achievement verbs. Linguistic Typology 7(2). 233–278. https://doi.org/10.1515/lity.2003.016.Search in Google Scholar
Botne, Robert. 2008. A grammatical sketch of Chindali (Malawian variety). Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Search in Google Scholar
Botne, Robert & Tiffany L. Kershner. 2000. Time, tense and the perfect in Zulu. Afrika und Übersee 83. 161–180.Search in Google Scholar
Botne, Robert & Tiffany L. Kershner. 2008. Tense and cognitive space: On the organization of tense/aspect systems in Bantu languages and beyond. Cognitive Linguistics 19(2). 145–218. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog.2008.008.Search in Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie. 2011. Beyond time: Temporal and extra-temporal functions of tense and aspect marking in Totela, a Bantu language of Zambia. Berkeley: University of California Ph.D. thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie. 2012. -ile and the pragmatic pathways of the resultative in Bantu Botatwe. Africana Linguistica 18. 41–96. https://doi.org/10.3406/aflin.2012.1006.Search in Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie. 2013. Resultatives, progressives, statives, and relevance: The temporal pragmatics of the -ite suffix in Totela. Lingua 133. 164–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2013.04.006.Search in Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie & Axel Fleisch. 2019. Towards a fieldwork methodology for eliciting distinctions in lexical aspect in Bantu. In Lotta Aunio & Axel Fleisch (eds.), Lingustic diversity research among speakers of isiNdebele and Sendebele in South Africa, 129–179. Helsinki: Finish Oriental Society.Search in Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie & Bastian Persohn. 2019a. A model-theoretic discussion of Bantu actionality. Africana Linguistica 25. 27–63. https://doi.org/10.2143/AL.25.0.3287231.Search in Google Scholar
Crane, Thera Marie & Bastian Persohn. 2019b. What’s in a Bantu verb? Actionality in Bantu languages. Linguistic Typology 23(2). 303–345. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2019-0017.Search in Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2012. Verbs. Aspect and causal structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248582.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Doherty, Monika. 1973. Noch and schon and their presuppositions. In Ferenc Kiefer & Nicolas Ruwet (eds.), Generative grammar in Europe, 154–177. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-010-2503-4_8Search in Google Scholar
Freed, Alice. 1979. The semantics of English aspectual complementation. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-9475-1Search in Google Scholar
Gunnink, Hilde. 2018. A grammar of Fwe: A Bantu language of Zambia and Namibia. Gent: Ghent University Ph.D. thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka. 2019. Aspectual classes of verbs in Nyamwezi. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg Ph.D. thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Kanijo, Ponsiano Sawaka. 2020. Evidential strategies in Nyamwezi. Studia Orientalia Electronica 8(3). 81–98. https://doi.org/10.23993/store.71147.Search in Google Scholar
Kershner, Tiffany Lynne. 2002. The verb in Chisukwa: Aspect, tense, and time. Indiana: Indiana University Ph.D. thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Lusekelo, Amani. 2016. Lexical semantics and selection of TAM in Bantu languages: A case of semantic classification of Kiswahili verbs. International Journal of Society, Culture & Language 4(1). 89–102.Search in Google Scholar
Maganga, Clement & Thilo C. Schadeberg. 1992. Kinyamwezi: Grammar, texts, vocabulary. Berlin: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Michaelis, Laura A. 1993. “Continuity” within three scalar models. The polysemy of adverbial still. Journal of Semantics 10. 193–237. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/10.3.193.Search in Google Scholar
Nurse, Derek. 2008. Tense and aspect in Bantu. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Persohn, Bastian. 2017. The verb in Nyakyusa: A focus on tense, aspect and modality. Berlin: Language Science Press.Search in Google Scholar
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 2002. Recent activity in the theory of aspect: Accomplishments, achievements, or just non-progressive state? Linguistic Typology 2(6). 199–271.10.1515/lity.2002.007Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota S. 1997. The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-011-5606-6Search in Google Scholar
Tatevosov, Sergej. 2002. The parameter of actionality. Linguistic Typology 6(3). 317–401.10.1515/lity.2003.003Search in Google Scholar
Toews, Carmela. 2015. Topics in Siamou tense and aspect. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Ph.D. thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9781501743726Search in Google Scholar
Walková, Milada. 2012. Dowty’s aspectual tests: Standing the test of time but failing the test of aspect. Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 48(3). 495–518. https://doi.org/10.1515/psicl-2012-0023.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston