Epistemicity and engagement in the Wolof verb sytstem
Résumé
Examining what seems at first to be purely aspecto-temporal morphemes in Wolof (Niger-Congo, Atlantic group, Senegal), such as Present Perfect and Ongoing Present conjugations, or perfective and imperfective suffixes, this paper first brings to light the recurring polysemy of these and their modal values in particular. A thorough examination of their uses in discourse shows that the variation in meaning is quite similar in the different aspecto-temporal morphemes and can be expressed by the following rule: aspecto-temporal specifications yield a temporal expression with dynamic verbs (which is well known) and turn into modal specifications with stative verbs as in the following examples:
(1) Present perfect with an action verb
lekk naa (ba noppi)
eat PFT1sg (until stop)
I have eaten (untill it is finished)
(2) Present perfect with a stative verb
At the end of a discussion where the interlocutors disagree :
tàng na !
be-cold PFT3sg
(but I tell you) it is hot !
gloss : it is certain, there is no more discussion, there is nothing to be added
(3) Perfective suffix () with a stative verb
Picc bii moo mel ni ndobin
bird this SUBJ.FOC ( =PERF) resemble like calao
This bird looks (definitely) like a calao
(4) Imperfective suffix with a stative verb
Picc bii mooy mel ni ndobin
bird this SUBJ.FOC+IMPERF resemble like calao
This bird tends to look like a calao
More precisely, with the stative verbs, the various aspecto-temporal morphemes in Wolof convey an attitude on the part of the speaker with regard to the certainty (perfective) vs uncertainty (imperfective) or to the completeness (perfective) vs uncompleteness (imperfective) of the process (it is really / not really P), which we may characterize respectively as epistemic and appreciative modality. Moreover, these epistemic values are also associated with regular argumentative effects (the discussion is over / I disagree / I agree / I am relieved / you should do something…) corresponding to what De Smet and Verstraete (2006) call « interpersonal subjectivity ». Thus, through discourse chaining, the same aspecto-temporal morphemes are also used to express various types of engagement on the part of the speaker.
It is then argued that in the different uses of these aspecto-temporal morphemes, the same semantic structure is applied to different Aktionsarten producing various semantic effects, that is temporal vs. modal values. These various modal values (ranging from epistemicity to engagement and argumentation) are analysed here as by-products implied by the verb inflection’s aspectual meaning, Eventually, the emergence of these modal senses for aspectual morphemes is described through regular conditioning mechanisms involving Aktionsarten and clause chaining in discourse: the different argumentative effects of the Perfect can be described in terms of various positions of the interlocutors in relation to the process.
Therefore the functioning of these Wolof aspectual morphemes shows a regular mechanism of subjectification that may grammaticalize (cf Bybee et al.1994: 74, Traugott 1995) but is also attested in synchrony (Abangma 1985, DeLancey 1997, De Wit et. al. 2013, Robert 1994, Thomas 1978, Wright 1994) and has been probably overlooked in other languages.
References
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