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Past Tense, Imperfective Aspect, and Irreality in Cree

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Past Tense, Imperfective Aspect, and Irreality in Cree 143 PAST TENSE, IMPERFECTIVE ASPECT, AND IRREALITY IN CREE Deborah James Scarborough College, University of Toronto In the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi language complex, and also in at least some other Algonquian languages as well, there are two differ­ ent types of morphological device for indicating past tense. One of these is the use of a prefix, which in Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi takes the form /ki:/ or /ci:/.1 The other is the use of what are known in the literature as "preterit" suffixes. In the dialect of Moose Factory, Ontario, with which this paper will be primarily concerned, the pre­ terit suffix takes the form /htay/ when the verb is in the indepen­ dent indicative and when either the subject or the object of the verb is first or second person, and it take a form characterized basically by the element /pan/ in all other cases.2 It is of interest to ask how, if at all, these two devices for indicating past tense differ from each other in meaning and usage. In this paper, I will examine in detail one dialect, the Mosse Cree dialect, and I will show that there are two major types of difference between the /ki:/ prefix and the pre­ terit suffix. The first difference involves an aspectual distinction; the second involves the fact that the preterit—but not /ki:/—can be used to indicate things which are not past tense at all, but are instead hypothetical or irreal. And it will be shown that this latter use of the preterit is semantically linked both with its use to indicate past tense and also more specifically with its use to indicate aspect. In addition, it will be noted that a preterit suffix (unlike the /ki:/ prefix) can ap- When there is a negative in the clause, then in at least Moose Cree, the /ki:/ prefix is either followed by or replaced by the morpheme /ohci/. In the follow­ ing sentences, both (b) and (c) are equally acceptable: (a) ki:-wa:pame:w 'he saw him' (b) mo:la ki:-ohci-wa:pame:w 'he did not see him' (mo:la 'not') (c) mo.la ohci-wa:pame:w 'he did not see him' The exact form of the suffix characterized by /pan/ varies somewhat accord­ ing to the order, mode, and stem type of the verb and the subject of the verb. Thus, for example, in the independent indicative, the suffix can be described as having the form /oLpan/ (Ellis 1971), where the /L/ indicates that a preceding short vowel is lengthened. When this suffix is preceded by a vowel, its initial /o/ is dropped. In the conjunct indicative, however, when the subject (and object, if any) is third person and the verb is animate intransitive or transitive animate, then the form of the suffix is /span/. As another example, when the subject is first person, the verb is in the conjunct indicative, and the verb is animate in­ transitive or transitive inanimate, then the form of the suffix is /a:pa:n/. As can be seen, there is a good deal of irregularity in the phonological form of the suffix. 144 Deborah James pear on a noun or a pronoun, and that in this case it indicates a spe­ cial emphasis on something's being the case in the past but not the present. I will then compare what has been written about these mor­ phemes in other dialects (and something will be said about cognate morphemes in other languages also), and some general conclusions will be drawn about the usage and history of these forms. I I will first examine the use of the preterit vs. /ki:/ in those cases where the preterit clearly has past tense meaning. When occurring as a suffix on verbs (noun and pronoun cases will be discussed later), the preterit in Moose Cree is used to indicate the following: activity in progress in the past; habitual activity in the past; and continuous states in the past, where these states are seen as relatively permanent ones holding in the background throughout the course of various other events. These three situations are precisely those which are typically marked by imperfective aspect forms in the world's languages (see, for example, Comrie 1976:25). Accord­ ing to Comrie (1976:3), in perfective aspect, "the whole of the situ­ ation is presented as a single unanalyzable whole, with beginning, middle, and end rolled into one." Imperfective aspect, on the other hand, makes reference to the internal portion of a situation only, with no reference being made to its beginning or end. Similarly, according to Johnson (1981:154), perfective aspect refers to "the time of the whole event itself," while imperfective aspect refers to "times in the developmental phase which are prior to the end of the event." The three classes of situation described above in which