The imperfective Ri in the domain of the TAM system of the verb

47 kolɔ nkyia yɔ londɔ nyɛ ti nyoli kɛng ngwola taa nyɔ kolɔ 0- nkyia yɔ londɔ nyɛ ti nyoli kɛng ngwola taa nyɔ for NC7 blood it PERF fill 3sg OBJ OVER body so much like goat 3sg EMPH ‘If you saw this drunk man, you will be afraid because blood, it was filling covering him, ALL over his body so much, like a goat which has had its throat cut.’ Tumbo 6.1. The underlined part of the data could be translated as ‘The blood, it has filled covered him, all over his body so much like a goat which has had its throat cut .’ Here, the LM in the ti+LM PP is the surface of the body of the man, i.e., the boundary of that body. So the blood has ‘filled’ or ‘covered’ all over the surface of that body. The blood has contact all over the whole boundary of the LM body. The verb ‘fill’ makes specific, the full extent of the coverage. In Mpyemo, this word for ‘fill’ does not necessarily mean that a 3D volume has to be filled which seems to be the sense which the word ‘fill’ is usually understood in English.

4.1.2. Location of a situation in time space and ti

48 ‘On his return, he meets a boy who comes out with his sister.’ Tumbo 1.4. i.e., during the time of his return, he meets…

4.1.3 Location of a situation in thought space

49 bingyena biɛ i duma ti kyɛng bi- ngyena biɛ I duma ti 0- kyɛng NC8 thought 3sg POSS it fall ON NC5 knife ‘His thought, it fell ON the knife.’ Tumbo 3.1 i.e., ‘He thought ABOUT the knife.’ wɛ wɛ 3sgP OSS .NC1 kali kali sister bɛ bɛ with duɔ duɔ come.out nyɛ nyɛ REL momorom mo- morom little man kɛkɛɛ kɛkɛɛ child nu nu certain nɛ nɛ thattowith boma boma see reflex a a 3sg mɛ mɛ 3sgP OSS .NC6 mɛmpula mɛmpula return Ti ti ifwhen gɔ gɔ SUB yɛ yɛ 3sg INAN OBJ kying kying neck kyɛgɔ kyɛgɔ cut bɔ bɛ -ɔ 3pl - PERF wɔ wɔ 2sg OBJ sa sa do, make i i it biɔng 0- biɔng NC7 fear , gɔ gɔ SUB nii nii this further mɛnyɔgi mɛnyɔgi corn beer mori mori person bɛ bɛ 3pl ɔ ɔ 2sg ti ti ifwhen trajector trajector

4.2 Ti in the domain of certain adverbial clauses

The preposition ti introduces three different kinds of adverbial clauses in Mpyemo, specifically: hypothetical if-clauses, factual if-clauses, and when- clauses. These clauses are all in the domain of topicality. And in this usage the ti always comes clause initially. There are, of course, other adverbial clauses that are not introduced by ti.

4.2.1 Ti and hypothetical conditionals: Ti n ɛ

Hypothetical conditionals always come sentence initially, and they are introduced by ti nɛ, and further distinguished by having a PERFECT pronoun on the verb of the conditional clause. 50 ‘If she replies from her tomb, he will marry this child.’ Ntang 2.14.

4.2.2 Ti and factual conditionals, ti but no n ɛ

We have found only one example of factual conditionals in the text corpus so far 51. The distinguishing feature of a factual conditional for what it is worth with just one example is that the verb of the conditional clause is preceded by a subject pronoun in the PRESENT tense. Also, in the one example that we have, the if-clause occurs sentence finally, but it is difficult to say that this could be a distinguishing feature from just one example. The context in 51 is that the boy, as the speaker, has just heard from his interlocutor that the latter claimed to be a man. So when the boy himself says ti ɔ mori ‘if you are a person’, he is merely confirming what his has just heard from his interlocutor. We might even have translated this particular conditional clause as ‘since you are a person’ or even ‘since I now know that you are a person’. 51 ‘This boy said, “Oh I’ll wipe your face if you are a person.’” Nkyambe 1.20-1.21. . “ mori mori person ɔ̄ ɔ̄ 2sg PRES ti ti if , gɔ gɔ SUB mpɔmbi 0- mpɔmbi NC9 face ri ri about wɔ wɔ 2sg obj tindala tindala wipe mɛ̄ mɛ̄ 1sg PRES ho ho Oh “ , nɛ nɛ thattowith nyɛ nyɛ 3sg subj PST nii nii this further Mo-morom mo- morom little man ni ni this mɔnɔ mɔnɔ child ba ba marry na na- FUT à à 3sg PST gɔ gɔ SUB sɔng 0- sɔng NC7 tomb to to in gyaɛ gyaɛ reply áá áá 3sg PERF nɛ nɛ COMP ti ti if