Verbal categories: Tense, aspect, pluractionality, status, modality1 RYAN PENNINGTON

LCRC Global Workshop The Cairns Institute, College of Arts, Society and Education James Cook University, Cairns, Australia 5 August 2015

1 LANGUAGE PROFILE2 • Ma Manda [skc] is a Finisterre-Huon language located in Morobe Province, PNG, on the southern slopes of the Finisterre Mountains, approximately 50 km northwest of Lae. o ~1500 speakers spread out in six primary villages • Morphology: head-marking; nominative-accusative; primarily suffixing o Postpositional case enclitics: nominative, dative, instrumental, locative & genitive o Verbs: S/A person/number suffix; O prefixes for some verbs; full tense & subject- marking on final verbs; switch-reference suffixes indicate different levels of dependency on non-final verbs • Syntax: SV/AOV; multiple functions of light verbs; clause-chaining • Phonology: high vowel reduction; barred-i epenthesis; nasal harmony; complex morpho- phonological alternations o 14 consonants & 7 vowels, represented with the following graphemes: labial alveolar palatal velar uvular front central back stop p, b t, d g k high i û u nasal m n ng mid e a o fricative f s low aa liquid l glide w y • Morpho-Phonological verb classes: Ma Manda verbs are divided into five primary classes based on their phonological shape: o Based primarily upon the final phoneme of the stem, with syllable structure playing a minor role as well: V-class, NV-class, N-class, b-class, and t-class. o Additionally, schwa-final verbs cause elision of the /l/ in the present singular, a few frequently-occurring V-class verbs (e.g. ku- ‘go’) receive -ya for present singular, and a few other V-final verbs (e.g. ta- ‘do’) receive an epenthetic -b in the singular future and irrealis forms.

1 This presentation represents a major reworking of Pennington (2014). 2 Abbreviations not in Leipzig Glossing Rules: ANA ‘anaphoric’, APP ‘apprehensive’, CMPL ‘completive’, CONT ‘continuative’, DEP ‘dependant’, DIST ‘distal’, DS ‘different subject’, EMPH ‘emphatic’, EXT ‘extended’, FH Finisterre-Huon, HAB ‘habitual’, LK ‘linker’, FUT ‘future’, ITER ‘iterative’, NPST ‘near past’, NSG ‘non-singular’, PART ‘participle’, PN ‘proper name’, PROG ‘progressive’, PROX ‘proximal’, RPST ‘remote past’, RSTR ‘restrictive’ SS ‘same subject’, TERM ‘terminative’, VBLZ ‘verbalizer’ V NV N b t lo- mo- blaam- laab- ut- ‘go up’ ‘go down’ ‘shoulder carry’ ‘come up’ ‘hit’ SG -go logo- monggo- blaamgo- laabûgo- ugo- RPST NSG -gû logû- monggû- blaamgû- laabûgû- ugû- SG -nga longa- monga- blaam(ng)a- laabûnga- ula- NPST NSG -ngaa longaa- mongaa- blaam(ng)aa- laabûngaa- ulaa- SG -la lola- mola- blaamta- laabûla- utta- PRS NSG -waa lowaa- mowaa- blaamgaa- laabûwaa- ugaa- SG -taa lotaa- mombûtaa- blaambûtaa- laabûtaa- ulûtaa- FUT NSG -ntaa lontaa- montaa- blaam(ûn)taa- laabûntaa- utntaa- SG -be lowe- mombe- blaambe- laabe- ule- IRR DU -de lode- monde- blaamde- laabûde- u(t)de- PL -ne lone- mone- blaamne- laabûne- utne- SS -ka loka mongka blaampa laabûka utta

2 TENSE • Independent (“final”) realis verbs are obligatorily inflected for one of five tenses: remote past, near past, present, imperfective present, and future. Additionally, the irrealis may be used to convey remote future meaning (a standalone purpose clause). • Medial verbs receive their tense value from their controlling clause. • Tense in independent clauses is absolute, while in finite complement and relative clauses tense is relative to another reference point. • Timeframes encoded by tense inflections are shown below: Past time Future time Prior Yesterday To day Tomorrow Beyond IRR RPST NPST PRS FUT

