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- Dom, Sebastian, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Kisikongo (Bantu, H16a) present-future isomorphism: A diachronic conspiracy between semantics and phonology
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Linguistics. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 2210-2116 .- 2210-2124. ; 10:2, s. 251-288
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The North-Angolan Bantu language Kisikongo has a present tense (Ø-R-ang-a; R=root) that is morphologically more marked than the future tense (Ø-R-a). We reconstruct how this typologically uncommon tense-marking feature came about by drawing on both historical and comparative evidence. Our diachronic corpus covers four centuries that can be subdivided in three periods, viz. (1) mid-17th, (2) late-19th/early-20th, and (3) late-20th/early-21st centuries. The comparative data stem from several present-day languages of the “Kikongo Language Cluster.” We show that mid-17th century Kisikongo had three distinct constructions: Ø-R-a (with present progressive, habitual and generic meaning), Ø-R-ang-a (with present habitual meaning), and ku-R-a (with future meaning). By the end of the 19th century the last construction is no longer attested, and both present and future time reference are expressed by a segmentally identical construction, namely Ø-R-a. We argue that two seemingly independent but possibly interacting diachronic evolutions conspired towards such present-future isomorphism: (1) the semantic extension of an original present-tense construction from present to future leading to polysemy, and (2) the loss of the future prefix ku-, as part of a broader phenomenon of prefix reduction, inducing homonymy. To resolve the ambiguity, the Ø-R-ang-a construction evolved into the main present-tense construction.
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| 4. |
- Dom, Sebastian, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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The noncausal/causal alternation in Kagulu, an East Ruvu Bantu language of Tanzania
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. - 0167-6164 .- 1613-3811. ; 44:2, s. 129-153
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores the formal correspondences between the members of verb pairs participating in the noncausal/causal alternation in Kagulu, a Bantu language from Tanzania. Our investigation shows that Kagulu has a predominance of equipollent verb pairs, with the anticausative and causative correspondences following close behind. We argue that, diachronically, the causative correspondence was much more prominent than it is in present-day Kagulu. However, due to morphophonological changes triggered by the historical causative suffix *-i, a significant number of verb pairs that are diachronically causative can be synchronically reanalyzed as equipollent. This study highlights the complexity of diachronic morphology in synchronic analyses of comparative-typological phenomena such as the noncausal/causal alternation, and contributes to the growing body of research on noncausal/causal verb pairs in African languages.
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