Aspect Marking in Lubukusu

Bayan: A Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies ISSN: ….-…. (Online); ISSN: ….-…. (Print) DOI: ……./ https://www.bcsd-journals.com/index.php/bjlls

Aggrey Wafula Watulo 1

1 Department of Literary and Communications Studies, Laikipia University

Corresponding Author: Aggrey Wafula Watulo, E-mail: [email protected] ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

The paper examines how aspect is marked in Lubukusu, a language spoken in Received: 13/03/2020 Bungoma, parts of Tranzoia, border points and Turbo. The morphology of aspect in Accepted: 18/05/2020 Bantu is intricately complex because of the manner in which it is marked. It is morphologically inflected using the final vowels, primary auxiliaries, and a high or low tone patterns or without tonal marking in some cases. In Lubukusu, KEYWORDS progressive, persistive and completive aspects are not subcategorized unlike some other Bantu languages that subcategorize progressive aspect. This paper also argues Aspect, progressive, that habitual aspect is divided into ongoing habitual, past habitual and future perfective, habitual, tone habitual while the perfective is organized into immediate future, intermediate future and remote future. Aspect marking in Lubukusu is interestingly complex and this complexity forms the object of investigating the complex verb structures hosting tone patterns, auxiliaries and other inflectional categories on a verbal template in both the singular and plural forms. The data in this paper was collected through elicitation process by the researcher who is a proficient native speaker of Lubukusu, and later checked, by two native speakers from Mateka and Kimatuni villages, to confirm the acceptability of the verb structure, tone and aspectual markers. 1. Introduction Aspect is a verbal component expressing internal constituency of an event (Comrie, 1976) or the representation of event time within an event (Hewson et al, 2010). It denotes a particular view of time in the narrated event more precisely; a specific aspect denotes a specific temporal phase of the narration as a focal viewpoint of an event, which is determined by ego, and the moment of speaking (Botne & Kershner, 2008: 17). There exist five aspects evident in Niger Congo languages: factitive (FAC), perfective (PFV), perfect (PFT), imperfective (IPFV), progressive (PRG), and habitual (HAB/iterative. perfective implies complete situation marking a completion of a situation (Comrie, 1976:18.19). Lubukusu, which is an object for investigation categorises aspect apart from the progressive. Perfect denotes an event that began in the past but continues to the present or continuing present relevance of a previous situation (Comrie, 1976: 52, Byee et al, 1994:54, 57, 318). The factitive, which is also called the aorist or performative, is nearly unmarked form or zero form and the least marked form in a language. Such an unmarked form is used with non-stative or dynamic verbs to represent past, complete, situation but if used with stative verbs it indicates current, non-past, incomplete, states that are presents or futures (Hewson et al, 2010).

