VERB MORPHOLOGY(410-459).pdf

Dr. Philip Thanglienmang Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by Dr. Philip Thanglienmang DN: cn=Dr. Philip Thanglienmang, o=ZOCULSIN, c=IN Date: 2016.11.19 11:27:50 Z Location: New Delhi India A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 410 Verb Morphology 5.13 Verb Morphology Introduction: Verb in Zo is a class of words syntactically occuring as head of a predicate. It can take tense, aspect markers, and modalities. It can also act as subject or object of an argument. The Zo verb is highly inflected form of word-class. The Verb Morphology in Zo is rather systemic and predictable tonally and morphologically. All the basic/root verbs of Zo can be alternated/inflected into another verb as stem2 and stem3 verbs in the process that I termed it as ‘morphono-tonemic process’ of alternations of verbs in Zo. They do not inflect for number and gender. However, they inflect for tense in the form of stem2 verbs to denote concept of past time reference. They take morphosyntactic tense, aspect and mood markers. The concept of finite and non-finite verbs do not really work well in Zo verb morphology, for the above stated reasons. The morphology of verb includes stem-alternation, inflection by morphemic addition, or alternation to produce verb-nouns (gerunds), verbal tenseforms, adjectives and nouns. Morphophonogically or morphophonemic constructions, the verbs undergo much monopthongization or elision process (omission of sounds e.g; bieÆbe, khuo:Ækho, pieÆpi’ ‘for’ ) with resultant devoicing or voicing as the case maybe. They also undergo epenthesis (excrescence-consonant addition eg; be:Æ be; pie:Æpie; sieÆsiet) and consonant mutation (kaŋÆkàn; saŋÆsàn; panÆpàt; manÆmàt etc., ) in their syntactic formations. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence (if the sound added is a consonant) and anaptyxis (if the sound added is a vowel). The process of verbal alternations in Zo is termed as Morphono-tonemic process (please refer chapter 5.29.7 for details). 5.14 Structure and classifications of Zo verb The Zo verb has the following structures within its functional domains viz; i) Primary (basic/main/root) Stem1verb (V), ii) Inflected/Alternated verbs; Stem2 (V2) and Stem3 (V3) verbs and, iii) Complex verbs. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 411 Verb Morphology Verb Primary Stem1 Alternated/Inflected Stem2 Stem1 Stem1 Aspect Mood Complex Affixal Stem3 Compound Evidential TAME Figure 1. Structure and Classification of the Zo verb They can also be classified as Finite and Non-finite functionally. The Finite verbs appear as Stem1 verbs, where as Non-finite verbs usually appear as Stem2. As I had mentioned earlier, the finiteness of verb is only a relative term in Zo for classificatory convenience. On the basis of the structure i.e the morphological form the Zo verbs can be structurally classified into 3 (three) types viz:- I. Primary (basic/main/root) Stem1verb (V), mostly monosyllabic types II. Alternated Stem2 verb (V2) and Stem3 (V3) verbs and, III. Complex verbs. The Complex are mostly disyllabic types with 2(two) types of sub-classes viz; Affixal type and Compound types. Complex verbs Affixal verbs ReflexiveVerb VPF+Stem Reciprocal Verb VPF+Stem1+ RECIP. CausativeVerb CAUS. + Stem, Stem + CAUS. Stem2 + BEN. Formative verb Stem1+ FORM. Stem2+ FORM. Stem1/3 +FORM. FORM.+ Stem1 Compound verbs Stem(X) + Stem(X) Stem2 + CONJ.+ Stem1 Disyllabic Compounds Stem1+ Stem1 Stem2 + Stem2 Stem2 + Stem1 Stem3 + Stem1 N + Stem1 N + Stem2 Adj.+ Stem2 N + Adj. Figure 2. Structural sub-classification of Complex verbs A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 412 Verb Morphology I. Primary verbs: Primary (basic/main/root) stem1verb (V); ka, pié, puó etc., appear as isolated tone words without any alternations. i. Stem1 a. pié ‘give’; II. b. léi ‘buy’; c. ká:p ‘shoot’ ; d. tuòn ‘tread’ Alternated/Inflected Stem2 and Stem3 verbs. They appear as participle and gerundial verbs as well. ii. Stem2 a. pié ‘give.2’; b. lèi ‘buy.2’; c. kà:p ‘shoot.2’; d. tòt ‘tread.2’ b. po-‘carry.3’; c. se- ‘bad.3’; d. ke- ‘fall.3’ ii. Stem3 a. pe- ‘give.3’; III. Complex verbs: They are derived by compounding of stem1 or stem2 with Nominals, Formatives and Auxiliaries as the head-word, using affixes (both prefix and suffix) and also derived by the process of reduplication and conjunctive particle. They are sub-divided into 2 sub-types: Affixal and Compound verb types. i) Affixal verbs are divided into 5 (five) types: a) Reflexive verb; kiman ‘catch self’, kiho‘opened’, etc., b) Reciprocal verb; kihu ciét ‘help each other’ etc., c) Causative verb; péisa‘cause to go’, susié ‘destroy’ etc., d) Benefactive verb; pèipì:’go with’, susié ‘spoil’ etc., e) Aspectual-verbs or Formative verbs: pèisàn ‘abandon’, sido ‘died’, pekhiè ‘give out’etc.,. ii) Compound verbs are sub-divided into 3 (three) types; a) Reduplicated verbs; péipéi, va:va:, há:mhá:m etc. b) Conditional Conjunctive verbs; né: le né:, pèi le pèi lòu, pié le piè,etc., c) Disyllabic Compounded verbs; dèlphá: ‘catch up’, kúi:khùm ‘cage’ or ‘enclose’ A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 413 Verb Morphology 5.14.1 Primary verbs or non-derived Stem1 verbs The Primary or non-derived verb appears as stem1 without any alternations or inflections. The alternated verbs i.e Stem2 verbs and Stem3 verbs are derived from Stem1 verbs by Morphonotonemic process in Zo. The Compound verbs are derived from nominal suffixed with root verb or an auxiliary or a formative particle and they are mostly used in aspectual sentences and moods.. (1) əmà: -in s/he AGEN. curry PROA. fry mè: a ka hì: φ AUX. PRES ‘s/he is frying the curry’ 5.14.2 Alternated Stem2 and Stem3 verbs (2) mè: əma: kàn curry POCL. fry.2 a hì: φ PROA. AUX. PRES ‘ the curry is fried by him/her.’ 5.14.3 Complex verbs: The Complex verb is derived syntactically joining the stem2 and stem1 are used in moods and aspects to denote an intensity of an action or state etc. The Reduplicated verb is a double verb to denote manner, intensity, frequency, emphasis of an action or a state. They are sub-divided into 2 sub-types viz; Affixal verbs and Compound verbs. 5.14.3.1 5.14.3.1.1 Affixal verbs are divided into 5 (five) types:Reflexive verbs: The structure of reflexive verb is as given below:- ki- + V(Stem1/Stem2/Compound) (3) əmà: le əmà: s/he CONJ. s/he a ki- èn PROA. VRF. see hì: AUX. ‘s/he ses her/himself’ 5.14.3.1.2 Reciprocal verbs: Reciprocal verb is in fact, an extended reflexive verb. The structure of reciprocal verb is as given below:ki- + V(Stem1/Stem2/Compound)+ tuò/ciét A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 414 Verb Morphology (4) əmà: le ənú s/he CONJ. her.mother ki- én VRF. look tuò u hì: RECP. A PM. AUX. ‘s/he and her/his mother look at each other.’ 5.14.3.1.3 Causative verbs: The causatives come into two forms viz; su- and -sa as affixes. The structures are; su +Stem and Stem +sa. The prefix su- is used with adjectives and sah is used with verbs. (5) əmà: in s/he AGEN. food. PROA. CAUS. dirty CONF. túi a su- nie hì: ‘s/he causes the water to become dirty’ or ‘s/he let the water dirty’ (6) əmà: in s/he AGEN. food. PROA. boil.CAUS. túi a sou -sa hì: CONF. ‘s/he causes the water to boil’ or ‘s/he boils the water’ 5.14.3.1.4 Benefactive verbs: The benefactive verb also has two forms viz; piè~pì: and sa. The structure of the benefactive verb is always in alternated Stem2 forms with two forms of suffixal formatives/applicatives as shown below:Stem2 + Benefactive: Disyllabic Exocentric Compound verbs can be derived by suffixing a benefactive or formative or auxiliary to the stem2 verbs. (7) Stem2 + AUX./BEN. = Compound Verb a) pèi ‘go.2’ + pì: ‘BEN.’ = pèipì: ‘go with’, ‘go alongwith’ b) kà: ‘cry.2’ + pì: ‘BEN.’ = kà:pì: ‘cry alongwith or for’ c) pièn ‘born.2’ + pì: ‘BEN.’ = piènpì: ‘be born with’ d) puo ‘carry.2’ + pìe ‘BEN.’ = puopìe: ‘carry for sb.’ e) và: ‘roam.2’ + pì: ‘BEN.’ = và:pì: ‘roam with’ ka vàn əmà: in s/he AGEN. POCL. goods.1S, OBL. carry.BEN. CONF. ‘s/he carries my goods’ éi puopì: hì: A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 415 Verb Morphology There exists a common suffix for causative and benefactive verbs as well, in the form of ‘-sa’ however, the usage of verb stems are not the same, in case of causative verb the stem appears as stem1 and whereas in case of benefactive verb the stem appears as stem2. (8) əmà: in s/he AGEN. POCL. goods.1S, OBL. carry.2, BEN. ka vàn éi puosa: hì: CONF. ‘s/he carries my goods’ or ‘s/he helps me in carrying my goods’ The usage of this suffix with stem1 will realize a causative verb form. (9) əmà: in s/he AGEN. POCL. goods.1S, OBL. carry.3,CAUS. CONF. ka vàn éi po-sa hì: ‘s/he make me carry my goods’ 5.14.3.1.5 Aspectual-verbs or Formative verbs: The Formatives or Auxiliaries such as sàn , -do, -khiè’, -lù:, -khúm, ma-, nu-, -má etc,. affixally combine with finite and non-finite verbs to produce complex verbs such as pèisàn ‘abandon’, sido ‘died’ pekhiè ‘give out’, maso:n ‘progress’, nukhiá ‘be behind’, péimá 'go away' etc., giving some aspectual concepts. These types of Complex verbs with Formative affixes will be termed as Aspectual-verbs or Formative verbs in Zos. The following are the structure and formations of various types of compound aspectual-verbs:- i) Stem1 + Formative: This type of verbs are formed by one root stem with a formative suffixed to it. a. ká:n ‘jump’ + kuòt. FORM. = ká:nkuòt ‘conspire’ b. me: ‘press’ + lia:. FORM. = me:lia: ‘strangle to death’ c. sá:t ‘strike’ + za: FORM. = sá:tza: ‘strike into pieces’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 416 Verb Morphology ii) Stem2 + Formative Stem2 + FORM. = Compound Verb a. màn ‘lose.2’ + suò: FORM. = mànsuò: ‘loose’ b. pì:t ‘escape.2’ + suò: FORM. = pì:t suò: ‘escape from one’s hand’ c. èt ‘see.2’ + sàt. FORM. = ètsat ‘look with scorn’ iii) Stem1/Stem3 + Formative/Auxiliaries: Disyllabic compound verbs can be derived by suffixing an auxiliary or a formative to the main or root verb. Stem1 (10) + AUX./FORM. = Compound Verb a) péi ‘go’ + do ‘away’ = péido ‘go away’ b) pe-‘give.3 + tòn. ‘ASSO.’ = petòn ‘give together’ c) po- ‘carry.3. + khiè ‘FORM.’ = pokhiè ‘carry away’ d) se-‘bad.3’ + do ‘FORM.’ = sedo ‘became bad’ əmà: a s/he PROA. go.FORM. péi-má tà: hì: PERF. EVID. ‘s/he went away’ (11) əmà: in s/he AGEN. POCL. cloth PROA. sit.2. FORM EVID. a puón a tòu -lù hì: ‘s/he sat upon her/his cloth’ (12) əmà: in s/he AGEN. POCL. child. PM. a tá: -té: a tài: -sàn hì: PROA.go.2, FORM. EVID. ‘s/he abandoned her/his children’ When the formative suffix co-occurs with Stem2 verbs, it denotes the ‘pastness’ of the event or situation or an action described in the proposition(sentence) as in the sentence given above A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 417 Verb Morphology Compound verbs: Zo posssesses highly productive compound verbs. They are 5.14.3.2 formed by syntactic constructions of primarily stem1 with either of the following categories of verbs; stem1, stem2, auxiliary verbs or formatives, The following are main complex verbs formations found in Zo. Compound verbs are sub-divided into 3 (three) types:i) Reduplicated verbs; péipéi, va:va:, há:mhá:m etc., ii) Conditional Conjunctive verbs; siét le sié ‘if it is bad, it is bad’; pèi le péi ‘if it goes, it goes’ etc., iii) Disyllabic compound verbs; dèlphá: ‘catch up’, kúi:khùm ‘cage’ or ‘enclose’ Let us discuss them one by one. 5.14.3.2.1 Reduplicated verbs: The repetition of similar or slightly dissimlar elements of verbs gives reduplicated verbs such as; péipéi ‘go.go’ ‘walk continuously’;va:va:, ‘roam.roam’ ‘roam endlessly’; há:mhá:m ‘talk.talk’ ‘talk continuously’; nui:nui: ‘laugh.laugh’ ‘laugh constantly’ (13) əmà: in án s/he AGEN. food. PROA. REDUP. a né:né: hì: CONF. ‘s/he continuously eats food’ or ‘s/he is eating food continuously’ 5.14.3.2.2 Conditional Conjunctive verbs structure is: Stem2 + CONJ. + Stem1. (14) i. a 3S né: le né; ii. a eat.2 CONJ. eat.1; 3S pèi le pèi go.2 CONJ. go.1 ‘if s/he/it eats, s/he/it also eats’ ‘whether s/he/it goes or does not go’ iii. a 3S (15) siét le iv. a sié bad.2 CONJ. bad.1 3S kà: le kap cry.2 CONJ. cry ‘if s/he/it is bad, s/he/it is bad’ ‘if s/he cries, s/he cries’ əmà: a tà: s/he PROA. bad.2. CONJ. bad siét le sié ‘if s/he is bad let him/her be so’ he PERF. OPT. lòu NEG.; A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 418 Verb Morphology 5.14.3.2.3 Disyllabic compound verbs. Zo posssesses highly productive Disyllabic Compound verbs. They are formed by syntactic constructions of primarily; Stem1 with either of the following categories of verbs; Stem1, Stem2, Auxiliary verbs or Formatives. They are the main compound verbs formations found in Zo. They are also derived by compounding of Stem1 or Stem2 with Nominals, Formatives and Auxiliaries as the head-word, using them as affixes (both prefix and suffix). Further details can be seen at chapter 5.29.7. i) Stem1 + Stem1: This type of compound sverbs are formed by two root dissimilar stems without any alternations. a) de: ‘hit’ + guoi ‘pulverise’ = de:guoi ‘mash’ b) e ‘tear’ + ‘ké: ‘break’ = eké: ‘tear off into pieces’ c) si ‘pinch’ + tán ‘break’ = sitán ‘nib off’ ii) Stem2 + Stem2: This type of compound verbs are formed by two stem2 verbs. a) siét ‘bad.2’ + può ‘carry.2’ = siétpuò ‘defame’ or ‘incriminate’ b) de:n ‘hit’ + siét ‘bad.2’ = de:nsiét ‘cause damage’ iii) Stem2 + Stem1: This type of compound verb is derived by suffixing a particular stem1 verb hù: ‘help’ or ‘assist to the stem2 verb. a) sùi: ‘find.2’ + hù: ‘help’ = sùi:hù: ‘assist in finding’ b) lèi ‘buy.2’ + so:m ‘try’ = lèiso:m ‘try to buy’ c) zò:n ‘poor.2’ + kòu ‘call’ = zò:nkòu ‘deride’ or ‘scoff’ iv) Stem3 + Stem1 a) po- ‘carry.3. + tú ‘arrive’ = potú ‘carry home’ b) po- ‘carry.3. + thò: ‘able’ = pothò: ‘able to carry’ v) N + Stem1: This kind of compound verbs are found copiously. Disyllabic Exocentric compound verbs can be derived by suffixing the main or root verb i.e stem1 verb to certain adverbs or nouns such as ma: ‘front’, kal ‘step’ etc., and the heart-word A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 419 Verb Morphology ‘lu’. They are similar to delexical verbs with the noun as syntactic subject and the verb as object. N + Stem1/V1 a) là:m ‘danceN’ + kài: ‘pull’ = Compound Verbs = là:mkài: ‘dance around’ b) ma: ‘front N’ + khèl ‘cross’ = makhèl ‘overtake’ c) khuòl ‘alienN’ + hò: ‘ visit’ = khuòlhò: ‘tour’ or ‘visit alien place’ d) kho ‘villageN’ + ai: ‘listen’ = khoai: ‘stop to listen’ e) khosa:‘village-heatN’ +kai:‘drip’ = khosakai: ‘sweat’ or ‘perspire’ f) lài: ‘paperN’ + gièl ‘write’ = làigièl ‘write on a paper’ g) lu ‘heart’ + le: ‘fly’ = lule: ‘feel loneliness’ h) zùn ‘urineN’ + thà: ‘release’ = zùnthà: ‘urinate’ vi) N + Stem2: This kind of compound verbs are derived from Noun and stem2. a) vái: ‘planN’ + dòt.‘receive.2’ = vái:dòt ‘welcome’ b) ma: ‘front N’ + kài ‘pull.2’ c) zi:‘morning N’ + kuòn‘start.2’= zi:kuòn ‘start in the morning’ d) zà:n ‘nightN’ + pèi ‘go.2’ e) sù:n ‘noonN’ + hà:m ‘talk.2’ = sù:nhà:m ‘talk daylong’ = makài ‘lead the front’ = zà:npèi ‘go at night’ vii) Adj. + Stem2: This kind of compound verbs are also termed as phrasal adjectives. a) tuom ‘different’ + bò:l ‘do.2’ = tuombò:l ‘treat differently’, ‘discriminate’ b) tuom ‘different’ + pièn ‘become.2’ = tuompièn ‘behave or ‘born differently viii) N + Adj. This kind of complex verbs are derived from Noun and Adjective. a) mou ‘bride’ + tha: ‘new’` = moutha: ‘become a new bride’ 5.14.4 Non-finite verbs 5.14.4.1 Non-finite or Infinitive as Verbal-Noun. The English non-finite or infinitive is a kind of noun with certain features of the verb, taking an object in transitive, acts of the complement of the verb, and it takes adverbial qualifiers. It is a Verbal-Noun. In Zo, the Stem2 A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 420 Verb Morphology verb exactly behaves like the English infinitive, so the irrealis modal dí: in Zo acts optionally as Infinitive marker giving Stem2 verb. Finite verb forms in Zo normally appears as Stem1, whereas the Non-finite verb or Infinitive appears as Stem2 as in (16-18). (16) án piè a bài food give.2 PROA easy hi: AUX. ‘to give food is easy’ (17) lùp hún a hì: sleep.2 time PROA. CONF. ‘it is time to sleep’ (18) pá: dèi father like lám way bò:l dí: khu kéi’a a hì: do.2 INF. REL. my.GEN. PROA. CONF. ‘to do the will of the father is mine’ Infinitive verbs maybe in Active or Passive voice forms. When it is used as Active voice form we get Stem1 finite verb, whereas in Passive voice forms the verb appears as non-finite Stem2 verb. As Active (19) a. As Passive ai: dí: love.1 FUT. b. ài: dí:  love.2 INF. ‘will love ‘to be loved’ The Infinitive in present or progressive aspect/tense gives Stem1, whereas when it is in past or perfective aspect/tense it appears as Stem2. As Present (20) a. ka 1S di As Past sa hi: stand.1 CAUS. AUX. ‘make him/it stand b. ka dìn sa 1S stand.2 CAUS. PROA AUX ‘made him/it stand’ a hi: A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 421 Verb Morphology 5.14.4.2 Non-finite Participle as Gerund The English Gerund is kind of the verb that ends in –ing having ther force of a noun and a verb, i.e having ‘V+ing’ (go+ing) forms. The Gerund and the Infinitive both have the force of a noun and a verb, they are Verbal Nouns, so, they have similar functions. In Zo, the gerund and the infinitive are similar, they appear as Stem2 and stem3. (21) a. pèi go.2 b. né: éi hìl ìn 1S teach.1 IMP, SG ‘teach me walking’ eat.2 a bo:l hì: 1S do CONF. ‘she is cooking/preparing food’ 5.15 Syntactic Classification of Zo verbs They are classified into three syntactically distinguishable categories viz; i) Transitive verb (né: ‘eat’), ii) Intransitive verb (péi ‘go’) and, iii) Causative verb formed by addition of particle or verbal suffix -sa and the verbal prefix su- to the verb stem (eg; péisa ‘cause to go’; susié ‘cause to become bad’), iv) Benefactive verbs (pèipì: ‘go with’, bò:lpì: ‘do for’, pànpì: ‘help’, dìnpì: ‘stand with’ or ‘stand on sb’s behalf’, gè:npì: ‘say on behalf’ etc,). 5.15.1 Transitive verbs The verbs such as; mù ‘see’, thàt ‘kill’, la ‘show’, hlié ‘tear’, tou ‘sit’, né: ‘eat’, zá: ‘hear’, bo:l ‘do’, só:p ‘wash’, síl ‘bathe’ or ‘wash’, do:n ‘drink’, á:t ‘cut’ or ‘slice’, ban ‘slash’ etc., are some of the transitive verbs in Zo. It is seen that structurally, most of the transitive verbs in Zo are attested as Stem1 verbs. The transitive verbs always takes the agentive marker ‘-in’ after the nouns. (22) φ əmà: -in s/he AGEN. word PROA. hear AUX. PRES. thú: a zá: hì: ‘s/he hears a word/message.’ (23) əmà: -in s/he AGEN. word PROA. do thú: a bo:l ‘s/he is giving a word/message.’ hì: φ AUX. PRES. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 422 Verb Morphology 5.15.2 Ditransitive verbs. Some Zo verbs can take two objects; one direct (DO) and the other indirect object (IO) they are known as as Ditransitive verbs such as pié ‘give’, so:l ‘send’ etc.,. The dative marker in Zo is optional in case of ditransitive sentences. (24) əmà: -in s/he AGEN. word.DO POCL. mother.IO thú: a nú a pié hì: φ PROA. give DECL.,PRES. ‘s/he gave a word/message to his/her mother’ The syntactic order of the DO and IO are not rigid i.e it is flexible. (25) əmà: -in s/he a nú AGEN. POCL.mother.DO φ thú: a word.IO PROA. give DECL. PRES. pié hì: ‘s/he gave a word/message to his/her mother’ 5.15.3 Intransitive verbs: The intransitive verbs donot take the agentive marker after the nouns. (26) mà: tuol a a lùm Name ground. LOC. PROA.lie φ hi: AUX. PRES. ‘mà: is lying on the ground ’ 5.15.4 Causative verbs: The causative verbs like transitive verbs always takes the agentive marker ‘-in’ after the nouns. (27) φ əmà: -in tà:ŋ.thu ŋai: s/he ancient.word listen CAUS. AUX. PRES. AGEN. -sa hì: ‘s/he let(cause) her/him listen to the folktale’ (28) əmà: -in zà:m s/he gong 3S AGEN. a su- giŋ hì: φ CAUS. sound CONF. PRES. ‘s/he cause the gong to sound or ring’ or ‘s/he makes the gong to sound’ A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 423 Verb Morphology 5.15.5 Benefactive verbs: The benefactive verbs are in fact compound verbs derived from stem2 suffixed with benefactive marker piè its abbreviated form is pì: ‘for’ or ‘on behalf of sb’. (29) φ əmà: -in tà:ŋ.thu a gè:n s/he ancient.word PROA. stem.2 BEN. AUX. PRES AGEN. -pì: hi: ‘s/he is telling a folktale for her/him.’ 5.16 Directionals or Preverbal markers: The Zo verbs can take two types of verbal affixes which show deictic categories. They are termed as Directionals or Preverbal markers/clitics. The preverbal clitic/affix hí ‘towards’ or ‘become’ or ‘began’ is used to denote the motion of the subject (an entity or the speaker or addressee or hearer) of an intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs towards the deictic center. It