The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea
This paper describes the complex tense and aspect morphology in Nama, a previously undocumented Papuan language of southern New Guinea. Tense/aspect suffixes followed by agent/actor referencing suffixes occur in combination with one of two sets of patient referencing prefixes. Most of the tense/aspe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2015-02-01
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| Series: | Open Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opli.2014.1.issue-1/opli-2014-0011/opli-2014-0011.xml?format=INT |
| _version_ | 1819133951504023552 |
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| author | Siegel Jeff |
| author_facet | Siegel Jeff |
| author_sort | Siegel Jeff |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper describes the complex tense and aspect morphology in Nama, a previously undocumented
Papuan language of southern New Guinea. Tense/aspect suffixes followed by agent/actor referencing suffixes
occur in combination with one of two sets of patient referencing prefixes. Most of the tense/aspect suffixes mark
two possible tenses, and the choice of a prefix from a particular set determines the appropriate interpretation. The
distinction between imperfective and perfective aspect is central to the Nama tense/aspect system, and the forms
of the perfectivity markers depend on the number category of the grammatical arguments: dual versus non-dual,
which encompasses both singular and plural (i.e. more than two). At the same time, the agent/actor suffixes and
patient referencing prefixes generally index two different number categories: singular versus non-singular. Each of
the two basic aspects has three different tenses, with some other aspectual distinctions occurring only with singular
arguments. A combination of imperfective and perfective marking is also used. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T09:55:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bdf7f132dec24ce8adf4c8fe8101e491 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2300-9969 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T09:55:27Z |
| publishDate | 2015-02-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-bdf7f132dec24ce8adf4c8fe8101e4912022-12-21T18:30:16ZengDe GruyterOpen Linguistics2300-99692015-02-011110.2478/opli-2014-0011opli-2014-0011The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New GuineaSiegel Jeff0School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, AustraliaThis paper describes the complex tense and aspect morphology in Nama, a previously undocumented Papuan language of southern New Guinea. Tense/aspect suffixes followed by agent/actor referencing suffixes occur in combination with one of two sets of patient referencing prefixes. Most of the tense/aspect suffixes mark two possible tenses, and the choice of a prefix from a particular set determines the appropriate interpretation. The distinction between imperfective and perfective aspect is central to the Nama tense/aspect system, and the forms of the perfectivity markers depend on the number category of the grammatical arguments: dual versus non-dual, which encompasses both singular and plural (i.e. more than two). At the same time, the agent/actor suffixes and patient referencing prefixes generally index two different number categories: singular versus non-singular. Each of the two basic aspects has three different tenses, with some other aspectual distinctions occurring only with singular arguments. A combination of imperfective and perfective marking is also used.http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opli.2014.1.issue-1/opli-2014-0011/opli-2014-0011.xml?format=INTPapuan languagesNew Guineaimperfectiveperfectivedual numberinceptiveimmediate proximateremote |
| spellingShingle | Siegel Jeff The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea Open Linguistics Papuan languages New Guinea imperfective perfective dual number inceptive immediate proximate remote |
| title | The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea |
| title_full | The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea |
| title_fullStr | The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea |
| title_full_unstemmed | The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea |
| title_short | The morphology of tense and aspect in Nama, a Papuan language of southern New Guinea |
| title_sort | morphology of tense and aspect in nama a papuan language of southern new guinea |
| topic | Papuan languages New Guinea imperfective perfective dual number inceptive immediate proximate remote |
| url | http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opli.2014.1.issue-1/opli-2014-0011/opli-2014-0011.xml?format=INT |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT siegeljeff themorphologyoftenseandaspectinnamaapapuanlanguageofsouthernnewguinea AT siegeljeff morphologyoftenseandaspectinnamaapapuanlanguageofsouthernnewguinea |