–IPFV–

2.1 Remote past • The remote past tense situates an event any time before the present day, with the boundary at dawn on the day of the utterance. The boundary between the remote and near pasts is fuzzy, with a certain range of time when both inflections are grammatical. (1) kep bûsenang aat-ku-gû, ba-go-t. yesterday jungle be-go-DEP come-RPST-1SG ‘Yesterday going around in the bush, I came (back).’ [DN02.201.16]

• This tense is used not only for general statements and narratives situated in the past, but also for historical, traditional, mythical, legendary, or ancestral events. • Under negation, a specific instance of an event is negated. (2) nolû wa dom nû-go-k. [brother that] NEG tell-RPST-3SG ‘He did not tell his brother.’ [skc11_05b]

2 2.2 Near past • The near past tense situates an event on the day of the utterance since dawn. o For events which occurred after midnight but before dawn on the day of the utterance, the near past is marginally acceptable, presumably due to the introduction of calendars and clocks; western day is at odds with traditional day. (3) taamengsla [membû tem] laal-a-k. morning head hair scrape-NPST-3SG ‘(This) morning he shaved his head.’ [DN04.68.11]

• No examples exist in the corpus of the near past tense being used for events situated prior to the day of speaking. • The distinction between the near past tense and the present tense is fuzzy, since both may be used to refer to events completed just prior to the time of the utterance. o Use of the near past means that no part of the event took place at the present moment; use of the present means that the speaker considers the event to still have been in progress at the present moment (though this is a subjective matter). • The near past is seldom negated. Under negation, it seems to carry the implicature that the action is still expected to occur. (4) mi dom wi-nga-t. water NEG bathe-NPST-1SG ‘I did not bathe (yet).’ [DN02.199.08]

2.3 Present • The present tense is used for events unfolding at the time of utterance. (5) filaang-ka ku-ya-k. fly-SS go-PRS-3SG ‘It is flying away.’ (lit. ‘It flies away.’) [DN02.143.79]

• The present tense may be used for events which just occurred in the immediate past, but with that state persisting through to the present moment, or with events situated in the immediate future, but beginning at moment of utterance. (6) bedûlak genangka-a-k. sore appear-PRS-3SG ‘A sore (has) just surfaced.’ [DN04.81.04]

(7) fiyat dong ku-ya-t. urine search go-PRS-1SG ‘I’m going (for a) wee.’ [DN02.143.76]

• The present is also be used for narrative/ historical present. (8) ta-ng mo pasûp~pasûp i-ma nangge-ka kaam-ta-k. do-DS already almost~almost this.ANA-EMPH choke-SS die-PRS-3SG ‘Then it nearly chokes to death!’

3 • Under negation, both the immediate past and present readings are possible. No examples in the corpus of negated present with immediate future meaning. (9) dom naandû-la-t. NEG perceive-PRS-1SG ‘I didn’t hear (it).’ [DN01.03.09] ‘I don’t understand.’

2.4 Imperfective Present • The imperfective present tense marks a state as unfolding at the time of utterance, but with an internal perspective. It is very restriced in distribution, so far only occurring with first and second person singular subjects. o As shown in §3.1, stative and dynamic-stative verbs do not take progressive marking in the present tense. It is only these verbs which have been found with the imperfective present. o The form -i- is actually a verb which only occurs in compounds, revealed by morphological form of other verb, as well as stress attraction. o Has an overtone of customary action. (10) elang taa-i-t. lie say-IPFV-1SG ‘I’m joking.’ (lit. ‘I’m lying.’)

