Present progressive Description of the use of tense and aspect in Makonde narrative

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

The present progressive tense in Makonde is formed with the subject prefix + nku + the verb stem. It contrasts with the present tense by specifying the progressive aspect of the verb; that is, the action is ongoing at the present moment. The present progressive is only found infrequently in this text corpus and no corpus of edited written literature exists to establish whether it might be edited out, as the present progressive is in Malila. 40 However, this seems unlikely in Makonde as it is used in narrative for a specific effect, which is 40 See Eaton, H. 2011. to present a situation with a critical need or problem. It is a very dramatic device, and unlike the other tenses, is used in the negative as frequently as the positive. On the event-line, the use of the present progressive gives a vivid freeze-frame of a situation that urgently needs resolving; i.e., heightening the tension, while waiting for the resolution or lack of it. 41 The parallel structures in the two examples below from 04 Elephant and Nightjar both demonstrate this use of the present progressive. In both cases the problem is that Elephant is proceeding through the bush on a collision course with Nightjar’s eggs, which are in a nest on the ground. In sentence 6, this is the first presentation of the problem scenario. Between sentences 6 and 16, Nightjar has asked Elephant to take care not to step on her eggs. However, Elephant brushes her off very rudely and keeps on coming, so there is now a high audience expectation that the worst is going to happen. In fact, Elephant does tread on the eggs 04 Elephant and Nightjar present progressive describing problem awaiting its resolution 6a. Bai Nnembo ankwida PRES PROG tu So Elephant he.is.coming just 6b. --- ankulya PRES PROG tu he.is.eating just. So Elephant keeps on coming, and keeps on eating. 04 Elephant and Nightjar present progressive describing problem awaiting its resolution 16a. Mwiu nangolo ankwida PRES PROG tu Truly old.one he.is.coming just, 16b. ankwida PRES PROG tu is.coming just. And indeed old Elephant keeps on getting nearer and nearer. In the denouement and conclusion, the present progressive is used for an almost reverse effect: to present a vivid picture of a problem situation, which the audience knows is not going to be resolved. The problematic situation that the protagonist finds himself in is the one with which he’s left after the mistakes he’s made. This leaves the audience reflecting on the moral of the story without needing to spell it out. The point the narrator is making below in clauses 35d–f of 05 Fisherman is that, having gained great riches through no merit of his own and having lost them all again through wilful stupidity, the protagonist is left at the end of the story in exactly the same miserably impoverished situation that was so highly emphasized at the beginning of the tale. One will also note the purposive, plus the anterior, showing the new situation the protagonist finds himself in, as described above. 05 Fisherman use of the present progressive to show situation of protagonist at the close of the narrative 35d. pindiku pindiku pindiku nalikodya PURPOSIVE [ideophone repeated] and.he.found.himself 41 This tense has been used in the translation of the New Testament in contexts such as in the story: Jesus Calms the Storm. Specifically, the present progressive has been used in Mark 5:37, where the waves are described as ‘coming into the boat’, heightening the understanding that this is a description of a genuine crisis. 35e. andiikala ANTERIOR mo mwingalava amu kavili he.has.sat in.that boat this again 35f. shanjaa ankutambisha PRES PROG kavili na indawana yake [ideophone ] he.is.fishing again with hook his. …rolling and somersaulting, tossed over and over, until—there he found himself sitting down back in his boat, sitting there again at his fishing line. In the example below from 09 Ákalimanya, which is a true story, the protagonist has cheated the inhabitants of the village out of their share of a trapped elephant; he is not overtly punished, but the village—as a group—turn their back on him, with the result in the end that he moves away. The author describes the final situation with two negative present progressives—he isn’t here; I don’t know where he is—leading into the rhetorical question, ‘Where is he now?’ No one knows. The author’s point is implicit: through his greed and bad faith, the protagonist has lost his community and is abandoned to the mercy of the hostile world. 09 Ákalimanya use of the present progressive to show situation of protagonist at the close of the narrative 47a. Aijá nangolo Ákalima-nya S mpaka nelo ata po paludeya apalá hanapagwa shinu PRES PROG NEG That old.one Ákalimanya until today even that at.village that he.is.not not, 47b. anditumuka ANTERIOR he.went.away 47c. ata pavele nelo hangunamanya shinu PRES PROG NEG even here.he.is today I.do.not.know not 47d. kwali anama PRES CONJOINT likaja shani? or he.living village which? And to this very day, old Ákalimanya is no longer in that village; he went away and I have no idea where he is today, not even which village he’s living in.

5.1.9 The narrative voice