Descripción de las clases

The inflectional imperfective markers are past habitual -q (or -q=ka), present habitual -Ø, and narrative past -na: (or -na:=ka). These appear in the obligatory verbal slot I2, in paradigmatic contrast with the past perfectives presented in §2.2, as well as futures and moods. The obligatory imperfective distinctions may be further specified by the addition of derivational aspect suffixes.

67 For examples of reduplication structures in Tarma Quechua see Adelaar (1977:158ff.) and in Huallaga Quechua see Weber (1989:317ff.).

3 Imperfectives 77

3.2.1 -q ‘past habitual’

The inflectional marker -q (from *-q ‘nominalizer’) combines elements of habitual aspect and past tense in its semantics.⁶⁸ This marker presents a situation as customarily repeated in the past or characteristic of a time period restricted to the past. The simple form -q marks past habitual with third person subjects, as in (122) and (123).⁶⁹

(122) Tayanqocha-pita-qa pe sha-ka-ya:-mu-q kiki-n-kuna-lla Tayancocha-ABL-TOP then come-MID-PL.V-FAR-PST.H self-3-PL.N-DLM

‘From Tayancocha (the cows) used to come all by themselves.’

(123) ni-q-cha, unay mama-:-pa awila-n-kuna say-^PST.^H-^MUT long.ago mother-1-GEN grandmother-3-PL.N

kwenta-ku-ya-q tell-MID-PL.V-PST.H

‘They used to say that, long ago my mother’s grandmothers used to tell that.’

The longer form -q=ka (from *-q ‘nominalizer’ plus copula *ka-) marks past habitual with speech-act participant subjects. An overt person suffix, usually first person -:, specifies the speech-act participant, as in (124) and (125). Incidentally, 95% of the past habituals in the coded data have third person subjects, while less than 5% have speech-act participant subjects.

(124) trabaha-ya-q=ka-: eskwe:la-kuna-cho: wamra-kuna-ta yachatsi-r work-PL.V-PST.H=be-1 school-^PL.^N-^LOC child-^PL.^N-^OBJ teach-^SS

‘We used to work in the schools teaching the children.’

(125) estudya-y-pa:-pis wanu-q=ka-:

study-INF-PURP-EVEN die-PST.H=be-1

‘I was dying (strong desire) to study.’

For some speakers, an independent final suffix may intervene between the two elements -q and =ka of the past habitual construction. This discontinuity is illustrated in (126) with the intervention of negative -tsu. For other speakers, however, -q and =ka are inseparable. In (127) negative -tsu is attached after both elements and the person marker. This example shows that the adjoining elements -q plus the former auxiliary =ka are beginning to fuse together, forming a single grammatical morpheme in the past habitual construction.

68 The suffix -q is glossed as PST.H for past habitual. As shown in Map A.6 in Appendix A, this form is common throughout the language family.

69 The simple form of the past habitual is exclusive to third person verbs because the copula is not formally marked with third person, only with speech-act participants, e.g., ka-: ‘I am’, ka-nki

‘you are’ ka-ntsik ‘we (incl.) are’, but Ø ‘s/he is’.

78 Crossing aspectual frontiers

(126) po:ku importansya ka-ra-n, i mana maña-ku-q-tsu ka-:

little importance be-PST-3 and no ask-MID-PST.H-NEG be-1

tayta dyos-man

father god-ALL

‘It had little importance, and I was not in the habit of praying to Father God.’

(127) riñon-wan sufri-r …trabaha-y-ta pwe:di-q=ka-:-tsu kidney-COM suffer-SS work-INF-OBJ be.able-PST.H-1-NEG

‘During the time I was suffering with a kidney infection I was not able to work.’

Summarizing, the inflectional marker -q (or -q=ka) presents a situation as customarily repeated in the past or characteristic of a time period restricted to the past. It appears in paradigmatic contrast with other inflectional TAM markers in the obligatory slot I2. The simple form -q marks third person past habitual, and the less frequent longer form -q=ka marks past habitual with speech-act participants. The longer form is inflected with a person marker.