• Used as a command strategy: (11) ya=ngaat-i-ng. this=be-IPFV-2SG ‘You’re staying here.’ [DN02.218.03]

2.5 Future • The future tense is used to indicate certainty of an event which has yet to occur. This is typically reserved for events expected to take place on the day of the utterance, or on the following day. This includes imminent events as well, as in (12). (12) ulak taa-bûtaa-t. story say-FUT-1SG ‘I will tell a story.’ [skc09_35]

(13) taameng tandonta ku-taa-t. tomorrow night go-FUT-1SG ‘Tomorrow night I will go.’ [DN02.196.05]

• Beyond the next day, it expresses a marked, overt expectation that an event will transpire. (14) [emak ban kan-sû=long] laai ku-we-t. / ku-taa-t. moon a up.PROX-LK=LOC Lae go-IRR.SG-1SG / go-FUT-1SG ‘Next month I will / WILL go to Lae.’ [DN01.65.08]

4 • Also used for promises (or threats), warnings and strong commands. (15) gak [yak wa] ya-maandûfat-ta aal-taa-ng. 2SG bilum that 3NSG.O-look.after-SS be-FUT-2SG ‘You will be looking after the bilums.’ [skc12_13]

• Under negation, the future carries a denial than an event will ever transpire. (16) dom g-ut-ntaa-m. NEG 2SG.O-hit-FUT-1PL ‘We won’t hurt you.’ [skc12_15]

2.6 Remote future • The irrealis inflection is typically used for events projected to occur at or after nightfall on the day after the utterance. (17) sisa ku-we-t. ±2days go-IRR.SG-1SG ‘The day after tomorrow I will go.’ [DN02.205.10]

• Adverbs often help convey the future meaning: met ‘later’, sisa ‘±2 days’, baan ‘±3 days’, sisa baan ‘±4 days’. • Under negation: (18) [kadet kaalin] dom tawang-ka idi, road good NEG follow-SS this.ANA [bep-mek kusamba] dom ka-nû-m. father-1NSG.POSS big NEG see-IRR.PL-1NSG ‘(If we) do not follow the good road, we will not see our great father.’ [skc11_13]

3 ASPECT • Primary opposition between perfective (unmarked) and imperfective aspect (periphrastic constructions, and their grammaticalizations into compounds and suffixes). • Perfective (unmarked) views the situation as a single whole (Dahl 1985:74). • Imperfective pays essential attention to the internal structure of the situation; nonunitized; often a backgrounding device (Frawley 1992). • Fuzzy boundaries between aspect and the other categories: tense (imperfective; §2.4), pluractionality (iterative; §4), modality (desiderative, prospective; §6) Pluractionality Aspect Modality <---Prospective---> <---Iterative---> <---Desiderative--->

5 • Realis aspect structures compared: Periphrastic Construction Suffix Adverbial Final verbs PROG DUR EXT DUR TERM CMPL ITER PRF HAB Phon. 1 (PRS) 2 2 >1 1 1~2 1 2 Words 2 (nonPRS) Gramm. 2 2 >1 1 1 1 2 1 Words Aux. at- aatûku-

Verb ‘be’ ‘be-go’ -kong -ta Suffix ‘TERM’ ‘ITER’ -nang

-maa ‘HAB’ Adverb ‘CMPL’ mo

‘already’ Other Separate Verbal Only Plus -waa Info. Lexical adv. use From mo- redup., SS ‘PRS’ or -i meaning w/ ‘go usually medial ‘CONT’ in ‘throw’ motion down’ ≥3 times verbs nonpresent verbs

3.1 Progressive • Progressive aspect views a dynamic event as in-progress and ongoing, viewed from the inside (Frawley 1992:312). It cannot be used for stative verbs (Comrie 1976:35). For example, maangût- ‘sit (down)’ is a dynamic verb in Ma Manda. Without the progressive, the following would mean ‘The white man sat down on a stone.’

