chapter 8 Tense and Aspect 1 Introduction As shown in chapters 5 and 6, the coding of tense and aspect in Pévé is closely tied to the coding of grammatical relations using pronouns and nouns. While there exist markers whose function is to code tense or aspect, these markers are sometimes omitted. In some constructions, this leaves the order of constituents and/or the choice of pronouns as the only means of coding tense or aspect. Pévé codes only one tense, the future tense, which is marked by the pre- verbal marker də̀ followed by the verb with its underlying tone. The language codes the following aspectual distinctions: perfective aspect, coded by high tone on the verb; imperfective aspect, coded by the preverbal marker wə́ fol- lowed by the verb with underlying tone; progressive aspect, coded by the pre- verbal marker ké followed by the verb with underlying tone; and the unmarked tense/aspect, coded by the unmarked verb stem alone, without any markers of tense or aspect. Interestingly, tense/aspect distinctions coded in complement clauses are limited to the perfective aspect, the unmarked aspect, and perhaps the future tense (see chapters 8 and 19). The fact that the distinctions coded in complement clauses differ from those coded in independent clauses supports the notion of pragmatically dependent vs. pragmatically independent clauses (cf. Creissels 2008, Bril 2010). When the tense or aspect of a clause is indicated by an independent marker, as is the case for the future tense, the imperfective aspect, and progressive aspect, the tense or aspect marker occurs after the subject noun or pronoun and before the main verb (S Tense/AspectV). In a clause in which the object or indi- rect object also precedes the verb (see chapter 6), the tense or aspect marker follows the subject and precedes the non-subject argument (S Tense/Aspect O/IO V). As shown below, other material may also intervene between the sub- ject and the tense/aspect marker and between the tense/aspect marker and the main verb. Unlike in many Chadic languages, markers of tense and aspect in Pévé may co-occur within the same clause (see section 2.2, below). Use of the acronym ‘Tense/Aspect (‘T/A’) marker’ in the current work reflects the fact that tense and aspect markers, when they occur, precede the main verb. In rare instances in which a tense marker and an aspect marker co-occur in the same clause, the order of elements is S Aspect Tense Verb. The widely used acronym ‘TAM © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004410053_009 tense and aspect 139 (‘tense/aspect/mood’) marker’ is not used here, since markers of mood in Pévé are clause-final or clause-initial (see chapter 9). This chapter describes the grammatical means of coding tense and aspect and the interaction of those means with the coding of grammatical relations. The coding of mood is discussed in chapter 9. 2 Future Tense 2.1 Form of the Future Tense The future tense is marked by the form də̀, probably derived from the verb də̀ ‘to go’, followed by the main verb. The main verb carries its underlying tone, i.e., the tone that occurs in the citation form, in the unmarked verb form, and in all tenses and aspects other than the perfective (see sections 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4, below): (1) Taú də̀ tà lúmò T. FUT walk market ‘Tau will walk to the market’ (2) ɓà ha də̀ we sakə sà sù ɓay ha də̀ we sa kə sa su CONJ 2M FUT know who ASSC who Q ‘So how will you know who is who?’ Evidence that the future marker də̀ in such constructions is a grammatical marker and not the phonetically similar verb ‘to go’ is provided by the fact that the future construction does not necessarily involve movement (see preceding example). Moreover, the future marker may co-occur with the main verb də ‘to go’, evidence that the two forms have different functions: (3) Taú də̀ də lúmò T. FUT go market ‘Tau will go to the market’ As shown in chapter 6, an object pronoun from the non-perfective set can inter- vene between the future marker and the main verb. This is evidence that the future marker, like other tense/aspect markers, is a constituent that is separate from the main verb:.