‘Mother and child’ tense and aspect charted in a whole text

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

There is no straight ‘narrative voice’ tense in Makonde. There are, rather, several different tenses used by narrators when indicating their own voice: one is the present conjoint for the introductory ‘I’m going to tell a story…’. For most third-person narratives, this is the full extent of the narrator’s voice. However, in first person narratives, we may also see the anterior for the narrator’s reflections on what happened at the time of the story, and the present for his current view of the events. This can be seen in the chart ‘Mother and child’ below, clauses 1, 13a, and 14a, which illustrate these uses.

5.2 ‘Mother and child’ tense and aspect charted in a whole text

The text ‘Mother and child’ has been charted and tagged below to illustrate the use of tense and aspect in Makonde narrative in context, Speech has not been included in the Makonde sections, but translations of all speeches have been given so that the storyline can be followed appearing between square brackets, and tagged SP. There is a free English translation after every full sentence, and the independent verbs also have a literal word-for-word translation below them. For a word-for-word translation of the whole text see the charted text in the appendix. Only verbs which function independently or semi-independently are in the ‘verb’ column, while verbs in relative clauses and ones which are fully subordinated, are in the pre- and post-verb columns. In the English translations below each sentence, the pre-verbverbpost-verb columns are marked with slashes for easier cross-reference. Note too that all uses of tense and aspect in independent clauses, other than the default tense and the default narrative, have been addressed. Tags for tenses: • DEF NARR default narrative PAST past perfective • PAST IMPF past imperfective PRES PART present participle • ANTERIOR anterior perfective -KA- CONSECUTIVE -ka- consecutive • PURPOSIVE purposive PRESENT present habitual • PAST CONJ past conjoint PRES CONJ present conjoint ref pre-verb Verb post-verb comments 01. Ngulota kuvalanganga PRES CONJ + infinitive I.want to.tell maimyo apaingondo. present conjoint: used by narrator to give prominence to the telling of the story see section 6.3.2 01 I want to tell a story of the wartime. 02. Maimyo ala apaingondo ni COPULA it.is ingondo ailá itandi itandéke akuno ku Moshambiki yavyaka kumi. copula: see section 6.3.3 02 This wartime story is of the first war that happened here in Mozambique—the ten-year war [of independence]. 03a. Ingondo ailá vajungu vashindauma PAST IMPF they.were.leaving po pa Mweda apa past impf: use as prior progressive 03b. kupita DEF NARR passed default narrative 03c. vatenda PRES PART they.making ingondo pres part: used adverbially to describe action in 03b 03d. vavabyanga PRES PART they.killing.them venentete mmakaja. pres part: used adverbially to describe action in 03b 03 During that war, white people would make sorties from right here in Mueda, they would go and make war and kill people in the villages. ref pre-verb Verb post-verb comments 04a. Napanelo muliduva limo vandíinjila PAST they.entered mulikaja limo lya pa Mpeme past: opening inciting episode, important thematic information 04b. kanji vanu vashitukutangila PAST IMPF they.used.to.hide namene kubondi. past impf: use as prior progressive 04 Now one day they went into one of the Mpeme district villages, but people used to go and hide a lot in the low country [below the plateau escarpment]. 05a. Bai ndege kushanya kwomba DEF NARR bombed default narrative 05b. na vamadodo vapita PRES PART they.passing pai. pres part: describing action simultaneous with that in 05b 05 So the aeroplane overhead was bombing and the foot-soldiers passed over the ground below. 06a. Napanelo vandiwika ANTERIOR they.arrived palikaja lyavaikalénge vanu anterior: used cataphorically to heighten tension 06b. vanu avalá pavaanjenge kutukutanga bai kutwa vana kuvajanga DEF NARR abandoned.them popo default narrative 06c. kuvaleka DEF NARR left.them vene default narrative 06d. kutukuta. DEF NARR fled. default narrative 06 Then they came to a village where there were still people; those villagers when they began to flee then their childrenthey abandoned right there—they left them those same villagers they fled. 07a. Napanelo mama jumo auke went kwatukutidíle where.fled past conjoint: see section 6.3.2 07b. kutwala kunkumbukila DEF NARR remembered.him mwanagwe. default narrative 07 But one mother when she got to where she was fleeing remembered her child. 