(19) [na fatnaang wa=lû] [kaauda flong] kum man white that=NOM stone LOC down.DIST maangût-ta nga-go-k. sit-SS be-RPST-3SG ‘The white man was sitting on a stone.’ [skc12_15]

• Lexical aspect (Aktionsart) o Dynamic verbs: § E.g. tû-/be- ‘put’, sako- ‘hold’, kaam- ‘die’, genangka- ‘appear’ § For dynamic verbs to be extended, must be marked with the progressive § In the present tense, dynamic verbs must be marked with the progressive, otherwise they are interpreted as bounded, and given an immediate past reading. (20) [taamûng udu], [saako fetne] sako-ka ngat-ta-k. woman that.ANA choko bundle hold-SS be-PRS-3SG ‘That woman, (she) is holding a bundle (of) choko.’ [skc10_09k]

(21) [sowek kaas=lû] sako-la-k. cassowary ground.trap=NOM hold-PRS-3SG ‘A trap (just) caught the cassowary!’ [skc09_35]

6 o Stative verbs: § E.g. naandû- ‘perceive’, ka-/-b- ‘see’, daampa- ‘be happy’, (ng)at- ‘be’ § Temporal extension is inherent in semantics of statives, so progressive is ungrammatical. § Using a progressive would make the following dynamic: ‘listen’. (22) malom=pû naandû-la-k. lord=NOM perceive-PRS-3SG ‘The lord knows.’ [DN02.187.68]

o Stative-dynamic verbs: § E.g. ku- ‘go’, na- ‘eat’, weather verbs § Behave like statives in present, and dynamic verbs in the nonpresent • Conveys an iterative meaning with punctual verbs (Frawley 1992:313). (23) sogûm didipm-pa ngat-ta-t flea pick-SS be-PRS-1SG ‘I am picking fleas.’ [skc10_09e]

• No examples in the corpus of negated progressive events.

3.2 Durative • Extends an event indefinitely, but is viewed from the outside. Only example with present tense in the corpus also is habitual. No negated duratives.

(24) ta-ng tûmang wa na-ka ngaat-ku-ka mo,… do-DS first that eat-SS be-go-SS already ‘And after first eating that for awhile,…’ [skc09_17]

(25) kafet~kafet ta-ka ngaat-ku-waa-m-ang scrape~scrape do-SS be-go-PRS-1PL-HAB ‘We scrape them all off for awhile.’ [skc09_17]

3.3 Extended durative • Indicates that an action was performed for an extended period of time. Stylistic construction popular in narrative and procedural discourse to iconically protract events. Especially common with motion verbs, conveying great distance or time. • A simple repetition of a medial or final verb, generally three to four times, with the entire set of inflections included (including benefactives, tense, person, same-subject, etc.)

7 (26) [bûkngaanang kan=at-ta waapm-gaa-m wa=lû~û] garden.top up.PROX=be-SS plant.yam-PRS-1PL that=ABL~EXT waapm-ka-ta mo-ka mo-ka mo-ka, plant.yam-SS-ITER go.down-SS go.down-SS go.down-SS gabenang kum mo-ngkadopm-gaa-m. garden.bottom down.DIST go.down-arrive-PRS-1PL ‘From planting (yams) at the top of the garden, we keep planting as we go down and down and down, and we reach the bottom of the garden below.’ [skc12_05]

• Negated extended durative predicates have not been found.

3.4 Iterative • Grammaticalized pluractionality (cf. §4), indicating that an action is performed repetitively, in quick succession; only occurs with same subject medial verbs; usually before motion verbs. (27) {ku-de-m ku-de-m} wa nû-ka-ta ba-gû-mok. go-IRR.DU-1NSG go-IRR.DU-1NSG that tell-SS-ITER come-RPST-23DU ‘ “Let’s (DU) go! Let’s (DU) go!” he kept telling (her) as they came.’ [skc12_04]

3.5 Terminative • Focuses on the termination of an event. Formed with the suffix -kong, transparently derived from the verb ‘throw’. Used frequently in narratives, and even more in procedural texts. Only occurs with dynamic verbs. Frequently in backgrounded clauses. (28) sûbat sû-na-kong-ka tandonta-ng ka-ka… food cook-eat-TERM-SS night-DS see-SS ‘He finished eating and saw that it was night and…’ [skc11_05]