The past habitual was formed by the reduction of a periphrastic construction in which the nominalizer *-q was followed by the copular auxiliary *ka- inflected with a past suffix plus a person marker. The past suffix no longer occurs in SCQ, but the past meaning is absorbed by the remaining phonological material -q/-q=ka (see §5.3 and §10.6). Auxiliation and the development of aspect suffixes from analytic verbal constructions are treated in detail in Chapter 11.

3.2.2 -Ø ‘present habitual’

Present habitual is marked inflectionally by grammatical zero (-Ø), that is, the meaningful absence of a formal marker in the obligatory suffix slot I2.⁷⁰ It presents a situation as customarily repeated or as characteristic of a time period that includes present reference time (usually the moment of speech). Present habitual -Ø is not a general present imperfective because it does not mark progressive aspect. Instead, progressive is marked by the continuous aspect suffix -yka: (§3.1.2).⁷¹

Present habitual -Ø is the most frequent of all the aspect markers, comprising one third of all the verbs in the coded data (488 of 1,452). In keeping with its inflectional status, this -Ø marker is mutually exclusive with the other inflectional TAM markers that have formal expression in slot I2. These include the past perfective suffixes -ru, -sha, and -ra (§2.2), past habitual -q (§3.2.1), and narrative past -na: (§3.2.3). Present habitual -Ø is explicitly marked and glossed as PRS

70 Two languages in the Gramcats database—Kui (Dravidian) and Tucano—have present habituals, and both are expressed by grammatical zeros (Bybee et al. 1994:175).

71 Continuous -yka:, habitual -rayka:, and past habitual -q all appear to have taken over some of the imperfective functions of -Ø. The evolution of imperfective categories is addressed in Chapter 10.

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throughout the current section to clarify its analysis. Elsewhere in this work, the lack of a formal marker in the obligatory I2 verbal position should be understood as present habitual by convention.⁷²

In most instances of present habitual -Ø, only the habit holds at the present moment, not the action itself. For example, in (128) the habit of crying holds at the moment of speech, not the act of crying. Similarly, in (129) the habit of doing the annual fiesta holds at the moment of speech, not the action of doing the fiesta. In (130) the people are characterized as badly behaved.

(128) allaw-chi waqa-Ø-n feyu-pa sha-ka-mu-pti-:-pis pity-CNJ cry-PRS-3 much-ADV come-MID-FAR-DS-1-EVEN

‘Such a pity she (our mother) cries a lot, even though I come home often.’

(129) Tsuyu marka-:-cho: fyesta-ta rura-ya-Ø-: tres de octubri-m Tsuyo town-1-LOC fiesta-OBJ do-PL.^V-^PRS-1 third of october-^DIR

‘In our town Tsuyo we do the fiesta (every) third of October.’

(130) kostumra-sh tsay-kuna-qa ka-ya-Ø-n accustom-^PTCP that-^PL.^N-^TOP be-PL.V-PRS-3

‘Those people are always badly behaved.’

Examples (131) and (132) describe a more general habitual scenario in which the participants are less specified than in (128)-(130). This type of habitual has been referred to as generic aspect. Both habitual and generic are referred to here as habitual aspect, since each presents a situation as characteristic of a time period. That is, the difference between habitual versus generic lies in the specificity of the participants. The aspectual meaning of -Ø is the same for both uses.⁷³

In (131) small dogs are characterized as understanding Spanish. This characterization incidentally holds at the present moment. Similarly, entering a “second childhood” stage of life is characterized in (132) without necessarily holding at the present moment.

72 The habitual meaning of -Ø in connected SCQ speech is very similar to the “unmarked present” in English. For example, what do you do? I drink coffee is necessarily habitual in English. The equivalent expression in SCQ—imatata: ruranki? kafe:ta upu:—is habitual as well. By contrast, in conversational Spanish, qué haces? tomo café can convey the non-habitual reading ‘What are you doing? I’m drinking coffee.’ For more on the tense component of present habitual -Ø see §5.4.

73 For further discussion on habitual versus generic, see Chafe (1970:168-78) and Bybee et al.

(1994:152).