08a. Kanji vatukwite PAST CONJ they.fled pamo na ntwagwe past conjoint: see section 6.3.2 08b. nae kwona DEF NARR saw dashi: [ SPEECH ] default narrative 08 But they had fled she with her husband now she thoughtthus: [SP: what about my child? It’s better for me to go and die there with him.] 09a. Mwiu nkongwe aijá akatukuta -KA- CONSECUTIVE she.ran -ka- consecutive: used to ‘downgrade’ this verb 09b. kuja DEF NARR returned kavili default narrative ref pre-verb Verb post-verb comments 09c. nnume ntwagwe kudoni: DEF NARR [SPEECH] say. thus, default narrative 09 Indeed that woman she ran returning back again but her husband shouted to her [SP: “You mustn’t go back, they’ll kill you.”] 10. Nae kudoni: DEF NARR [ SPEECH ] say. thus, default narrative 10 She said: [SP: “No I’d rather go back and die with my child.”] 11a. Andítukuta PAST She.had.run moja kwamoja mpaka po palikaja past: opens peak episode 11b. navakodya PURPOSIVE and.found.them vajungu purposive: describes the new scene that meets the protagonist 11c. vandyúka PAST they.had.gone past: used after she found to describe preceding action 11d. vapita PRES PART they.passing pres part: used adverbially to describe action in 11c above 11e. vaomba PRES PART they.firing disemu dinji. pres part: used adverbially to describe action in 11c 11 She dashed as fast as she could to the village and she found the white people they had gone, they were moving on and firing somewhere else. 12a. Nae kunnambela DEF NARR searched.for.him apalá default narrative 12bc. akankodya -KA- CONSECUTIVE and.found.him mwanagwe alipidye palyukutu -ka- consecutive: used to ‘downgrade’ this verb 12d kutwala kuujanavo DEF NARR returned.with kavili default narrative 12e nakodyania PURPOSIVE and.met na ntwagwe. purposive: describes scene that meets her return 12 She searched for him there and found her child hidden in a bush; then she went back with him again and met up with her husband. 13a Napane maimyo ala nangu nimwona PRESENT I.see.her present: narrator’s voice giving current point of view 13bc. nkongwe aijá kuva DEF NARR to.be nkongwe wantima mwiu akashijopa default narrative ref pre-verb Verb post-verb comments 13de. kulota DEF NARR wanted dashi apele nae mwaa wamwana. default narrative 13 Now in this story, I see her that woman she was truly courageous, without fear, she was prepared that she might die because of the child. 14a. Nangu ndyona ANTERIOR I.have.seen mwiu anterior: narrator’s voice giving past reflections 14b. nkongwe aju avele PAST CONJ was nkongwe namene past conjoint: see section 6.3.2 14c. kanji nnume ntwagwe avele PAST CONJ was likule past conjoint: see section 6.3.2 14d. avele PAST CONJ was munu wakujopa. past conjoint: see section 6.3.2 14 I see truly this woman was a real woman but that man her husband was a coward he was a fearful person. 15ab cd. Pashitenda ndyagwe ntwagwe aashidoni: PRES PART [SPEECH] saying. thus pres part: describing a simultaneous event 15e. kanji nkongwe ata hatanene PAST NEG she.did.not.consider past negative: thematically important material 15f. andyuka PAST she.went mpaka koko akulá. past: recapitulation of thematically important information in denouement 15 While the wife was doing this, the husband was saying [SP: “Don’t go, you will die, they will kill you”] but the wife paid no attention she went all the way back there. 16a. Namwiu anímwambola PAST she.saved.him aijá mwanagwe past: new DU conclusion, recapitulation of thematically important information 16b. kumwidanavo DEF NARR brought.him.with default narrative: used to recapitulate in conclusion 16c. atukuta PRES PART running kulyutu lyapagwíte aijá ntwagwe. past part: used adverbially to describe action in 16b 16 And indeed she rescued her child and brought him back running to the place where her husband was. 6 Information structure A speaker or writer can convey the same information in different ways, depending on his assumptions about what his audience already knowns. The topic of a sentence is what the utterance is about; it must be either established or at least accessible. The focus of an utterance changes the audience’s mental representation about the topic, and contains the asserted information. 42 In addition, standard categorizing of sentence articulations fall into three main types depending on the domain of the focus within the utterance. In sentence focus utterances the whole sentence is discourse-new, asserted information; that is, the domain of the focus is the whole utterance. In predicate focus sentences the topic is presupposed but the comment—including the verb—is the domain of the focus. In argument focus sentences, only one argument of the utterance, whether the subject, object or adjunct, is the domain of the focus with the rest of the utterance, including the verb, being presupposed information. 43 Note that these categories also apply equally to clauses. For simplicity, however, the term ‘sentence articulation’ is used in this section for both.

6.1 Sentence focus presentational; thetic