• When co-occurring with the progressive, focus is placed not on its termination, but on the endpoint. Thus, the imperfective terminative has a phasal interpretation. (29) ta-maa-kong-ka ngak-ng-da idi, [sap ban=tû] ba-go-k. do-CMPL-TERM-SS be-DS-1DU this.ANA dog a=NOM come-RPST-3SG ‘While we (DU) were finishing it all up, a dog came.’ [skc09_23]

3.6 Completive • Indicates than an action is carried out completely (indicates telicity). o Verbs marked as such are resultative, having a built in goal which must be reached in order for it to be successfully asserted. (30) ta-ng [{na ya mo-gû-ng} ya=lû] tawa-maa-gû-ng. do-DS man this go.down-RPST-23PL this=NOM follow-CMPL-RPST-23PL ‘And these men who had gone down chased him down.’ [skc12_15]

8 • While the terminative has not been found with future tense, irrealis, or stative predicates, the completive can occur with any of these. It occurs more frequently on the mainline as well. (31) [gulat kan-sû=long] fentagût naandû-maa-de-m. year up.PROX-LK=LOC all perceive-CMPL-IRR.DU-1NSG ‘Next year we (DU) will know [the whole language].’ [DN03.279.04]

• No negated completive predicates in the corpus. • Related function as an adverb preceding motion verbs, meaning that the actor remains at the final destination for some time (i.e. until at least the next morning). This is in opposition to mun ‘partly’, which means that the actor will return on the same day. (32) bûge [saaut kagang-sû=nang] maa ku-ne-ng. again PN place-23NSG.POSS=LOC wholly go-IRR.PL-23NSG ‘Go back to your village Saut.’ [skc09_19]

• Behaves phonologically like it is being grammaticalized, originally as an adverb before kong- ‘throw’. As this verb became grammaticalized as a suffix, maa got squished between them, and has taken on a particular meaning separate from its adverbial counterpart.

3.7 Perfect • Expresses a relation between two time-points, the “reference time” (Reichenbach 1947) in focus, and some prior situation. Occurs with any tense, in both final and medial clauses.

(33) mo naandû-ntaa-mot ya-ma! baasû dom se-we! already perceive-FUT-1DU this-FOC worry NEG cook-IRR.SG ‘We’ll (DU) have learned it! Don’t worry!’ [DN02.213.24]

(34) [nak fûlu-na] mo wob-la-t. 1SG wing-1SG.POSS already break-PRS-1SG ‘I’ve just broken my wings.’ [skc12_12]

3.8 Habitual • Indicates that an action is performed habitually, and encoded by the suffix -nang (polysemous with locative case), which follows other tense and subject-agreement inflections. Only occurs on final verbforms. • In present and future, no additional morphology; does not occur in the near past tense. o With the imperfective present, it indicates a prediction about the future. (35) kodûp na-a-t-nang. betel.nut eat-PRS-1SG-HAB ‘I chew betel nut.’

(36) kodûp na-i-t-nang. betel.nut eat-IPFV-1SG-HAB ‘I’ll keep chewing betel nut.’ [DN05.53.07]

9 • In the remote past, one of two morphemes are required: the -waa ‘PRS’ morpheme occurs with perfective habitual states, while the -i- ‘IPFV’ morpheme occurs with imperfective habitual states. The IPFV habitual is used in backgrounded clauses just like the progressive (Fleischman 1995). (37) [tûmang-gût ban] [na yaalû] [kagat ban] before-RSTR a man two place a ngaat-ku-waa-gû-mok-ngang. be-go-PRS-RPST-23DU-HAB ‘A long time ago two men lived in one place.’

