Casos de uso expandidos

1.2.1 Previous work

Grammarians in the Quechuanist tradition have produced an impressive array of grammars, dictionaries, monographs, edited volumes, and articles on a wide variety of linguistic topics. The new findings and proposals presented in this work are largely nurtured and developed on the foundation of this substantial body of literature on Quechuan languages. Important observations have been made on individual aspect suffixes, and some studies describe aspectual contrasts. At the same time, I am not aware of a comprehensive discourse-based analysis of the elaboration of aspect as a grammatical system in Quechua.

Most individual grammars illustrate a progressive suffix for the Quechua language under consideration (see §10.2). The relevant form is referred to by various terms, including

“progressive,” “durative,” “continuous,” “continuative,” or “imperfective.” Among the more detailed comments to date are those provided by Adelaar and Muysken who report that “aspect systems are more or less well developed in virtually all Quechua dialects” (2004:231). They refer to various progressive forms and point out that some Central Quechuan varieties have an additional “perfective counterpart.” In other words, a single progressive suffix contrasts with a single perfective suffix. When neither of these two markers occurs, “the unmarked forms...have a habitual or general truth value.”

While the contrast between the progressive (a subtype of imperfective) and perfective markers is evident, in SCQ the grammatical expression of aspect is much more complex. As detailed in PART II, data from naturally-occurring SCQ speech reveal an aspect system which does not constitute a separate and neatly delineated category of binary oppositions. Instead, a wide assortment of grammatical markers with more specific aspectual meanings cover the range of perfective and imperfective viewpoints.

At this point it may be helpful to summarize ground-breaking works on aspect in Quechua.

Adelaar (1977:124) introduces the suffix -ru as a perfective and the contrastive suffix -ya(:) as a durative in Tarma Quechua. In a subsequent article, Adelaar suggests that the SCQ suffixes -ski and -yka: may “function within a system similar to that described for Tarma” (1988:39).

1 Preliminaries 7

In a similar vein, Weber (1989:144ff.) provides a brief section entitled “Aspect” in which he reports: “The most fundamental aspectual distinction in Huallaga Quechua is between -yku

‘perfective’ and -yka: ‘imperfective’. The second-most fundamental contrast is between -ri

‘punctual’ and -ra: ‘stative or durative’.” The aspect section also provides examples of -ykacha:

‘iterative’ and -ka:ku ‘complete(ly)’. Outside of the “Aspect” section, Weber discusses ‘past habitual’ and ‘perfect tense’.

In a section labeled “Aspect,” Cole (1982:147ff.) identifies four aspect markers in Imbabura Quechua (highland Ecuador), including -shka ‘perfect’, -j plus ka- ‘habitual’, -gri ‘ingressive’, and -riya ‘durative’. According to Cole, “there are no perfective or imperfective aspects.”

Presumably, this means there is no single general perfective nor imperfective marker, given that habitual and durative would be subtypes of imperfective, as is the progressive-continuous suffix -ju illustrated in another section of this work (1982:183).

In an innovative study in Pastaza Quechua (lowland Ecuador), Nuckolls (1996) explores the idea of aspect as grammatically encoded sound symbolism, that is, the productive use of ideophones (onomatopoeic words) to express aspectual notions. This approach is thought-provoking and richly illustrated for Pastaza Quechua. Conversely, sound symbolism in SCQ and neighboring highland Quechuan varieties plays a relatively minor role, similar to English.

Ideophones are expressed lexically and have not given rise to grammatical markers.

In addition to these pioneering studies of “aspectual systems” in Quechua, there are also a small number of helpful studies of individual aspect markers. Muysken (1977:107) shows how the suffix -gri ‘inchoative’ derives historically from an auxiliary verb construction in Ecuadorian Quechua. Stewart (1984) proposes that the suffix -ski marks perfective aspect in Conchucos.

