Cover not available

In:Beyond Aspect: The expression of discourse functions in African languages
Edited by Doris L. Payne and Shahar Shirtz
[Typological Studies in Language 109] 2015
► pp. 23–52

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Aspect and thematic clause combining in Maa (Nilotic)

 | University of Oregon
Published online: 2 December 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.109.02pay
The Maa (Maasai, Eastern Nilotic) n[HL]- verb prefix has been called a “Narrative tense” or a “Narrative” morpheme. Rigorous discourse study shows that though it can occur on sequential semantically perfective main events, it is not limited to marking narrative events. Overall it marks high thematic continuity between equally-ranked propositions. On the other hand, what has previously been called a “Past” and a “Perfective” affix category is a functional Perfect which marks entry into a cognitive space conceptually prior to an already-established cognitive space. The Maa Perfect is cognate with a non-tense/aspect “dependent” prefix system used to mark main event chains in the Teso-Turkana language cluster. This cognacy demonstrates the close conceptual connection between tense-aspect forms and clausal taxis.
References (31)
References
Allen, Keith. 1990. Discourse stratagems in a Maasai story. In Current Approaches to African Linguistics 7, John P. Hutchison & Victor Manfredi (eds), 179-191. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Lloyd. 1982. The “perfect” as a universal and as a language-specific category. In Tense Aspect, Between Semantics and Pragmatics [Typological Studies in Language 1], Paul Hopper (ed.), 227-264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, Jane. 1818. Persuasion. London: John Murray. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Perkins, Revere & Pagliuca, William. 1994. The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cutrer, M. 1994. Time and Tense in Narratives and Everyday Language. PhD dissertation, University of California at San Diego.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit. 1991. The geometry of verb paradigms in Teso-Turkana. In Paradigms: The Economy of Inflection, Frans Plank (ed.), 275-305. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dry, Helen Aristar. 1992. Foregrounding: An assessment. In Language in Context: Essays for Robert E. Longacre, Shin Ja Hwang & William Merrifield (eds), 435-450. Dallas TX: SIL and University of Texas at Arlington.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1994. Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fleischman, Suzanne. 1990. Tense and Narrativity: From Medieval Performance to Modern Fiction. Austin TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forsyth, John. 1970. A Grammar of Aspect. Usage and Meaning in the Russian Verb. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimes, Joseph. 1975. The Thread of Discourse. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Austin. 1973. Toward the systematization of display grammar. In Clause, Sentence and Discourse Patterns of Nepal [Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics and Related Fields 40, Part 1], Austin Hale (ed.), 1-38. Norman OK: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul. 1979. Aspect and foregrounding in discourse. In Syntax and Semantics, 12: Discourse and Syntax, Talmy Givón (ed.), 213-241. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1982 Aspect between discourse and grammar: An introductory essay for the volume. In Tense Aspect: Between Semantics and Pragmatics [Typological Studies in Language 1], Paul Hopper (ed.), 3-18. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. 2002. Event structure and the perfect. In The Construction of Meaning, David Bever, Luis Casillas Martinez, Brady Clark & Stefan Kaufman (eds), 113-135. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
König, Christa. 1993. Akpekt im Maa. Köln: Institut für Afrikanistik, Universitat zu Köln.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William & Waletzky, Joshua. 1967. Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts. Proceedings of the 1966 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, June Helm (ed.), 12-44. Seattle WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Charles, Thompson, Sandra & Thompson, R. McMillan. 1982. The discourse motivation for the perfect aspect: The Mandarin particle le. In Tense Aspect: Between Semantics and Pragmatics [Typological Studies in Language 1], Paul Hopper (ed.), 19-44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Longacre, Robert. 1976. An Anatomy of Speech Notions. Lisse: Peter de Ridder.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. The Grammar of Discourse, 2nd edn. New York NY: Plenum Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCoard, Robert. 1978. The English Perfect: Tense Choice and Pragmatic Inferences. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mol, Fr. Frans. 1996. Maasai Language and Culture Dictionary. Lemek, Kenya: Maasai Centre Lemek.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Payne, Doris L. 1992. Narrative continuity vs. discontinuity in Yagua. Discourse Processes 15: 375-394. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Functions of Maa peê + Low tone: A case study of discourse driven polysemy. Journal of Linguistic Sciences [Korea] 11: 97-139.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Perspectives on Nilotic verb composition: Why can’t we agree on the Maa verb? In Nilo-Saharan: Models and Descriptions, Angelika Mietzner & Anne Storch (eds). 211–230Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
Schroeder, Helga. 2013. Mixed pivot constraints in Toposa clause chaining. Paper presented at the 11th Nilo-Saharan Colloquium, Cologne, Germany.
Smith, Carlotta. 1997. The Parameter of Aspect, 2nd edn. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, Daniel & Wilson, Deirdre. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tucker, Archibald Norman & Ole-Mpaayei, John T. 1955. Maasai Grammar, with Vocabulary. London: Longman, Green & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1957. Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review 66: 143–160. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Astrid De Wit, Frank Brisard, Carol Madden-Lombardi, Michael Meeuwis & Adeline Patard
2024. Beyond Aspectual Semantics, DOI logo
Shirtz, Shahar
2024. Discourse markers as the locus of signaling the main-event line in Alsea narratives. Linguistics 62:1 ► pp. 229 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue