VENTA Y REPARACION DE VEHICULOS Y MOTOCICLETAS

A verb root (the core of a verb with no any morphemes attached) in Chimakonde can be C (e.g. p.a = produce cashew nuts), CV (e.g. ly-a = (eat)), VC (e.g. iv-a= (steal)), or CVC (e.g. hen-a = (go)). To such roots, various morphemes, both derivational and inflectional, can be affixed to form morphological verbs. As in Bantu generally, a Chimakonde verb root can accommodate more than one segmentable verb morpheme. Chimakonde is, therefore, an agglutinative language. Thus, within

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a verb complex, affixes encoding various inflectional and derivational roles can be inserted. A clear- cut boundary between one morpheme and another can be ascertained. Some of the morphemes that may occur in the Chimakonde verb complex include tense, aspect and mood (TAM) affixes, subject agreement prefixes (AgrS), object agreement prefixes (AgrO), negation (NEG), extensions and final vowel affixes (FV). When these morphemes co-occur on a Chimakonde verb morphology, their order is fixed. The order of these elements is indicated in the following table.

Table 2.5: The order verb extensions in the Chimakonde verb complex

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pre- initial Initial Post- initial Position 1 Position 2 Position 3

Root Prefinal Final Post- final ‘na’ AgrS NEG TAM AgrS AgrO Verb Extensions FV PL.IMP

tu ka chi tu n sum il e

we will not buy it for him (Lit: we will not we buy him)

Table 2.5 above presents ten slots in which various types of affixes can be attached. A few comments are in order regarding the order of elements as linearized in this table. First, when a sentence exhibiting object morphology is negated, the subject agreement prefix must be expressed twice. (9) a. tunanng’apela

Tu-na-mu-hep-ile

1PL-TAM-3AgrO-pluck-PERF We will pluck it for him/her

b. tukachitunng’apele

tu-ka-chi-tu-mu-hep-ile

1PL-NEG-TAM-*(1AgrS)-3AgrO-pluck-PERF We will not pluck it for him/her

In (9b), the pronominal form ‘tu’ has been expressed twice in the negated sentence exhibiting object agreement morphology. Omitting it results in an ungrammatical sentence. This justifies why there are two slots for AgrS (slot 1 and slot 4) in Table 2.5 above.

The pre-initial position (slot 0) is encoded by the conjunction ‘na’ which functions as a ‘purpose’ adverb in constructions involving a series of verbs.

44 Ø-mbula i-na-id-e na-halib-u ji-mene

9-rain 9AgrS-come-FV so as to-destroy-FV 10-peanuts The rain should not come to destroy peanuts

Chimakonde has three negative morphemes. Two such morphemes can occur in slot 2 (post-nominal) and one occurs pre-initially in slot 0. For non-imperative sentences, the negative morpheme is -ka- and for imperative sentences, the negative morpheme is -na-. In Meeussen’s (1967) order of morphemes in a verb complex, only one negative morpheme (secondary negative morpheme) was assumed to occur in post-initial position (cf. Nurse, 2008). In Chimakonde, that would be -na-. The third negative morpheme is an independent morpheme which occurs with sentences expressing habitual tense. This negative morpheme occurs pre-initially in slot (0) i.e. preceding agreement prefixes. (11) a. (i). tunalya tu-na-ly-a 3PL-TAM-eat-FV We are eating (ii). tukalya tu-ka-ly-a 3PL-NEG-eat-FV We are not eating b. (i). ilya i-ly-a 2SG-eat-FV Eat (ii). unalye u-na-ly-e 2SG-NEG-eat-FV Do not eat c. nanga patulya nanga pa-tu-ly-a NEG TNS-3PL-eat-FV

45 We do not (usually) it

Tense, aspect and mood prefixes in slot 3 are collapsed as TAM because most often they are expressed by a single morpheme or by a tone in Chimakonde. However, these grammatical categories are conceptually distinct, as Mallya (2016) reaffirms. Although both tense and aspect are related to time, tense situates time of events in reference to a particular point whereas aspects distribute events within time itself (cf. Nurse, 2008). In other words, tense situates time of events externally whereas aspect situates time of events internally.

Slot 5 (position 3) can also be occupied by reflexives. In some Bantu studies (cf. Khumalo, 2007; Lindfors, 2003), agreement prefixes and reflexives are viewed as two different morphemes.

