Remote past tense Resultative tense

2.5 Background tenses

Sections 2.5–2.8 describe the verb tenses that particularly relate to the various sections of a narrative, 7 beginning with background tenses in section 2.5. Two stative tensesaspects function to provide background for the text. One describes the ‘remote past tense’, providing contexts like time and place. The other, called ‘resultative’, describes present state.

2.5.1 Remote past tense

The remote past tense functions to provide the background details of the story. It is marked by a subject noun class marker, followed by the tense morpheme âli. This remote past tense is often followed by a resultative form, which can be riiri ‘to be’, tuuziri ‘to live’, hiiti ‘to have’, etc. In 20 background verbs include Hâli riiri ‘there was’, introducing the main character; yâli tuuziri ‘it was living’, showing where the gazelle was living; kâli riiri ‘it was’, showing what the valley was like; and byâli hiiti ‘it had’, describing the trees. All of these verbs set the stage for the story, describing the situation in which it occurred. 20 Pre-NO Pre-NI S V OC Post-NI Post-NO 1 Hâli riiri imbongo na mukaayo nomwana wazo There was gazelle and wife of it and child of theirs 2a Iyo mbongo yâli tuuziri mu kabanda kaguma kiija That gazelle it was living in valley one nice 2b --- kâli riiri nekishungu-shungu kyebiti byemimbati it was with bushes of trees of casava 3 Yibyo biti byâli hiiti akalaala kiija bweneene Those trees were having very nice leaves ‘There was a gazelle, and its wife, and their child. That gazelle was living in a nice valley. It had cassava bushes. Those bushes had very nice leaves.’ T2

2.5.2 Resultative tense

The resultative also involves background material. Technically, the term resultative describes a present ongoing state, resulting from a past action. For example, the default form of the verb -bwatal- means to ‘sit down’. The resultative form -bwatiiri means ‘being in the state of having sat down’. In the same narrative, in 21 the gazelle is coming back to his home place, blissfully unaware of any trouble. The verb iteziri ‘it is lying in wait’ shows that ‘the leopard has laid down in a place where it can trap the gazelle, and it is still in the state of laying down waiting to catch it’. This provides background with a sense of immediacy. 7 For a much fuller description of the intricate Fuliiru tense-aspect system, see Van Otterloo 2011. 21 Pre-NO Pre-NI S V OC Post-NI Post-NO 19 Kiziga ingwi iteziri Surprise leopard is waiting to harm it. ‘Surprise, the leopard was waiting for it.’ T2 In the same story the gazelle is ‘in the present state of not knowing’. This again is background information in the immediate present. 22 Pre-NO Pre-NI S V OC Post-NI Post-NO 21b Imbongo itayiji kiri na kiri Gazelle does not know even a little ‘The gazelle was not aware, even a little bit.’ T2 In each of these two cases, the resultative describes a background state in the present tense.

2.6 Tail-head marking for new paragraphs