Non-culmination in two Bantu languages
This paper describes an exploratory approach to two related aspectual phenomena, non-culminating accomplishments
and non-culminating construals of implied-result verbs, in the Bantu languages Xhosa and Nyakyusa. While documented for a diverse
array of languages, leading to the identification of some cross-linguistic commonalities and axes of variation, these phenomena
have so far not been studied for any continental African language. Both Xhosa and Nyakyusa license non-culminating accomplishments
but differ regarding the felicity of such construals with different sub-types of accomplishments in relation to event progress, a
decisive factor being that Nyakyusa possesses verbal partitive morphology. Concerning the non-culmination of implied-result verbs,
both languages show such readings and support prior cross-linguistic findings that zero change readings are more readily available
with agentive subjects. The data further point to the potential role of causative morphology as a parameter of variation to be
considered in further comparative research on these verbs.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Non-culmination
- 1.2Non-culmination cross-linguistically, and in the African context
- 1.3Goal and scope of the present study
- 1.4Definitions
- 2.The languages under study
- 2.1Geographic, demographic and genetic background
- 2.2Morphosyntactic profile and the structure of the verb
- 2.3Outline of tense-aspect systems
- 2.4The Nyakyusa partitive
- 3.Data collection
- 4.Non-culminating accomplishments
- 4.1Delimiting NCAs
- 4.2NCAs in Xhosa and Nyakyusa: A first look
- 4.3Cross-linguistic axes of variation
- 4.4Predicates examined
- 4.5Culmination vs. termination
- 4.6Felicity depending on event progress and predicate class
- 4.6.1Non-motion verbs
- 4.6.2Motion verbs
- 4.7Numerical plural objects
- 4.8NCAs and the Xhosa conjoint-disjoint alternation
- 4.9Intermediate summary
- 5.Non-culminating readings of implied-result verbs
- 5.1Defining implied-result verbs
- 5.2Implied-result verbs in Xhosa and Nyakyusa: A first look
- 5.3Cross-linguistic observations on implied-result verbs
- 5.4Predicates examined
- 5.5Morphological causatives and non-culminating readings
- 5.6The role of subject agency
- 5.7Implied-result verbs and the Xhosa conjoint/disjoint alternation
- 5.8Intermediate summary
- 6.Conclusion and outlook
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
Published online: 25 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20051.per
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20051.per
References
Alexiadou, Artemis, Fabienne Martin & Florian Schäfer
2017 Optionally
causative manner verbs: When implied results get entailed. Available at: https://amor.cms.hu-berlin.de/~schaeffl/papers/roots-final.pdf (last
access 16 February
2021).
Arche, María J.
2017 Perfective but incomplete
accomplishments. Available at https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/16482/1/16482%20ARCHE_Perfective_But_Incomplete_Accomplishments_2017.pdf (last
access 16 February
2021).
Asiimwe, Allen
Bar-el, Leora
Bar-el, Leora, Henry Davis & Lisa Matthewson
Bastin, Yvonne
Boyd, Jeremy K. & Adele E. Goldberg
Budd, Peter
Carstens, Vicki & Loyiso Mlethse
2019 (In-)definiteness
without articles in two Bantu languages. Available at http://www.lagb.org.uk/resources/Documents/Carstens_Mletshe.pdf (last
access 16 February
2021).
Chen, Sihwei
Civardi, Eugenio & Pier Marco Bertinetto
Crane, Thera & Bastian Persohn
Creissels, Denis, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, Zygmunt Frajzingier & Christa König
Demirdache, Hamida & Fabienne Martin
Gowlett, Derek
Guéron, Jacqueline & Svetlana Vogeleer
Guthrie, Malcolm
Güldemann, Tom
Gyamarthy, Zsófia & Daniel Gordonn Altshuler
Haspelmath, Martin
Hay, Jennifer, Christopher Kennedy & Beth Levin
Koenig, Jean-Pierre & Lian-Cheng Chief
Koenig, Jean-Pierre & Nuttantart Muansuwan
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria, Martine Vanhove & Peter Koch
Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav
Lin, Jimmy
Maho, Jouni Filip
2009 NUGL Online: The online
version of the new updated Guthrie list, a referential classification of the Bantu
languages. Available at https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/35125_Bantu-New-updated-Guthrie-List.pdf (last
access 16 February
2021).
Martin, Fabienne
Martin, Fabienne & Florian Schäfer
Martin, Fabienne & Hamida Demirdache
Martin, Fabienne, Margaret Grant, Florian Schäfer & Christopher Piñón
2019 Non-culminating
telic path descriptions. Paper presented at the Workshop on Event
Semantics, Humboldt University of Berlin, November 1, 2019.
Martin, Fabienne, Zsófia Gyamarthy & Károly Varasdi
Matthewson, Lisa
Mous, Maarten
2007 Language
documentation as a challenge to description. Available at http://home.planet.nl/~gongg010/veldwerk/Language%20documentation%20as%20a%20challenge_article.pdf (last
access 17 February
2021).
Muzale, Henry R. T. & Josephat M. Rugemalira
Nakazawa, Tsuneko
Oehrle, Richard Thomas
Ogiela, Diane, Cristina Schmitt & Michael Casby
Paul, Ileana, Baholisa Simone Ralalaoherivony & Henriette de Swart
2016 Malagasy
maha at the crossroads of voice, causation and modality. In Emily Clem, Virginia Dawson, Alice Shen, Amalia Skilton, Geoff Bacon, Andrew Cheng & Erik Maier (eds.), Proceedings
of the 42nd meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics
Society, 353–368. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society, University of California.
Pederson, Eric
Persohn, Bastian
Persohn, Bastian & Maud Devos
Piñón, Christopher
Rappaport Hovav, Malka & Beth Levin
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen
Simons, Gary F. & Charles D. Fenning
Singh, Mona
Soh, Hooi Ling & Jenny Yi-Chun Kuo
Talmy, Leonard
Tatevosov, Sergei
Tatevosov, Sergei & Mikhail Ivanov
Thepkanjana, Kingkarn & Satoshi Uehara
Trąba, Kamil
Van de Velde, Mark, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Phillippson
Van der Wal, Jenneke