80 Crossing aspectual frontiers

(131) pichi allqu mana-ku ko:sa kastellanu-ta-shi entyendi-Ø-n small dog no-Q.P well spanish-OBJ-RPT understand-PRS-3

‘Small dogs understand Spanish very well, right?’

(132) chakwas-ya-q ruku-ya-q llullu-n-man-na-sh tikra-Ø-n ari old.woman-^INCH-^AG old.man-^INCH-^AG baby-3-^ALL-^NOW-^RPT turn-PRS-3 yes

‘When a woman or a man gets old, she or he becomes a baby again.’

Typically, when the inflectional habitual meaning of -Ø is further specified by the continuous suffix -yka:, the action of the verb holds at the present moment. It is striking that 88% of the exemplars of -yka: occur with present habitual -Ø and only 12% occur with some other TAM marker in slot I2. (For more on continuous -yka: refer to §3.1.2 and §5.4.)

Above in (128) the verb waqa-n ‘she cries’ refers to the habit of crying. That habitual meaning contrasts with the verb waqa-yka-n ‘he is crying’ in (133) where the action holds at the moment of speech. Similarly, the action of chewing holds at the present moment in (134).

(133) allaw tiyu-ntsi: waqa-yka-Ø-n.

pity uncle-1I cry-CONT-PRS-3

‘Such a pity our uncle is crying.’

(134) tayta dyos-ni: qara-ka-ma-nqa-n-ta-chi father god-1 give-MID-1OBJ-NMLZ.R-3-OBJ-CNJ

kapchu-yka:-mu-Ø-n ukush chew-CONT-FAR-PRS-3 mouse

‘A mouse is chewing on (the rope up there) that my Father God gave me, I think.’

In rare instances, the action marked by present habitual -Ø holds at the moment of speech, even though continuous -yka: does not occur in the verb. In these instances, other linguistic and pragmatic factors come into play. For example, the action may hold at the moment of speech in the performative use of the present, that is, a punctual reading in which the beginning and endpoints are identical. The matrix verbs in the following two examples are performatives.

(135) hura-Ø-:-mi qara-na-:-pa: ka-q-ta promise-PRS-1-DIR give-^NMLZ.^I-1-^PURP be-^AG-^OBJ

‘I promise to give it to you.’

(136) tayta dyos, tsay-no:-lla-mi maña-ka-ra-ya:-mu-Ø-: ari father god that-SIM-DLM-DIR ask-MID-PUNC-PL.V-FAR-PRS-1 yes familya-:-kuna marka-:-cho: ka-yka-q-pa:

family-1-^PL.^N town-1-^LOC be-^CONT-^AG-^PURP

‘Father God, like that I also pray for my family who are in my hometown.’

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The “action” also appears to hold at the moment of speech in (137), where the negated cognition verb yarpa:- ‘remember’ is marked by -Ø. Negated cognitive processes, however, often receive a habitual interpretation which incidentally includes the present moment. Here, the

“present” component of present habitual receives greater focus due to the pragmatics of the specific communicative situation. Moreover, continuous -yka: rarely occurs with cognition verbs, which suggests that imperfective aspect may be inherent in the semantics of these verbs.

(137) yarpa-Ø-:-tsu atska wata-na ka-pti-n remember-PRS-1-NEG many year-NOWbe-DS-3

‘I don’t remember because that was many years ago.’

In many languages a present imperfective—present habitual in SCQ—can also be used to report a past (historical present) or future situation, given a suitable linguistic or pragmatic context. In these cases, the reference time shifts from the moment of speech to a past situation, as in (138), or to a future situation, as in (139). Such time shifts occur in nearly one third of all instances of -Ø in the coded data.⁷⁴

(138) aywa-r shoqa-ya-pti-: mas-ran waqa-Ø-n-pis go-SS console-PL.V-DS-1 more-DIR.YET cry-PRS-3-^EVEN

‘After we went to him and “consoled” him (in jest), he cried all the more.’

(139) kanan noqa-qa aywa-ku-Ø -:, kuti-ku-Ø-:-qa waray hwe:bis-qa now I-TOP go-MID-PRS-1 return-MID-PRS-1-TOP tomorrow thursday-TOP

‘And now I will go, I will return there tomorrow Thursday.’