[na yaalû udu] [yot nûnggût] ngaat-i-gû-mok-ngang, man two that.ANA house one be-IPFV-RPST-23DU-HAB wanggûtnang [fi tanak malom~malom] ta-i-gû-mok-ngang. but work planting owner~owner do-IPFV-RPST-23DU-HAB ‘The two men were living in one house, but were each doing their own gardening work.’ [skc11_05b]

3 • In the irrealis future, only the IPFV form may be used. (38) kodûp na-i-de-m-ang. betel.nut eat-IPFV-IRR.DU-1NSG-HAB ‘We (DU) will be chewing betel nut.’

• Habitual verbs may be negated: (39) [mi kadek] udu dom taa-waa-m-ang, water group that.ANA NEG say-PRS-1PL-HAB ba-ku-ya-k taa-waa-m-ang. come-go-PRS-3SG say-PRS-1PL-HAB ‘We do not say “water” and such. We say “passing by”.’ [skc12_04]

• When a number of habitual verbs co-occur (e.g. in a procedural text), speakers tend not to mark every finite verb as habitual. Many are left as simple present tense forms.

4 VERBAL NUMBER • Verbal number, or “pluractionality” (Newman 1980, 1990), is the grammatical marking of event plurality. Various types are expressed in Ma Manda:

3 Cognate verb in neighboring Uri means ik ‘live’, and is also its present tense suffix, while its habitual morpheme is cognate with ‘be’ in Ma Manda (Webb 1980). The verb is also cognate with ‘sit’ in Numanggang (Hynum 1995). Regarding the FH languages, McElhanon (1973:29) remarks that “the habituative mode morphemes of these languages may be shown to be related to the verbs meaning ‘to do’ or ‘to live’ and to have a historical basis in verb compounding.”

10 Participant # Event # Distributivity Collectivity SG/NSG objects event repetition separation of accompaniment: actors: ‘each’ ‘together’ Lexical + – – – Reduplication – + – – ta- ‘do’ auxiliary – + + + at- ‘be’ auxiliary – – – +

4.1 Participant number • A small number of verbs (~14) have distinct stems depending on whether their objects are SG or NSG. This absolutive orientation was noted by Durie (1986). o E.g. ‘stab’, ‘bite’, ‘hit’, ‘put’, ‘bring’, ‘take’, ‘throw’, ‘carry’ (40) tû-we be-we put.SG-IRR.SG put.NSG-IRR.SG ‘Put it.’ ‘Put them.’

4.2 Event number (iterative aspect) • A stem may be reduplicated to form a light verb complement, which is then followed by ta- ‘do’, to focus on the repetitive (iterative) nature of an activity. (41) dem-be. squeeze-IRR.SG ‘Squeeze it.’

(42) deng~deng ta-be. squeeze~squeeze do-IRR.SG ‘Squeeze it (repeatedly).’

(43) isop~isop ta-be. hold.NSG~hold.NSG do-IRR.SG ‘Grab them (different groups in turn).’

• All person and number agreement possibilities are grammatical on the light verb. o Further grammaticalized into a suffix with limited distribution (§3.4).

4.3 Distributives and collectives • When a verb is followed by the auxiliary ta- ’do’, it conveys the meaning that an action is performed separately by different actors. This is the distributive construction. o It indicates that, while engaged in a single activity, the actors are performing it separately, and never occurs with singular subjects. (44) ta-ng mo-ka-ka mita-ka ta-gû-ng. do-DS go.down-see-SS be.afraid-SS do-RPST-23PL ‘And going down they saw him and they were each afraid.’ [skc12_15]

11 (45) mo-ka mik wi-ka ta-gû-m… go.down-SS bathe bathe-SS do-RPST-1PL ‘We went down and (took turns) bathing…’ [skc11_09a]

• When the auxiliary ta- ‘do’ follows at- ‘be’, the resultant meaning is collectivity. It can occur on its own as predicative accompaniment, or after a lexical verb. No SG subjects. (46) ba yaa-b-ka ngat-ta ta-gû-m. come 3NSG.O-see-SS be-SS do-RPST-1PL ‘Coming (we) watched them together.’ [skc09_18]