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Structurally, there exist languages like Bambara, Bijago and Degema, which have added new suffixes at final vowel to morphologically mark factitive while Ejagham and Godie contrast between FAC and IPFV through tone marking (Hewson et al, 2010). The term imperfective is used in two senses as a super ordinate being the only incompletive category contrasting with factitive/perfective e.g. in Bambara and Degema languages (Nurse, 2007). The imperfective can also refer to one of the several incompletive categories that are coordinate with progressive, habitual or iterative pointing at the situation that has started and is ongoing (Nurse, 2007). The perfective is used to contrast with imperfective to portray a situation as a single unbounded whole. Bantu languages PFVs are typically morphologically relatively unmarked, referring to the past and the future (Nurse, 2007). He further notes that the imperfective, on the other hand contrasts with the perfective to represent any unbounded situation that lasts over a period of time; therefore the distinctive imperfective categories include, progressive, habitual, sometimes the continuous and persistive. Nurse (2007) opines that progressive is unbounded situation in the progress at the reference time, adding that in some languages it represents only ongoing situations at the reference time. Progressive is thus, a much focused type of imperfective narrowing attention to temporal space around the time of reference or speech (Hewson et al, 2010). Contrastingly, in other languages it covers a wide field evident with dynamic verbs other than stative. The habitual is a situation or a characteristic of an extended period, more extended that the situation is seen as a characteristic feature of a whole period (Comrie, 1976:27.8). The persistive is a situation in the past that goes on at the time of speaking; also referred to us as the still form (Nurse, 2007). Bantu languages combine tense-aspect and auxiliaries to encode temporal and aspectual distinctions, whereby a single verb is morphologically marked for tense and or aspect (Marten & Gibson, 2016). Rangi language spoken in Tanzania utilizes complex auxiliaries to mark tense and aspect distinctions therefore the main verb carries aspectual information just as Swahili (Marten & Gibson, 2016). siSwati language, a southern African Bantu language is the best example of an African language with a large inventory of auxiliaries approximated at thirty, which are used to mark tense, aspect and mood (Marten & Gibson, 2016). Lubukusu contrastingly, behaves different from Rangi and Swahili since in this case the few aspectual markers within Lubukusu, only mark aspect but not tense. Toews (2009) argues that in Shona language both tense and aspect are marked concurrently within the same verbal paradigm. There is always the introduction of the auxiliary [–nga], that comprises a morpheme tense marker, and aspect is realized through a prefix attached on the main verb Toews. Shona comprises an aspect called prospective a concept that is elusive and oblique in Lubukusu. Tone is a key component for marking aspect in narrow Bantu languages. Tonal systems of Luhya are categorized into conservative, reversed and predictable displaying the nature of lexical tone patterns on verbal roots (Marlo, 2008). The conservative pattern is evident with Idakho and Logoori and display high tone on the verbs stem’s initial vowel or toneless verbs is underlyingly toneless (Odden, 2009). The predictable Luhya tone patterns include; Khayo, Nyala and Samia (Marlo, 2009). These dialects lost the tonal lexical contrasts on verbal roots bearing

Aspect Marking in Lubukusu the tonal class marked as /o/ within the infinitive. Lubukusu, which is the object of study, displays a reversed tone system (Nasiombe, 2000). The dialect bears two verb groups; toned class and toneless class on the infinitive. Tone is used to mark aspect in some Narrow Bantu languages but in Lubukusu language, which is an area for study, tone combines with auxiliaries and tense morphemes to mark aspect in some of the categories of aspect. In most Narrow Bantu languages, progressive is realized through primary auxiliary, tone pattern and final vowel (Nurse, 2007). The progressive aspect in Totela language of Zambia is sub-categorized while Lubukusu does not bear categorization (Marie 2011; Nasiombe 1992). The subcategories in Totela include; present progressive, past progressive and lastly future progressive (Marie, 2011). Totela language spoken in Zambia marks aspect through inflectional aspect markers, high and low tones patterns. Within the language, the present progressive is marked using the /–la-/ and –o- while the past progressive utilizes the past tense marker /–na-/ and the prehordienal imperfective /ka-/. Lubukusu progressive marking does not make use of past tense markers. Lindfors (2003) notes that, progressive is marked using /na-/ which occurs in future and past references in Kiswahili. This form of aspect points at an ongoing activity in the present. This case contrasts sharply with Lubukusu, which marks aspect differently through, auxiliary, tone and final vowel communicating the same message like Kiswahili, hence pointing at events taking place at the moment of speaking (Lindfors, 2003 & Nasiombe, 1992). The /hu-/ marker in Swahili indicate the habitual process (Polome 1967:118). It occurs in sub-aspect of imperfective but not tense since it does not refer to a specified time (Givon 2001:286). The /hu-/ marker is the only inflectional marker in Swahili that does not co-occur with aspectual adverbs. In the past tense, the habitual marker is expressed using /ki-/ morpheme (Ashton, 1944:252). Marten and Gibson (2016) argue that Ikoma language spoken in Tanzania, gives a distinction of present, future and past progressive while Simbiti language uses certain progressives for reserved future progressives. The two languages encode progressive aspect in compound past by the use of the subject marker and the auxiliary ra-Ra (Marten & Gibson, 2016). Apart from Ikoma and Simbiti, they add that there are seven Mara languages spoken in Tanzania that subcategorize progressive into; present, (remote) past, remote (future). Lubukusu, on the other hand, does not subcategorize progressive like Ikoma, Mara and Simbiti languages.A suffix [–a(n)g-a] is realized in all Bantu zones, Lubukusu included except for R41 (Sommer, 2003:578). Semantically, it refers to the imperfective, iterative and habitual aspects (Mous, 2003). The suffix bears two shapes [–ag-] and [–ang-], the latter is evident and common with Lubukusu habitual (Sommer 2003, Watulo 2018). The final vowel is always attached after the suffix [–ang-]. 3. Methodology The study was contacted in Bungoma County in Bumula constituency. Bungoma County neighbours Busia County, Kakamega County, Uasin Gishu County, Transnzoia County, Malaba (Uganda) and Lwakhakha (Uganda). The data for the study was only collected in Kimatuni