the preterit is used in Moose Cree all involve a focus on the portion of the situation prior to its end, and this is why they are normally associated with imperfective aspect forms in languages which have such. The prefix /ki:/, unlike the preterit, is used primarily for past events or states which are perfective in aspect, that is, are treated as single wholes. To illustrate these uses, examples will be given from eight narra­ tives collected in the fall of 1980.1 will look first at examples of the usage of the preterit. Examples (1) and (2) illustrate the use of the preterit to denote activities in progress in the past: (1) e:kosi ma.ka e:kitohte:ya:hki-pan awa iskwe:w pimohte:-pan and (-) (when)-we-go-out-PRET this woman she-walk-PRET ne:sta also Irreality in Cree 145 'and when we were going out this woman was walking also (with us)' (2) e:yako ma:ka e:kape:siya:hki-pan e:ispisimo:nike:ya:hk once (—) (when)-we-camp-PRET (when)-we-make-a-floor asta:kanak e:a:pacihakihcik, oki:c ma:ka papa:mohte:-pan brush we-use(ing)-it on-top (—) he-walk-around-PRET awa atim this dog 'once when we were camping, when we were making a floor using brush, this dog was walking around on it'3 In the case of each of the above examples, the narrative then goes on to describe something else that happened while these activities were in progress. Sentences (3) and (4) illustrate the use of the preterit to denote habitual activities in the past: (3) e:pe:cipi:htokwe:-span mama anta ka:sime:towa:niwahk (when)-he-come-in-PRET regularly there poolroom api:-pan te:ta:witak mo:citak he-sit-PRET in-middle floor 'when he used to come in regularly there, into the poolroom, he would sit in the middle of the floor' A comment should be made here on the reason why the verb /e:ispi§imo:- nike:ya:hk/ '(when) we make a floor' does not have a preterit suffix. Usually, embedded clauses in Cree are marked for tense relative to the tense of the higher clause. Thus, if the event described in the embedded clause is contemporaneous with the even described in the higher clause, the embedded clause will have pre­ sent tense marking, regardless of what the tense of the higher clause is. Because of this, /e:ispi§imo:nike:ya:hk/ is marked as present tense. However, a speaker can also choose to emphasize that an embedded clause is past tense relative to the time of the speech act or some other relevant point of time in the discourse, even though it is contemporaneous with its higher clause. In this case the em­ bedded clause does have past tense marking (and this could be either /ki:/ or the preterit, depending on which was semantically appropriate). This often happens, for example, at the beginning of a narrative or at the beginning of a flashback section of a narrative. It is because of this that the embedded clauses in (1) and (3) and the first embedded clause in (2) have past tense marking. In (2) it is evi- dentally sufficient to put the marking on the first embedded clause and not the second. 146 Deborah James (4) na:spic pikwantaw osihta:-pan ayamiwiniliw e:ohcipa:hpina:- very anything-at-all he-make-up-PRET words (so-that)- niwahk people-laugh-about-it 'he used to make up anything at all to make people laugh' Sentences (5) and (6) illustrate the use of the preterit to denote general states in the past. Sentence (5) occurs following another sen­ tence in which someone gives an order; it explains why the person in question had the right to give the order: (5) e:kwana e:okima:wiya:hki-pan this-(is)-the-one who-we-have-as-boss-PRET 'he was the one who was our boss' Sentence (6) is about a dog, and is given as background information in the narrative in which it appears (later on in this narrative, there is some question as to whether the dog is going to bite someone or not, a matter which is crucial to the story): (6) mo:la wi:ska:t kiske:lihta:kwan-o:pan cima:koma:t not ever it-be-known-PRET for-him-to-bite awe:nihka:na anyone 'he was never known to bite anyone' In the narratives in my data, there are 90 verbs with preterit suf­ fixes. Of these, 88 clearly fall into one of the above three semantic categories. By contrast, verbs with the prefix /ki:/ most normally occur in sentences such as (7) to (10): (7) ki:-kipihcika:po:w ka:ni:ka:nohte:t ki:-he-stop-(walking) the-one-who-be-at-the-head 'the man who was at the head (of the line) stopped walking' (8) e:kosi ma:ka misiwe: n-ki:-mi:la:na:n la:rans ma:nsis e:tas- and-so (—) all we-ki:-give Lawrence a-little we-who-be Irreality in Cree 147 iya:hk a:lahkona:wa so-many bannock 'and so we all gave Lawrence a little bannock' (9) pe:yako ki:nkwa:niska:k mi:n'a:pihta: mwe:hci n-ki:-moh- one hour again half exactly we-ki:- ta:na:n walk 'we walked for exactly an hour and a half (10) na:spic ma:ka ki:-milopalina:n e:pe:ciki:we:ya:hk.
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