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- Title
Event-centrality and the pragmatics-semantics interface in Kikongo: From predication focus to progressive aspect and vice versa.
- Authors
De Kind, Jasper; Dom, Sebastian; de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice; Bostoen, Koen
- Abstract
Across Bantu, several polysemic markers expressing progressive aspect and so-called predication focus have been reported (Güldemann 2003; Hyman and Watters 1984). In this article, we examine two such markers in Kikongo (Bantu, H16), i.e. the fronted-infinitive and the locative-infinitive constructions. We provide an in-depth synchronic description of the pragmatic and syntactic behaviour of both verbal constructions and suggest a historical evolution for each of them. We evoke the term 'event-centrality' to cover the different uses of both constructions and suggest that the fronted-infinitive construction's progressive meaning evolved from its use as predication focus marker, and vice versa, that the locative-infinitive construction's predication focus meaning evolved from its use as a progressive marker.
- Subjects
KONGO language; KITUBA language (Congo (Democratic Republic)); PREDICATE (Logic); INFINITIVE (Grammar); LOCATIVE constructions (Grammar); FUTURE tense (Grammar); LINGUISTIC geography; PRAGMATICS
- Publication
Folia Linguistica, 2015, Vol 36, p113
- ISSN
0165-4004
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1515/flih-2015-0005