Imperfectivity in Chisukwa

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Tiffany L. Kerschner

Abstract

This article examines imperfectivity in Chisukwa, an endangered Bantu language spoken in northern Malawi. In Chisukwa, two forms- -ag- and -a- -express different imperfective meanings: -ag- denotes a collective view of events, while -a- denotes an individuated view of events. Collective imperfective events may be realized as habitual, generic, or extended event types while individuated imperfective events may be realized as singulative/continuous, emphatic, or distributed. Another relevant kind of aspect, Aristotelian aspect, i.e., how events are structured, interacts in interesting ways with imperfectivity. Verb types, including activity, accomplishment and three species of inchoatives reveal semantic nuances distinguishing the two types of imperfective views.

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