Características Generales del Café ( Coffea spp )

In the structure, the verb moves as usual to values its T-features on the relevant heads.

c. Òfunnà à-gba-ju-chē-ē-lā ìte mmiri O PRE-fetch-full-all-PST-PERF pot water

‘Ofunna has filled all the water pots’

d. Chịdi ̀ è-je-ē-la ahịā

C. PRE-go-PST-PERF market

‘Chịdị have gone to the market’

Data (185) above express the perfective aspect. The examples show that PERF in Ìgbò

is marked by the affix, –la, which is suffixed to the verbroot. Observe the presence of the e-prefix in data (185c&d). It occurs when the subject is not a monosegment pronoun as in (185a&b). In perfective constructions, the T-morpheme (i.e. VS) may intervene between the verbroot and the PERF marker (see 185a,c&d). Obiamalu (2015) submits that the VS is an empty morpheme in perfective constructions. Obiamalu (2015:81-82) presents three pieces of evidence in support of this position: First, the VS does not occur in perfective constructions where the verbroot has CVV syllable structure as in (186) Ọ bịa-la

3SG come-PERF

‘He has come’

.

Secondly, VS does not occur where the verbroot is a complex one⁸¹ (a verb with more than one root) as shown below:

(187) a. Ike e-gbū-dà-la nkwụ ahụ

Ike PRE-cut-fall-PERF palm tree DEM Ike has cut down the palm tree’

b. Ọ zụ-ta-la ụgbọ àlà ọhụru 3Sg buy-Ext.Suff-PERF vehicle land new

‘S/he has bought a new car’

Lastly, in dialects where the perfective is marked by the suffix –go and other phonologically related variants: -gwo, -wo, -gwe, the VS does not occur as in O ̀ni ̀chà

dialect as shown below (see Obiamalu, 2015: 82):

(188) a. O gbū-gō ekē

3S kill-PERF python

‘S/he has killed a python’

81 It is not clear whether this also include verbs with extensional suffix because data (203b) is not a complex verb based on the definition of a complex verb.

b. O gō-gō ụno ̀ n’O ̀ni ̀chà

3S buy-PERF house P Onicha S/he has bought a house at Onicha’

Although, the last point is tenable, there are issues arising from the first two. Firstly, it is natural for the VS not to occur with verbs in CVV structure because Igbo verbs do not have CVVV form. Attaching the VS to a verbroot with CVV structure violates the syllable structure principle of the language. Therefore, it is natural for the VS not to attach to verbs in CVV form. Besides, one can also argue that ‘bia’ has C^JV and not CVV since V1 is often palatalised especially when it is infinitivised as in ịbịa ‘to come’.

With regard to the second point, there are counter examples which show that complex verbs may take VS as shown below.

(189) a. Ike e-gbū-dà-la nkwụ ahụ

Ike PRE-cut-fall-PERF palm tree that

‘Ike has cut down the palm tree’

b. Ike e-gbū-dà-a-la nkwụ ahụ

Ike PRE-cut-fall-PST-PERF palm tree that

‘Ike has cut down the palm tree’

c. Òfunna à-gba-ju-chē-e -lā ìte mmiri O PRE-fetch-full-all-PST-PERF pot water

‘Ofunna has filled all the water pots’

When data (189a-b) were presented to speakers for grammaticality judgement, they preferred sentence (189b) to (189a). Besides, (189c) also contains a complex verbroot and yet, it co-occurs with the VS. Therefore, these reasons are not sufficient to argue for the emptiness of the suffix in PERF constructions. The study also does not support the fact that the VS jointly marks PERF with the suffix –la. Rather, it is the remnant of the past tense morpheme based on the fact that it has the same distribution with the medial –rV that marks the past in PST APPL constructions. This issue is discussed further in the next sub-section. Now, to determine the structure of perfective constructions using the sentence in (185b), the numeration is rendered as (190) below:

(190) N= {O1, si1, VS-PST1, PERF –la, ʋ1, nri1}

From the numeration above, computation begins by selecting LIs from the numeration above and merging them to yield the structure below with arrows showing movement, phases and spell-out domains.

The schema above shows how the perfective construction is derived. The T-morpheme is merged in the structure before the PERF morpheme indicating that ASP dominates T.

In furtherance, the imperfective aspect (also durative aspect see Emenanjo, 1985, Obiamalu, 2015), is marked by the auxiliary verb ‘na’ at least in the SI. It is categorised into two: the progressive aspect and the habitual aspect. According to Obiamalu (2015:

82) the imperfective aspect expresses an on-going action at a particular point in time which may be in the present or past or a habit which has been going on over a period of time. The former is regarded as progressive aspect while the latter is regarded as habitual aspect. Studies show that both progressive and habitual are similarly marked in the language. It is context that determines the one intended. Consider the examples below:

(192) a. Ànyị nà à-chụ ntā.

1PL IMPERF PART-hunt hunting

‘We are hunting.’ (PROG)

‘We hunt/We are hunters.’ (HAB)

b. Chịdi ̀ nà a-ku ̀ azu ̀.

C. IMPERF PART-fish fish

‘Chidi is fishing.’ (PROG)

‘Chidi fishes/Chidi is a fisherman (HAB)

CP C⁰

Ø

Asp^I

DP

<O>

AspP DP

O

DP nri Asp⁰ TP

si-e-la

TP^I T⁰

si-e

ʋP ʋ^I

VP ʋ

O ʋ⁰

<si>

V⁰

<si>

(191)

c. Ogè nà à-gụ akwụkwọ.

O. IMPERF PART-read book

‘Oge is reading.’ (PROG)

‘Oge reads/Oge is a student’ (HAB)

d. Ọ nà è-je ahịā

3SG IMPERF PART-go market

‘S/he is going to the market.’ (PROG)

‘S/he goes to market.’ (HAB)

The data above show that a LT auxiliary verb nà marks the imperfective in the language. It often takes the participial form of the verb as a complement. One observation about anticipatory tense and aspectual constructions such as the future tense and imperfective aspect involving the auxiliaries is that they do not permit high level of interaction of inflectional affixes in the TP domain. Hence, they have the same the same GP, the diagram below represents the structure of a durative aspect construction.

Observe in the structure that AUX and the particial marker are based generated on Asp⁰. The order of merge is discussed in the next sub-section on negation.

C⁰ Ø

ʋP

VP DP nta

(193)

AspP Asp^I

Asp na-achụ

ʋ^I DP

<Ànyị>

ʋ⁰

<chụ>

V⁰

<chụ>

Phase

Spell-Out CP

DP Ànyị

Phase and Spell-Out