The reference time can also shift to the immediate past in certain surprising (mirative) situations, as illustrated in the following example.

(140) diyablu-pa wacha-shqa-n, roqu-ku-ski-Ø-:

devil-^GEN give.birth-^NMLZ.^R-3 cut-MID-PFV-PRS-1

‘Son of the devil! I cut myself!’

74 Present habitual -Ø does not express a general future, only a situation that is specifically planned for the immediate future, as in (139). This immediate future use of -Ø contrasts with the general future which is formally marked (in all but second person) by a set of portmanteau suffixes. These suffixes combine future tense and person, e.g., -sha: ‘first person future’ and -nqa ‘third person future’. The contrast between immediate and general future involves both time reference (tense and aspect) and high certainty that the event will be realized (epistemic modality).

82 Crossing aspectual frontiers

In summary, the inflectional present habitual marker -Ø presents a situation as customarily repeated or as characteristic of a time period that includes present reference time (usually the moment of speech). It appears in paradigmatic contrast with other inflectional TAM markers in the obligatory verbal slot I2. Typically, the habit or characterization holds at the present moment, but not the action itself, except in performatives and with a small set of inherently imperfective cognition verbs. To further convey that an action holds at the present moment, the continuous suffix -yka: may be added. In certain contexts, the reference time can shift from the moment of speech to the past (historical present), to the immediate past, or to the immediate planned future. In these latter three uses of -Ø the action holds at the non-present reference time.

3.2.3 -na: ‘narrative past’

The inflectional marker -na: is a multifaceted grammatical morpheme in SCQ, combining elements of imperfective aspect and past tense, together with modal and evidential senses in its semantics. I focus here on aspectual attributes of -na: in naturally-occurring speech, and on other senses in ^{PART III} “Aspect and related semantic domains.”⁷⁵

The suffix -na: typically presents a situation as in progress in the past (141) or characteristic of a time period restricted to the past (142).

(141) punta-ta-qa “Ni:ku-m apa-sh” ni-ya:-na:

first-^ADV-^TOP Niko-^DIR take-^PST.^R3 say-PL.V-PST.N

‘At first they were saying (to our neighbors), “Niko took it”.’

(142) unay-qa ukush-pis parla-na:-shi long.ago-TOP mouse-EVEN speak-PST.N-RPT

‘Long ago even mice could speak, they say.’

The simple form -na: is used with third person subjects, and the longer form -na:=ka with speech-act participant subjects. An overt person marker specifies the speech-act participant, such as the first person suffix -: in (143). The longer form is exceedingly rare, with only one exemplar in the SCQ corpus. In contrast, hundreds of instances of the simple form -na: mark third person subjects.⁷⁶

75 In the traditional Quechuanist literature, the category expressed by -na: and cognate forms in Central Quechua is often referred to as the “narrative past,” glossed here as PST.N. In this section I highlight the propensity of -na: to express ongoing past situations in naturally-occurring speech, that is, past imperfective aspect. Cerrón-Palomino’s description of the cognate form -ña-q in Huanca Quechua—“alludes to a prolonged action in the past” (1976:174, my translation)—

could also be interpreted as imperfective aspect.

76 The longer form of narrative past (-na:=ka) results from an earlier stage of development in which the mode of expression was a periphrastic construction involving the copular auxiliary

3 Imperfectives 83 (143) ke:-no: baha:da-qa kurba kurba kurba kurba tse:-no:-pa dere:chu-n-pa this-SIM descent-TOP curve curve curve curve that-SIM-GEN straight-3-GEN

pa:sa-ski-ya:-na:=ka-: mana kurba-ta tuma-ypa pass-PFV-PL.V-PST.N=be-1 no curve-^OBJ turn-^ADV

‘Though the path descended with many curves, we were going straight down without following the switchbacks.’

Narrative past -na: has an unusually high correlation with stative verbs and is especially frequent with the copula ka-. The form ka-na:, illustrated in (144)-(146), appears in 28% of all -na: exemplars. In contrast, past perfective -ru never appears with the copula, and the set of derivational perfectives rarely do.

