The System of Tense and Aspect Markers in Lefa (Bantu, A.50)

Abstract

Abstract: This paper describes the verbal morphemes used in Lefa for tense (4 pasts, 2 futures, Narrative) and aspect (Progressive, Habitual, Persistive, Inceptive, Perfect) and describes their morphological and constructional properties. Although these tense and aspect markers form semantic systems, the markers vary in these properties with no two acting in exactly the same way in regard to all of them. While this variety of morphological and constructional properties may be unexpected in certain formalistic theories, it is not surprising from the perspective of grammaticalization.