5 REALITY STATUS • Fundamental opposition between realis and irrealis status. o Independent verbs of realis clauses receive tense, a paradigmatic set of four categories, each exhibiting a binary split in form depending on SG vs. NSG subject. o Verbs of irrealis clauses receive one of three irrealis forms, depending on whether the subject is SG, DU or PL (a tripartite number split). • Tense and mood are properties of the sentence, while status is a property of the clause. o Medial verbs are dependent upon the tense/mood value from their controlling clause, but each medial verb is capable of being marked as irrealis, irrespective of the tense or mood of the final verb. (47) kep yaa-b-e-t-ta lo-go-t. yesterday 3NSG.O-see-IRR.SG-1SG-SS go.up-RPST-1SG ‘Yesterday I went up to see them.’ (lit. ‘Yesterday I intended to see them and I went up.’) [DN04.31.03]

(48) [kaadûp dalo] dong ku-ka ba-ka se-ka na-de-m. wood tinder search go-SS come-SS cook-SS eat-IRR.DU-1NSG ‘Let’s (DU) go look for kindling and come and cook and eat.’ [skc12_11]

6 MODALITY

6.1 Epistemic and deontic modalities • Two verbforms are available to mark events as less than real, or “modal”: irrealis and infinitive. o The irrealis form indicates expectancy, and marks: remote (modal) future, commands, purposives, and desideratives. It indicates the speaker’s expectancy of a proposition, and therefore functions like Palmer’s (2001) “propositional modality”, AKA “epistemic modality”. o The infinitive form (=lok ‘DAT’) indicates the potentiality of an event, but is not speaker-oriented like the irrealis. This is Palmer’s “event modality”, here called “deontic”. It marks: obligatives & permissives, abilitatives, and conatives.

12 • In the imperative mood, the irrealis conveys basic commands, while the infinitive conveys obligatives & permissives. Each can be negated, or weakened with the adverb gelû ‘okay’.

Epistemic -IRR Deontic =DAT Command Obligative (‘must’) dom ‘NEG’ Negative command Prohibitive (‘do not’) (‘must not’) gelû ‘okay’ Weak Permissive Command (‘please’) (‘may’) • In the declarative mood, the irrealis simply conveys the speaker’s expectancy. o In independent clauses it marks the modal future (48) (cf. §2.6), a sort of mainline purpose clause. o In same-subject clauses it marks purposives (47). o When followed by the auxiliary ta- ‘do’, it marks desideratives. This periphrastic construction is identical to the structure of imperfective aspects (PROG, DUR). (49) saande taamengsûla saaut ku-we-t-ta ta-ka… Sunday morning Saut go-IRR.SG-1SG-SS do-SS ‘On Sunday morning I wanted to go to Saut…’ [skc11_04c]

(50) gi mo fû-we-k-ka ta-a-k. rain already come.down-IRR.SG-3SG-SS do-PRS-3SG ‘It might rain.’ (lit. ‘(It) wants to rain.’) [DN03.309.03]

o When negated, it marks frustrated intention. (51) ta-ng sowek=kû filaang-be-k-ka ta-go-k dom, do-ds cassowary=NOM fly-IRR.SG-3SG-SS do-RPST-3SG NEG fûlu mo-gût galo-waan. wing already-RSTR break-PART ‘The cassowary wanted to fly, but its wings (were) already broken.’ [skc12_12]

• In the declarative mood the infinitive conveys possibility. o In independent (infinitival) clauses it marks possibility alone, and serves as a command strategy. (52) wa-dûng ba-ka n-b=lok. that-VBLZ come-SS 1NSG.O-see=DAT ‘(You) can come like that and see us.’ [DN03.307.19]

o In dependant contexts it marks ability. (53) den=tû ob=lok kun ak-ng-lû… some=NOM break=DAT up.DIST be-DS-23 ‘Some were up above to break it [i.e. put on new kunai grass].’ [skc10_11]