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village due to the homogeneity of the language across the entire county. Lubukusu is a neighbour language of Lunyala, Lukhayo, Lutura, Luwanga, Luganda and Kalenjin. The locale of the study is rich in subjects and participants for the study who speak the language with a marked proficiency. Vaux and Cooper (2013) argue that a native speaker researcher can formulate sentences in the language that are useful for elicitation then subject them to grammaticality judgment. The researcher collected data through elicitation processes by using a checklist and interview schedule with two native speakers who were sampled through convenience sampling. Ilker, Sulaiman and Rukayya (2016) argue that convenience sampling is affordable, easy and targets the members in a population that are willing to participate in the study. The sample’s linguistic behaviour is homogeneous and the results gathered randomly from any part of the language community bear a similarity with the researcher’s findings. Since linguistic behaviour is homogeneous, a small population of two native speakers was enough to give the required data for analysis. The data analysis was descriptive which entailed explanation of tone, auxiliaries and inflectional categories that combine to mark aspect. 4. Results and Discussion Aspect is realized through final vowels and primary auxiliary verbs. It is categorized into progressive, habitual and perfective with the last two forms having sub categories. Tone is an important aspect in the realization of aspect because it affects the progressive, ongoing habitual and past habitual. Progressive Aspect This aspect describes the situation in progress and the listener need not to have witnessed the activities from the start to the end but middle part of the activity that is going on confirms progressiveness. The progressive aspect is also referred to us as the periphrastic progressive. It is described as a continuous action 1. Singular Surface Gloss

SM aux OM root fv 1st /e- ndi-xo- e- ŋɡon- a/ [endíxó eŋɡóna] I am sleeping 2nd /o- li-xo- o- kon- a/ [olíxó okóna] you are sleeping 3rd /a- li-xo- a- kon- a/ [alíxó akóna] he /she is sleeping

2. Plural surface gloss SM Aux OM root fv 1st / xuu- li-xo- xu- tim- a/ [xulíxó xutíma] we are running 2nd / muli-xo- mu -tim- a/ [mulíxó mutíma] you are running 3rd / βa- li-xo- ba- tim- a/ [βalíxó batíma] they are running

Aspect Marking in Lubukusu

1st / xuli-xo- xu- kon- a/ [xulíxó xukóna] we are sleeping 2nd / muli-xo- mu- kon- a/ [mulíxó mukóna] you are sleeping 3rd / βa- li-xo- ba- kon- a/ [ βalíxó bakóna] they are sleeping Based on the data above, the aspect is marked by attaching the auxiliary [–lixo-] in between the subject marker and the object marker. The vowels in the primary auxiliary [-lixo-] are high toned followed up by a high-toned stem’s initial vowel [-í-]. The stem’s final vowel [-a], which is toneless, is reminiscent of the widely studied Narrow Bantu languages although some languages such as. The auxiliary ndixo- marks aspect in the first person singular.

Habitual Aspect The concept of habituality means a repetition of a situation or continuous occurrence of activities within a given period. In case, a situation is repeated severally then it is called habitual. It is divided into ongoing habitual, past habitual and future habitual. The ongoing habitual and the past habitual are formed using the final vowel-aŋɡ and [–a] but the future habitual utilizes [– e] instead of [–a] although it retains [–aŋɡ=]. The structure of the three forms of habitual aspect is similar apart from the subject markers in the initial position that vary. Ongoing Habitual The on-going habitual mark so an event that is ongoing during the present moment at regular intervals. 3. Singular Surface Gloss SM root pref fv 1st /ŋ ɡon- aŋɡ- a/ [ŋɡónaaŋɡa] I usually sleep 2nd /o- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [okónaaŋɡa] you usually sleep 3rd /a- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [akónaaŋɡa] he/she usually sleep

