Purposive na- + stem Description of the use of tense and aspect in Makonde narrative

An example from outside this text corpus is found in an oral recording of a Bible story, viz., The Parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke chapter 15. 38 In this story the -ka- consecutive was used eleven times in a 49-sentence story, with the majority of uses occured in the first 14 sentences. Also noteworthy, of the others, all but one are in speech introducers, and the other is just before a crucial event. In most of these instances, ‘downgrading’ takes place to move the story forward as a whole, rather than to highlight the immediately following events. The use of the -ka- consecutive makes it clear that for this storyteller, the whole of the prodigal son’s escapade is simply a necessary preliminary to his return to his father. 5.1.7 Purposive na- + stem The structure of the purposive is the connective na- ‘and, with’ + the verb stem, used in combination with a preceding finite verb, often a verb of motion, in order to show purpose. There is no tenseaspect marker and no subject marker, although it does take object infixes. Like present participles, purposive verbs are dependent structures, typically employed in subordinate clauses, but in narrative text they may take on a semi-independent function. The first use in narrative is the motion + purpose use; and there are several straightforward examples of this in the texts presented in this paper. The interesting feature is that sometimes the verb of motion is not actually present with the purposive, but rather assumed, either because it occurred earlier in the clause or sentence or because the sense implies it. This means, of course, that in the clause in question, the purposive is the only verb present taking on a semi-independent nature. 09 Ákalimanya purposive used with verb of motion 9a. Tuvanu kuka DEF NARR We.people went 9b. namwigwilila PURPOSIVE Ákalimanya and.heard.him Ákalimanya 9c. alota kutwaulila PRES PART + INFINITIVE nyamani. he.wants to.inform.us what. So we went to hear what it was that Ákalimanya wanted to tell us about. 03 Hyena and Pied Crow purposive used with verb of motion assumed 8a. --- Kulipakanga DEF NARR shana dimeme mumili amu Painted.himself well seasoning on.body on.this 8b. amu ndaikala PURPOSIVE pamoto apalá. this and.sat by.fire there. He took some seasoning 39 and painted himself well with it all over, and went all covered in seasoning and sat by the fire. The purposive is also used resultatively, describing a new scene after a dislocation of place. This resultative usage is usually found with verbs such as meet, find, saw etc. This differs from the first use of purposive as it is not the intention of the subject to ‘find’ whatever scene he encounters; this is simply the scene that is met with on arrival after a change of location within the narrative. 38 The retelling was kindly made available to me by Lydia Hunter; see Hunter 2012. 39 The local seasoning dimeme turns bright red when it is cooked. Usually the first element describing a dislocation of place is a past conditional verb of motion in a semantic progression ‘tail-head’—when he went, when he arrived—and then a purposive verb follows. When a protagonist is moving from one place to another, this is the standard sequence of verbs to describe the scene in the new location. In the example from 01 Horned Animals below, the ‘head’ is pawikile akulá ‘when he arrived there’, followed by the purposive navakodya ‘he found.’ A description of the scene—all the horned animals dancing—then follows. 01 Horned Animals: purposive used after tail-head of motion to show new scene that meets the participant 11a. Pawikile akulá navakodya PURPOSIVE vavagwe When.arrived there and.met.them his.associates 11b. vavele PAST PART shingati na kuvina pashiwanja they.being middle and dance in.field. When Rabbit turned up at the party, he found everyone out in the clearing dancing away. Sometimes there is no semantic tail-head construction, and the purposive simply follows a past verb of motion, but still describes the scene that meets the participant on arrival at the new location. There are two examples of this occurring in 07 Mother and child. In clause 11a below the mother andítukuta ‘ran’ back as fast as she could to the village navakodya ‘and found them’; namely, the Portuguese soldiers, gone. It is very clear in this example that there is no intention involved in the purposive; this is simply the situation she encounters. In clause 12e, quoted above in section 5.1.6, the - ka- consecutive, the mother kuujanavo ‘returns with [her child]’ nakodyania ‘and mets’ her husband. Again, the purpose of returning is not to meet with her husband, but to bring the child back out of the danger zone. Meeting her husband is simply the situation she encounters on her return. 07 Mother and Child use of purposive to show new scene that meets the participant 11a. --- Andítukuta PAST moja kwamoja mpaka po palikaja She.had.run one by.one until there at.village 11b. navakodya PURPOSIVE vajungu and.found.them white.people 11c. vandyúka PAST they.had.gone She dashed back as fast as she could to the village, where she found that the Portuguese had moved on… Literally: she found the white people; they had gone.

5.1.8 Present progressive