Weber (1987b) analyzes the use of nominal versus verbal person markers with the past markers descended from *-rqa and *-rqu. Adelaar (1988) discusses the range of aspectual meanings of -ru ‘perfective’ in Tarma. Landerman (1991:262) compares the ‘durative’ forms -ku in Northern, -yka in North Peruvian, -yka: in Central, and -chka in Southern. Hintz (1992) traces the development of *-rqu ‘out’ from aspect to tense in several Central Quechuan varieties, including Corongo and SCQ.² Calvo (1993:111ff.) illustrates derivational suffixes in Cuzco. Benson (1996) examines functions of -ski and -yku in Huamalíes. Floyd (1996) suggests cognitive motivations for extended meanings of former directional suffixes in Huanca. Cerrón-Palomino (2003:145ff.) offers a reconstruction of the Central Quechua progressive *-yka:. Hintz (2005a;

2005b; 2006a; 2007) examines a variety of perfective and imperfective markers in SCQ. Adelaar (2006) takes a closer look at functional and semantic splits involving former directional suffixes in Tarma.³

2 “Hintz” refers to Daniel J. Hintz in this work, contrasting with references to “Diane Hintz.”

3 In keeping with the provisional nature of the treatment of aspect in previous studies, Quechua is not included in most cross-linguistic surveys of aspect (e.g., Comrie 1976, Bybee 1985, Chung and Timberlake 1985, Bybee et al. 1994, Smith 1997). Dahl (1985) includes a variety of Southern Quechua in a questionnaire sample, but only two aspect markers are mentioned in that

8 Crossing aspectual frontiers

1.2.2 Challenges

Binnick compares the study of aspect to “a dark and savage forest full of ‘obstacles, pitfalls, and mazes which have trapped most of those who have ventured into this much explored but poorly mapped territory’” (1991:135; inner quote from Macaulay 1978:416ff.). In keeping with this characterization, the study of aspect in Quechuan languages presents a number of challenges as well. Many treatments of Quechua verbal morphology principally depend on elicited monologic data, and do not have access to an extensive corpus of spontaneous everyday speech. Embodied conversational interactions, such as those in the SCQ corpus described in the next section, provide much richer contexts in which to analyze the semantic functions of the relevant markers.

Another issue is the fact that synchronic analyses typically are not well informed by the diachronic dimension. Individual aspect forms have been reconstructed to an earlier stage in the language with varying degrees of success, but the development over time of the aspectual system as a whole has not been previously considered. An understanding of past and ongoing developments can help to explain the patterns and idiosyncrasies of the modern system (Mithun 2000:273).

Perhaps more significantly, advances in the study of aspect in Quechua have been hampered by the inherent complexity of the total system. Aspect in Quechua features a highly elaborated derivational component, combined with inflectional and periphrastic elements. As noted above, the system is further complicated in that one and the same aspect marker may combine tense, modality, or manner in its semantics. No wonder Parker and others consider the analysis of non-final verbal suffixes so problematic.⁴

The need for a thorough investigation of aspect in Quechua is reflected in Adelaar’s assessment of the current state of affairs: “Grammatical descriptions of Quechua dialects tend to be frugal in their specification of the functions and meanings of non-final verbal suffixes”

(2006:125). Floyd’s candid appraisal is especially revealing: “The directional suffixes...also have aspectual meanings whose precise senses are still under investigation. Therefore for the present time I have chosen simply to gloss them as ASP without further distinguishing their semantics” (1999:10). The thought of many Quechuanists is typified in a question posed by

study—progressive and perfect. Hopefully, the analysis of aspectual distinctions in Quechua presented in this work will contribute to our understanding of the “considerable variation as to the extent to which derivational aspect is elaborated and used in languages” (Dahl and Velupillai 2005:266).

4 The system of non-final verbal suffixes has been described as “the most complex area of Quechua morphology” (Parker 1969a:136), “a linguistic puzzle” (Stewart 1984:98), “elusive”

(Adelaar 1988:17), “extremely difficult to define” (Landerman 1991:60), “difficult to translate...

difficult to arrive at a general definition” (Cerrón-Palomino 2003:281-2, my translation),

“elusive and difficult to define... often hard to translate” (Adelaar and Muysken 2004:231-2), and “the richest and most elusive part” (Adelaar 2006:124).

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Benson: “Is [aspect] purely a matter of stylistic variation or is there some pattern yet to be discovered?” (1996:24).

Each of the aforementioned studies furthers our knowledge of aspect in Quechua. At the same time, taken as a whole, they demonstrate that much more remains to be discovered.

Quechuanists have long called for the comprehensive investigation of aspect as a grammatical system, and it is such an endeavor that I carry out in this book.