4. Plural Surface Gloss SM root pref fv 1st /xu- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [xukónaaŋɡa] we usually sleep 2nd /mu- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [mukónaaŋɡa] you usually sleep 3rd /βa- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [βakónaaŋɡa] they usually sleep The data above indicates that the ongoing habitual is realized through the pre final vowel [–nɡ-] and the final vowel [–a] in all paradigms in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person paradigms. The pre final vowel is placed before the root as the final vowel comes last after the pre final vowel. The stem’s initial vowel [-ó-] is high toned both in the singular and plural verbs. The data confirms that the ongoing habitual which is a category of the imperfective is marked just like most Bantu languages that encode the aspect by the use of the prefinal and the final vowels.

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Past Habitual The tense system reports the events that used to take place in the past at regular intervals or sometimes as habits. The time when the activities started and ended is not clear. 5. Singular surface gloss SM root pref fv 1st /na- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [nákonaŋɡa] I used to sleep 2nd /wa- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [wákonaŋɡa] you used to sleep 3rd /ka- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [kákonaŋɡa] he/she used to sleep 6. Plural surface gloss SM root pref fv 1st /xwa- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [xwákonaŋɡa] we used to sleep 2nd /mwa- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [mwákonaŋɡa] you used to sleep 3rd /βa- kon- aŋɡ- a/ [βákonaŋɡa] they used to sleep The foregoing data indicate that the past habitual is marked by the use of the pre final [– aŋɡ-] and the final vowel [-a] in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person paradigms. The obligatory subject marker is high toned in the past habitual. The high toned vowel [-á-] is evident with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person paradigms in the singular and plural forms. Narrow Bantu languages where lubukusu falls are ‘notorious’ for encoding this type of aspect through the prefinal [- aŋɡ-] and the final [-a] a feature evident in most Bantu languages. Future Habitual It refers to an event that will take place in the future at regular intervals or it is a habit. The exact time when the events will take place is not explicit. 7. Singular Surface Gloss SM aux root pref fv 1st /e- xa- kon- enŋɡ- e/ [exakoneenŋɡe] I will usually sleep 2nd / o- xa- kon- enŋɡ- e/ [oxakoneenŋɡe] you will usually sleep 3rd / a- xa- kon- enŋɡ- e/ [axakoneenŋɡe] he/she will usually sleep Plural Surface Gloss 8. SM aux root pref fv 1st / xuu- xa- kon- aŋɡ- e/ [xuuxakoneenŋɡe] we will usually sleep 2nd / muxa- kon- aŋɡ- e/ [muxakoneenŋɡe] you will usually sleep 3rd / βa- xa- kon- aŋɡ- e/ [βaxakonenŋɡe] we will usually sleep

Aspect Marking in Lubukusu

The data in 7 and 8 in singular and plural indicate that the future habitual is realized through the pre final [–enŋɡ] and the final vowel [–e]. The pre final vowel [a] is attached immediately after the verbal root on the right side. The final vowel [e] occupies the final position evident; in the reviewed cases of Bantu languages such as Totela and shona, which precedes the prefinal vowel. The verbs vowels are both toneless in singular and the plural.

Perfective Aspect The perfective indicates situations of a short period stating punctuality or momentary situation. It indicates a completed action. 9. Singular Surface Gloss SM root perf fv 1st /na- kon- il- e/ [nakonile] I have slept 2nd /wa-kon- il- e/ [wakonile] you have slept 3rd /ka-kon- il- e/ [kakonile] he/she has slept

10. Plural Surface Gloss SM root perf fv 1st /xwa- kon- il- e/ [xwakonile] we have slept 2nd /m-u-a- kon- il- e/ [mwaakonile] you have slept 3rd /βa- kon- il- e/ [βakonile] they have slept The data above indicates that the perfective is formed by attaching the affix [–a-] after the subject marker then the perfective [-il-] is attached after the root. The final vowel [-e], a category of Narrow Bantu final vowels is attached just after the root. In this form of aspect, all the initial, medial and final vowels are toneless as evident in the data on the subcategories of the perfective aspect below. Immediate Future Perfective The immediate future perfective indicates activities that will take place soon (sometime during the same day of speaking). 11. Singular Surface Gloss SM aux SM root perf fv 1st /e- ndaβa- na- kon- il- e/ [endaβanakonile] I will have slept 2nd /o- laβa- wa- kon- il- e/ [olaβawakonile] you will have slept 3rd /a- laβa- ka- kon- il- e/ [alaβakakonile] he/she will have slept

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12. Plural Surface Gloss SM aux OM root perf fv 1st /xuu- laβa- xwa- kon- il- e/ [ xuulaβaxwakonile] we will have slept 2nd /mu- laβa- mu-a- kon- il- e/ [mulaβamuakonile] you will have slept 3rd /βa- laβa- βa- kon- il- e/ [βalaβaβakonile] they will have slept As can be observed from the data in 10 and 11 above, it is evident that the immediate future perfective is formed using the auxiliary verbs [-ndaβa-] (will have) or [-laβa-] (will have). The auxiliary [-laba-] (will have) is prenazalized to realize [ndaβa] and attached before the subject prefix.. Therefore, [ndaβa] is used with the 1st person speaker in singular while [-laba-] marks the immediate future perfective with the 2nd and 3rd person verbal paradigms both in the singular and plural. The final vowels [–il-] and [-e] is attached at the end of the paradigms. Tone is not evident in the marking of the immediate future aspect. Intermediate Future Perfective The next form of perfective called the intermediate future perfective is also referred to us as near future perfective. It points at situations that will happen in a day or even two days. 13. Singular Surface Gloss SM aux OM root perf fv 1st /e- xa-b-e na- kon- il- e/ [exabe nakonile] I will have slept 2nd /o- xa-b-e wa- kon- il- e/ [oxabe wakonile] you will have slept 3rd /a- xa-β-e ka- kon- il- e/ [axaβe kakonile] he/she will have slept

14. Plural Surface Gloss SM aux OM root perf fv 1st /xuxa-βe- xwa- kon- il- e/ [xuxaβe xwakonile] we will have slept 2nd /muxa-β-e mwa-a-kon-il- e/ [muxaβe mwaakonile] you will have slept 3rd /βa- xa-β-e ba- kon- il- e/ [βaxaβe βakonile] they will have slept From the data presented above the formation of intermediate future perfective involves the auxiliary [-xabe-] (will be) placed before the subject marker. The final vowel [–il-] and [-e] are attached at the end of the verbal root. The vowels in both the singular and plural forms surface as toneless. Remote Future Perfective The remote future perfective is another form of perfective aspect. The remote future perfective refers to events, which will happen in the future (mostly a few months or years).

Aspect Marking in Lubukusu

15. Singular Surface Gloss SM aux OM root perf fv 1st /n di- β-a na- kon- il- e/ [ndiβa nakonile] I will have slept 2nd /o- li- β-a wa- kon -il- e/ [oliβa wakonile] you will have slept 3rd /a- li- β-a ka- kon- il- e/ [aliβa kakonile] he/she will have slept

16. Plural Surface Gloss SM aux OM root perf fv 1st /xuli-βa- xwa- kon- il- e/ [xuliβa xwakonile] we will have slept 2nd /muli-βa- mu-a- kon- il- e/ [muliβa mwaakonile] you will have slept 3rd /bali-βa- ba- kon- il- e/ [baliβa bakonile] they will have slept

The data above reveals that the formation of remote future perfective is by the use of the auxiliary [-liβa-] which is prenazalized to [ndiβa] when used with the 1st person singular while [- liβa-] (will have) marks the aspect for the 2nd and 3rd person forms in singular and plural. The verbal root usually ends with a final vowel [–e]. The vowels in the verbs are not tonally marked. 5. Conclusion The discussion on aspect explores and confirms that Lubukusu has a similarity with most of the Bantu languages reviewed in this paper. The key similarities include aspect marking in terms of auxiliaries, tone patterns and final vowels. The data on aspect in Lubukusu demonstrates interesting features of marking that are elusive in some Bantustan languages, and these include a set of aspect subcategorizations of habitual, and perfective aspects. In view of this, the language is categorised as agglutinating although there are isolated cases of tonal patterns, but this does not switch it to a tone language, tone only is a subset of inflectional morphology that completes aspect marking in progressive and habitual aspects respectively. In this paper, I argue that the only aspect that is not encoded through auxiliaries include all the forms of habitual categorization.

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