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Rethinking narrative tenses based on data from Nalu (Atlantic) and Yeyi (Bantu)

image of Rethinking narrative tenses based on data from Nalu (Atlantic) and Yeyi (Bantu)
  • Author(s): Frank Seidel 1
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    1 University of Florida
  • Source: Beyond Aspect , pp 177-218
  • Publication Date December 2015

This paper looks at how the forms used to indicate past events interact to create a coherent narrative in Yeyi (Bantu) and Nalu (Atlantic). The examination focuses on how past narrative spaces are first constructed and then contextualized (elaborated on) through a stage-setting past form that is followed by one or two different narrative forms. The existence of not one, but two specialized narrative forms in these languages casts doubt on the notion that the indication of sequentiality constitutes their central function. The different ways of construction and contextualization are examined using the concepts of detachment and dimensionalization.

  • Affiliations: 1: University of Florida

References

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     https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.121.15rob [Google Scholar]
  26. Rose, Sarah , Beaudoin-Lietz, Christa , & Nurse, Derek
    2002 Glossary of Terms for Bantu Verbal Categories. Munich: Lincom.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Seidel, Frank
    2008a A Grammar of Yeyi. A Bantu Language of Southern Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. 2008b The hodiernal past domain and the concept of recentness in Yeyi. Africana Linguistica14: 151-176.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Waugh, Linda & Monville-Burston, Monique
    1986 Aspect and discourse function: The French simple past in newspaper usage. Language62: 846-877. doi: 10.2307/415174
     https://doi.org/10.2307/415174 [Google Scholar]
  30. Welmers, William. E
    1973 African Language Structures. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Yevseyev, Vyacheslav
    2005 Measuring narrativity in literary texts. InNarratology Beyond Literary Criticism: Mediality and Disciplinarity, Jan Christoph Meister (ed.), 109-124. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110201840.109
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References

  1. Bondarko, Alexander V
    1991 Functional Grammar. A Field Approach [Linguistic and Literary Studies in Eastern Europe 35]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/llsee.35
     https://doi.org/10.1075/llsee.35 [Google Scholar]
  2. Botne, Robert
    2013 On the organizational properties of Bantu T/A systems. Position paper for theWorkshop “The construal of tense and aspect in Bantu”, held at Bantu 5, 5th International Conference on Bantu Languages, Paris, June 12-15.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Botne, Robert & Kershner, Tiffany L
    2008 Tense and cognitive systems: On the organization of tense/aspect systems in Bantu languages and beyond. Cognitive Linguistics19: 145–218. doi: 10.1515/COG.2008.008
     https://doi.org/10.1515/COG.2008.008 [Google Scholar]
  4. Brauner, Sigmund & Ashiwaju, Michael
    1966 Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache.Munich: Max Hueber.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Carlson, Robert
    1992 Narrative, subjunctive, and finiteness. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics13: 59-85. doi: 10.1515/jall.1992.13.1.59
     https://doi.org/10.1515/jall.1992.13.1.59 [Google Scholar]
  6. Cover, Rebecca T
    2010 Aspect, Modality, and Tense in Badiaranke. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Crane, Thera Maria
    2011 Beyond Time: Temporal and Extra-temporal Functions of Tense and Aspect Marking in Totela, A Bantu Language of Zambia. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Dahl, Östen
    1985 Tense and Aspect Systems. Oxford: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Dinsmore, John
    1991 Partitioned Representations. A Study in Mental Representation, Language Understanding and Linguistic Structure. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Fleischman, Suzanne
    1990 Tense and Narrativity: From Medieval Performance to Modern Fiction [Texas Linguistics Series.] Austin TX: University of Texas Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. François, Alexandre
    2003 La sémantique du prédicat en mwotlap (Vanuatu). Collection Linguistique de la Société de Linguistique de Paris84: 165-198.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. 2009 Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu. InAustronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History: A Festschrift for Bob Blust, Andrew Pawley & Alexander Adelaar (eds), 179-195. Canberra: Australian National University.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Güldemann, Tom
    1996 Verbalmorphologie und Nebenprädikationen im Bantu. Eine Studie zur funktional motivierten Genese eines konjugationalen Subsystems. Bochum: Brockmeyer.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Güldemann Tom
    2005 Asyndetic subordination and deverbal depictive expressions in Shona. InSecondary Predication and Adverbial Modification. The Typology of Depictives, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Eva F. Schultze-Berndt (eds), 323-353. Oxford: OUP.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. 2008 Quotative Indexes in African Languages. A Synchronic and Diachronic Survey. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Jakobson, Roman
    1957 Shifters, Verbal Categories, and the Russian Verb. Cambridge MA: Russian Language Project, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. 1990 On Language, Linda R. Waugh & Monique Monville-Burston (eds). Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Lindstedt, Jouko
    2001 Tense and aspect. InLanguage Typology and Language Universals. An International Handbook, Vol. 1, Martin Haspelmath , Ekkehard König , Wulf Oesterreicher , & Wolfgang Raible (eds), 768-783. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Longacre, Robert E
    1990 Storyline concerns and word order typology in East and West Africa [Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 10]. Los Angeles CA: University of California.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Maslov, Jurij S
    1988[1983] Resultative, perfect, and aspect. InTypology of Resultative Constructions. Translated from the Original Russian Edition (1983) [Typological Studies in Language 12], Vladimir P. Nedjalkov (ed.), Bernard Comrie transl., 63-85. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.12.07mas
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.12.07mas [Google Scholar]
  21. Nedjalkov, Vladimir P
    1995 Some typological parameters of converbs. InConverbs in Cross-linguistic Perspective: Structure and Meaning of Adverbial Verb Forms – Averbial Participles, Gerunds, Martin Haspelmath & Ekkehard König (eds), 97-136. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Robert, Stéphane
    1991 Approche énonciative du système verbal: Le cas du Wolof [Sciences du Langage]. Paris: CNRS.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. 1995 Aoristique et mode subordinatif: Liens entre aspect et prédication. InLangues et langage. Problèmes et raisonnement en linguistique, Janine Bouscaren , Jean-Jaques Franckel & Stéphane Robert (eds), 373-389. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. 1996 Aspect zéro et dépendance situationnelle: L’exemple du wolof. InDépendance et intégration syntaxique; subordination, coordination, connexion. Actes du colloque "Dépendance et intégration syntaxique". Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux, 5-8 octobre 1994, Claude Muller (ed.), 153-162. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. 2010 Clause chaining and conjugations in Wolof. InClause Hierarchy and Clause Linking: The Syntax and Pragmatics Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series 121], Isabelle Bril (ed.), 469–498. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/slcs.121.15rob
     https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.121.15rob [Google Scholar]
  26. Rose, Sarah , Beaudoin-Lietz, Christa , & Nurse, Derek
    2002 Glossary of Terms for Bantu Verbal Categories. Munich: Lincom.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Seidel, Frank
    2008a A Grammar of Yeyi. A Bantu Language of Southern Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. 2008b The hodiernal past domain and the concept of recentness in Yeyi. Africana Linguistica14: 151-176.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Waugh, Linda & Monville-Burston, Monique
    1986 Aspect and discourse function: The French simple past in newspaper usage. Language62: 846-877. doi: 10.2307/415174
     https://doi.org/10.2307/415174 [Google Scholar]
  30. Welmers, William. E
    1973 African Language Structures. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Yevseyev, Vyacheslav
    2005 Measuring narrativity in literary texts. InNarratology Beyond Literary Criticism: Mediality and Disciplinarity, Jan Christoph Meister (ed.), 109-124. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110201840.109
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110201840.109 [Google Scholar]

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