Kisikongo (Bantu, H16a) present-future isomorphism
A diachronic conspiracy between semantics and phonology
The North-Angolan Bantu language Kisikongo has a present tense (Ø-R-ang-a; R = root) that is morphologically more marked than the future tense (Ø-R-a). We reconstruct how this typologically uncommon tense-marking feature came about by drawing on both historical and comparative evidence. Our diachronic corpus covers four centuries that can be subdivided in three periods, viz. (1) mid-17th, (2) late-19th/early-20th, and (3) late-20th/early-21st centuries. The comparative data stem from several present-day languages of the “Kikongo Language Cluster.” We show that mid-17th century Kisikongo had three distinct constructions: Ø-R-a (with present progressive, habitual and generic meaning), Ø-R-ang-a (with present habitual meaning), and ku-R-a (with future meaning). By the end of the 19th century the last construction is no longer attested, and both present and future time reference are expressed by a segmentally identical construction, namely Ø-R-a. We argue that two seemingly independent but possibly interacting diachronic evolutions conspired towards such present-future isomorphism: (1) the semantic extension of an original present-tense construction from present to future leading to polysemy, and (2) the loss of the future prefix ku-, as part of a broader phenomenon of prefix reduction, inducing homonymy. To resolve the ambiguity, the Ø-R-ang-a construction evolved into the main present-tense construction.
Article outline
-
1.Introduction
- 2.Definitions and methodology
- 2.1Concepts and definitions
- 2.2Methodology
- 2.2.1Data sources
- 2.2.2Corpus queries
- 3.Grammars vs. corpus data: A diachronic assessment of the Kisikongo Present and Future constructions
- 3.1Mid-17th-century Kisikongo
- Simple present Ø-R-a
- Present imperfective Ø-R-ang-a
- Future ku-R-a
- Summary
- 3.2Late-19th- and early-20th-century Kisikongo
- Simple present Ø-R-a
- Present imperfective Ø-R-ang-a
- Future Ø-R-a
- Summary
- 3.3Late-20th- and early-21st-century Kisikongo
- Simple present Ø-R-a
- Present imperfective Ø-R-ang-a
- Future Ø-R-a
- Summary
- 3.4Overview and discussion
- 4.Reconstructing paradigmatic change
- 4.1The polysemy hypothesis
- 4.2The homonymy hypothesis
- 5.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
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