(144) haw mati-rikoq ka-na: tsay-si wow dish-CLASS be-PST.N that-EVEN

‘Wow, those (eucalyptus seeds) were just like dishes!’

(145) unay-shi ka-ya:-na: ishke: wawqi-kuna.

long.ago-RPT be-PL.V-PST.N two brother-PL.N

hukaq-kaq-qa ri:ku yarqu-na:. hukaq-kaq-qa pobri ka-na:.

other-DEF-TOP rich leave-PST.N other-DEF-TOP poor be-PST.N

‘Long ago they say there were two brothers. One of them turned out rich. The other one was poor.’

(146) a:nir yarpu-ski-r-nin-qa kanasta-kuna kimsa ka-na:

later lower-PFV-SS-3-TOP basket-PL.N three be-^PST.^N

‘Later after he descended there were (he had) three baskets.’

Narrative past -na: often presents information off the main storyline in narratives, an attribute associated with imperfectives in many languages (e.g., Hopper 1979:216). For example, (145) establishes the setting in a legend, (146) provides relevant information for the continuation ka-. The simple form (-na: alone) is exclusive to third person subjects because the copula ka- in general does not appear when the subject is third person; it appears only with speech-act participant subjects.

In the Central Quechuan varieties Tarma and Huanca (cf. Map A.7 in Appendix A), the cognate suffix -ña (or -na) is immediately followed by a person marker. The copula form no longer appears in the narrative past in Tarma, regardless of the subject (Adelaar 1977:95).

Huanca speakers use either the longer copula form or the reduced form (Cerrón-Palomino 1976:176). See note 69 on the past habitual forms -q and -q=ka which arise from a parallel aspectual periphrasis. The development of these and other analytic verbal constructions is discussed in more detail in §5.2, §5.3, §10.6, and §11.2.

84 Crossing aspectual frontiers

of a story, and (147) supplies background information within a spontaneous conversation. In contrast, when -na: appears in a clause that advances the action in a story as in (143), or evaluates an outcome as in (144), it marks the outcome as unexpected, an epistemic modality sometimes referred to as “mirative.”

(147) Damian-wan-shi huntu estudya-na:

Damian-COM-RPT together study-PST.N

‘He formerly studied (attended classes) with Damian, they say.’

Derivational perfective and imperfective suffixes can further specify aspectual distinctions on verbs inflected with narrative past -na:. For example, -na: appears with continuous -yka: in (148), and with perfective -ski in (149) as well as in (143).⁷⁷

(148) huk erye:ru-qa ka-yka:-na: tsay huk ru:ta-pa one blacksmith-^TOP be-CONT-PST.N that one route-^GEN

‘A blacksmith was there along that route.’

(149) tsay qawa-rpu-pti-n-qa a: kay pichi allqu-lla tikra-ski-na:

that watch-COMPL-DS-3-TOP yes this small dog-DLM turn-PFV-PST.N

‘After that (girl) looked down, this (boy) turned into a small dog.’

Finally, as mentioned above, the examples presented in this section are taken from naturally-occurring speech. Interestingly, when the scope of inquiry is limited to elicited folktales and legends, I find that -na: has tense and mirative functions, but does not appear to mark aspect systematically. Instead, the meanings of verbs inflected with -na: are often imperfective, but can also receive a neutral aspectual reading in some narrative contexts. Presumably, oral storytelling tradition gives rise to a formulaic or prescriptive mode of expression for these genres in which -na: represents an archaic form. Moreover, because folktales and legends are so familiar within the speech community, the formal expression of inflectional aspect, and the communicative function it affords, may be less relevant in this context-rich “parallel world.” The traditional Quechuanist term “narrative past” is appropriate for the use of -na: within the confines of narrative and legendary genres. On the other hand, as I have shown here, -na: tends to mark past imperfective in everyday SCQ conversation.

Summarizing, the inflectional narrative past -na: (or -na:=ka) typically marks past imperfective in naturally-occurring speech, that is, it presents a situation as in progress in the

Summarizing, the inflectional narrative past -na: (or -na:=ka) typically marks past imperfective in naturally-occurring speech, that is, it presents a situation as in progress in the

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