(12) tunalifundisha tu-na-li-fundish-a

3PL-TAM-AgrO.REFLEXIVE-teach-FV We will teach ourselves

In Chimakonde, the reflexive morpheme is -li- and it always assumes the same form regardless of the number and person features of the subject DP.

Several extensions can occur in position 7 (prefinal). These are applicative (-il-) causative (-ih-), impositive (-ik-), intensive (-eh-), passive (-w-), repetitive (-ng-), reversive (-ul-), and reciprocal (- an-) morphemes are some of the affixes that a Chimakonde verb can exhibit, as illustrated in the following examples:

(13) a. limila cultivate for (applicative) b. imbiha cause to sing (causative)

c. kutang’unika which can be chewed (impositive) d kulyeha to eat too much (intensive) e. kulombwa to be married (passive)

f. kuuyananga to come back again (repetitive) g. kuchumula to open (reversive)

h. kuchemana to call each other (reciprocal)

A Chimakonde verb can be followed by an object (transitive) or cannot take any object (intransitive). Two object DPs can follow a ditransitive verb.

(14) a. mwana akutila chitumbua mu-ana a-kut-il-a chi-tumbua

46 1-child 1AgrS-cry-APPL-FV 7-scone A/the child is cry for a scone

b. Kelvin ansumidile mwana ligauni

Ø-Kelvin- a-mu-sum-idile mu-ana li-gauni 1a-elvin 1AgrS-3AgrO-buy-PERF 1-child 5-dress Kelvin has bought a dress for the child.

c. Rahma anakuta Rahma a-na-kut-a

Ø-Rahma 1AgrS-TAM-cry-FV Rahma is crying

In (14a), the complex verb ‘akutila’ has two DP arguments (mono-transitive). The one in (14b) has three arguments (ditransitive) and the one in (14c) has one argument (intransitive). A Chimakonde intransitive verb can be ergative (unaccusative) as in (15a) or unergative as in (15b).

(15) a. chilongo chinipasuka chi-longo chi-ni-pasuk-a 7-pot 7AgrS-TAM-crack-FV A/the pot has cracked b. mmahe anivina

m-mahe a-na-vin-a

1-woman 1AgrS-TAM-dance-FV A/the woman is dancing

The verb chinipasuka is unaccusative because it has a theme argument, implying that this kind of argument might have originated within a verb phrase which can be supported by the fact that unaccusative verbs have transitive counterparts (as in Mussa apaswile chilongo). The verb anivina is unergative because it has an agent argument. This implies that unergative verbs have no transitive counterparts.

The final slot (slot 8) is for a final vowel. This vowel is realised as a- when the verb which it occurs is in the indicative mood. However, it changes to -e if the verb is subjunctive/imperative. It may also be realised as -ite/ile if the verb it occurs with is in perfective aspect. Furthermore, with a few words, particularly borrowed words, it may be realised as -i or -u, as illustrated in the following example words.

47 (16) a. chem-a ‘call’

b. achem-e ‘let him call’ c. kuful-u ‘blaspheme’ d. kuamin-i ‘to trust’

e. akaid-ile ‘he did not come’ f. akama-ite ‘he does not know’

The very final slot (post final) is reserved for the morpheme referred to as the plural imperative (PL. IMP) (Meeussen (1967), as cited in Nurse (2008: 29). In Chimakonde, this morpheme is free. (17) a. hena ‘go’ (singular)

b. hena nanga ‘go’ (plural)

c. twende nange ‘let us go’ (plural)

2.5.4.1 Imbrication

According to Bastin (1983), imbrication is defined as

A phonological process which causes the consonant that precedes the perfective suffix -ile (or its allomorphs) to interchange with the ‘l’ of ‘-ile-’, followed by the deletion of this ‘l’ and the coalescence of the vowel sequence that results from the consonant deletion

This process is very productive in Chimakonde as the following examples may illustrate; (18) a. hochela (get lost) > hochedile (had lost)

b. limila (cultivate for) > limidile (had cultivated for) c. tangola (speak) > tangwele (has spoken)

d. haya (grind) > haite (has ground)

e. mila (swallow) > midile (has swallowed)

It can be seen that the verbs on the left-hand side undergo some phonological modification after the addition of the perfective suffix. The process in operation is called imbrication.