13 o When followed by the auxiliary ta- ‘do’, it marks conatives. (54) [fi ya] [tefaa=lok ta-a-k wa]… work this destroy=DAT do-PRS-3SG that ‘Whatever [spirit] is trying to destroy this work…’ [skc12_06]

o When followed by predicative negation, it marks inability. (55) sowek filaan=tok dom ta-ng… cassowary fly=DAT NEG do-DS ‘The cassowary was unable to fly.’ [skc12_12]

• Summary of epistemic and deontic functions in declarative clauses. Epistemic -IRR Deontic =DAT Final Expectancy Possibility (remote future) (‘can’) Medial Purposive Abilitative Auxiliary ta- ‘do’ Desiderative Conative dom ‘NEG’ Frustrated Inability intention • The irrealis has one further function: Followed by the auxiliary ta- ‘do’, it marks imminence (“prospective”). This can be cancelled in a successive clause unlike the imminent use of the present, and unlike the future. (56) wa=lû [sip wa] ob-ka lakong-be-k ta-go-k. that=NOM ship that break-SS throw.NSG-IRR.SG-3SG do-RPST-3SG ‘[The storm] was about to break apart the ship.’ [skc12_14]

o Perhaps a grammaticalization of embedded quotatives, which have the same syntactic structure (a final verb followed by a verb like ‘say’ or ‘think’). § But such embedded verbs can have different subjects from the speech report verb; the prospective aspect construction requires that both verbs be marked with same subject. § cf. Mian (Fedden 2007:308–09) § Interestingly, taa- ‘say’ and ta- ‘do’ are very similar in form (though have very different morphophonological behavior. (57) gegût manda taa-be-t taa-i-t. story talk say-IRR.SG-1SG say-IPFV-1SG ‘I’m planning to tell a story.’ (lit. ‘I am saying “Let me tell a story”.’)

6.2 Apprehensional suffix • Rare suffix -b indicates that the speaker fears that an undesirable situation might transpire. Occurring in the future tense, it has mixed modality—epistemic and attitudinal (Lichtenberk 1995). o It only occurs with the future, and is only grammatical with verbs which generally always have a negative connotation (e.g. cannot occur with ‘go’). o Possibly from a compound with -b- ‘see’

14 (58) bagone-b-taa-k sick-APP-FUT-3SG ‘May it not be that he gets sick.’

(59) naandû-nûm-b-taa-k perceive-1NSG.O-APP-FUT-3SG ‘May it not be that (he) hears us.’

REFERENCES Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and aspect systems. New York: Basil Blackwell. Fedden, Sebastian. 2007. A grammar of Mian, a Papuan language from New Guinea. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne PhD thesis. Fleischman, Suzanne. 1995. Imperfective and irrealis. In Joan Bybee & Suzanne Fleischman (eds.), Modality in grammar and discourse, 519–51. (Typological Studies in Language 32). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Frawley, William. 1992. Linguistic semantics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Hynum, David. 1995. Numanggang grammar notes. Ms. Ukarumpa: SIL. Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1995. Apprehensional epistemics. In Joan Bybee & Suzanne Fleischman (eds.), Modality in grammar and discourse, 293–327. (Typological Studies in Language 32). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. McElhanon, Kenneth A. 1973. Towards a typology of the Finisterre-Huon languages, New Guinea. (Pacific Linguistics B 22). Canberra: Australian National University. Newman, Paul. 1980. The Classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic. Leiden: Universitaire Pers. Newman, Paul. 1990. Nominal and verbal plurality in Chadic. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Palmer, F. R. 2001. Mood and modality. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pennington, Ryan. 2014. Non-spatial setting in Ma Manda. Language Typology and Universals 67(3). 327–64. Reichenbach, Hans. 1947. Elements of symbolic logic. New York: Macmillan. Webb, Thomas. 1980. Uri grammar. Ms. Ukarumpa: SIL.

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