denotes an imperative mood with an action to be performed upon the deictic center i.e the speaker. It also denotes the beginning or start of an event or an action done upon an entity or situation by the subject of an intransitive verb. In my earlier works, I have termed this affix as Specific Approaching Verbal Marker (SPAVM), now, the same term will continue to be used here as well. There is another preverbal marker which denotes an action performed away from the present deictic center to another deictic center by the addresee or a referent entity. This preverbal deictic marker/affix və is termed as Preverbal Distal marker (DISVM). They are in fact, aspectual/evidential categories indicating a motion of an entity towards the deictic center or place of speech event or motion of an entity moving away from the deictic center to some other place to perform some action- visible or invisible to the speaker. 5.16.1 Preverbal Deictic marker; Specific Approaching Verbal Marker (SPAVM): The usage of SPAVM before an intransitive verb like péi ‘go’ has the effect of changing the direction of motion towards the deictic center that is the speaker or some referent entity or situation. So, that when we use it before the verb péi ‘go’ it changes its semantics and directions becomes opposite, therefore, hí péi will now denote ‘to come’ towards either a deictic center or the speaker. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 424 Verb Morphology 1) Ma:pu: péi Ma:pu: go ‘Ma:pu: goes’ [towards some deictic center’] 2) Ma:pu: hí péi Ma:pu: go SPAVM. ‘Ma:pu: is coming’ [towards speaker/me(deictic center)] The deictic sense can also denote another deictic center, other than the speaker. It may be a deictic center known to the speaker or may not be known. 3) Ma:pu: hí péi Ma:pu: go SPAVM. ‘Ma:pu: is coming’ [towards another deictic center ] When the subject is in 1st person the deictic center is located at another referent point say the addresee i.e other than the speaker. 4) ka hí péi 1S SPAVM. go ‘I am coming’ [i am going to a another deictic center or referent entity] The SPAVM also has the connotation of the start or beginning or emergence of an action or situation as in (5 & 6a-b) and condition of becoming as in (7) or returning to the original state or situation as in (8) etc. 5) Zo vakhu: khàt Zou dove hí há:m NUM. SPAVM. big ‘a Zou dove began to coo/sing’ A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 425 Verb Morphology 6) a. và:n a así: sky GEN. star. hí ta: b. SPAVM. shine ‘the star in the sky begin to shine’ 7) Zo -gu:n túi: Zou river. water hí ni: hí suò sun SPAVM emerge ‘the sun begins to emerge’ lièn SPAVM. big ‘the waters of Zou river became big’ [the Zou river waters swell up] 8) thóu Mà:pá: hí Mà:pá: SPAVM. rise ‘the Lord began to rise’ or ‘the Lord resurrected’ 9) Mà:pá: hí si: Mà:pá: SPAVM. die ‘the Lord came and died’ or ‘the Lord became dead’ The SPAVM cannot be used directly with Stem2 verbs, however, it can co-occur with Benefactive Stem2 verbs. In such case, the SPAVM behaves like the Dative marker. 10) Mà:pá: Mà:pá: in và:n-gam a AGEN. sky-land hí lèipì: hì: PROA. SPAVM. buy.2.BEN. EVID. ‘the Lord bought the heavenly land for me.’ 5.16.2 Preverbal Verbal Marker- Distal Verbal Marker (DISVM). The usage of preverbal Distal verbal marker (DISVM) before the verb indicates an action or an event performed away from a deictic center or the speaker or a referent entity. So, that when we say və péi denotes an entity proceeded towards another deictic center away from the present deictic center i.e the speaker and perhaps, it is assumed that addressee or a referent entity went to the new deictic center and performed some action or an event overthere. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 426 Verb Morphology 11) Ma:pu: Ma:pu: və péi DISVM. go ‘Ma:pu: went there’ [towards opposite deictic center’] 5.17 Tense system in languages and as attested in Zo language Tense comes from Old French tens “time”, and from Latin tempus “time” a translation of Greek word chrónos “time”. In English, the Tense is used to show the relation between the action or state described by the verb and the time, which is expressed in the form of inflected verbs. Tense system indicating time relations based on the referential categories of past, present, and future belongs to various linguistic categories. Some tense system belong to a morphological category that designates one single verb as a finite form as in English, whereas other tense system consist of an alternated verbal stem as in Zo or a cluster that comprises a finite verb form with an auxiliary verb and one or more nonfinite verb forms. Many languages do not grammaticalize all three categories. For instance, English has past and non-past “present”; other languages may have future and non-future. In some languages, there is not a single past or future tense, but finer divisions of time, such as proximal vs. distant future, experienced vs. ancestral past, or past and present today vs. before and after today. 5.17.1 Grammatical tense in Zo. Some languages only have grammatical expression of time through aspect; others have neither tense nor aspect. Some East Asian isolating languages such as Chinese and many TB languages also Zo express time with temporal adverbs i.e time adverbials, in many TB languages, the verbs are not inflected for tense, however, in case of Zo, grammatical tense category exists partially in the form of inflected verbs to denote notions of past in consonance with aspectuals and modals. “Tense locates the event in time, while aspect specifies the internal temporal structure of the event.” (Chung & Alan 1985). “Tense involves primarily our experience/concept of time as points of a sequence, and thus the notions of precedence and subsequence. Aspect of various kinds involves our notion of the boundedness of time-spans i.e various configurations of beginning, ending A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 427 Verb Morphology and middle points. But in the semantic space of aspect, nearly always some element of tense is also involved , in terms of establishing a point of reference along sequential time.” (Givon, 1984, p.272) “As is generally accepted, the present tense means coincidence of time of situation and the present moment, past tense means location of the situation prior to the present moment, and the future tense means location of situation after the present moment.” (Yashwanta Singh, 1999, p.151). These type of tense definitions are termed as absolute tenses. Another kind of time reference is relative reference where, instead of time of a situation being located relative to the present moment, it is related to the time of some other situation. In absolute tense, as in English, tense indicates when the time of assertion, time of completion, or time of evaluation occurs relative to the time of utterance. In relative tense, on the other hand, tense is relative to some given event or situation. The tenses in many languages are indicated by a verb or modal verb or aspectuals. According to Comrie (1985a: p.9) tense is “the grammaticalized expression of location in time.” and, the sum total of expression for locating in time can be divided into three kinds viz; i) lexically composite expressions, eg; “last year” is a lexically composite expression, its semantics can be understood from the words ‘last’ and ‘year’ respectively. ii) lexical items consists of a set of lexical items that expresses location in time eg; now, today, tomorrow, yesterday etc., and, iii) grammatical categories consists of expressions of location in time; present, past, future, pluperfect and future pluperfect. “Although collocation of tenses with time adverbials can be an important tool in investigating the meaning of tenses, it should be again emphasized that this tool cannot be applied mechanically, since the intervention of other factors may upset any simple correlation between tense and time adverbials” (Comrie 1985, p.30). In Cognitive Linguistics, tense has been analysed based on time and non-time approaches. Reichenbach (1946), Langacker (1991; 2001a), Cutrer (1994), Harder (1996) have analysed tense based on time. While, Janssen (1987) and Brisard (1999) consider time to be epiphenomenal in the tense analyses. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 428 Verb Morphology “The concept of time sequence such as past, present, and future are expressed through the lexical elements of temporal adverbs on the axis of demonstrative determiners” (Kapfo, 2005). “A weakly tensed language (WTL) is a language whose syntactic tense component does not have structure and so cannot provide a temporal classificatory system for the description of events. The tense category in a WTL does provide a time reference, though as an anchoring point to the real world, and this usually refers to the speech time, but is also relativized by context. In short, a WTL is a language without structured tense.” (Mei, 2002). Languages which have no tense (tenseless) or have “weakly-tensed” heavily relies on aspect-modalities as in Zo language, they have close readings of perfective aspects with the notion of past time reference, and the imperfective aspect readings indicate notion of present time location. Thus, there is a correlation between present tense and imperfective aspect and on the other hand, the past tense and perfective aspect. Definiteness versus Indefiniteness express perfective notion on the one hand and imperfective on the other. Thus, definiteness implies pastness and indefinite implies present. The future is indicated by Irrealis modals as various morphological forms. 5.17.2 Tense as deictic grounding or category We can not locate situations or events with respect to the start or end of time (Yashwanta Singh, 1999), because of lack of knowledge about time’s exact location in speech acts. Therefore, inorder to locate situations or events in time, it is required to set up an arbitrary bench-mark or reference point. With regards to tense, the time reference point is the present moment. The tense locate events or state or an action either at the same time with the present moment, or before or after it or with some other categories such as aspectuals or alternated verb stem2. The present moment usually the time of speech (speaker’s speech act). Assuming the present moment as the deictic center, we can define three basic tenses viz; present, past and future on time-line reference. The past is a situation before/prior to the present moment, the future is a situation or event after/post to the present moment. Thus, it is clear that tense is a deictic category. Therefore, it is seen that the absolute tense system is by no means an A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 429 Verb Morphology obligatory grammatical category cross-linguistically. Languages can locate events or situations in time by other linguistic means. 5.17.3 Tense-Aspect-Modality-Evidentiality in Zo Tense–aspect–mood-evidentiality abbreviated a TAME and also called tense–aspect-modalityevidentility is a grammatical system in a language that covers the expression of tense (location in time), aspect (a block of time, progressive flow of time, or repetitive event), and modality (realis and irrealis). In some languages like Zo, evidentiality could also be included. The term is convenient because it is often difficult to dissociate these features of language from each other, as it is the case in the Zo language. Often any two of tense, aspect, and mood (or all three) may be conveyed by a single grammatical construction (as in Zo; dí: which consists of two sub-categories; Future tense or potential aspect and Irrealis Mood, Evidentiality (Direct)). For example, several Indo-European languages do not clearly distinguish tense from aspect. An example from English is the verbal phrase "used to go": this construction denotes both past tense and habitual aspec; sub-class of imperfective aspect involves repetition of action, it denotes an indicative mood. In English there is no habitual aspect in the present or future. It is difficult to clearly demarcate or distinguish tense from aspect or mood in Zo. The habitual aspects in Zo can occur in the past and future, but they are not attested in in present tense. Zo verb morphology is highly productive and it possesses a wide range of expressions in the form of tense, aspect and mood. Before proceeding further, we need to clearly distinguish between the two categories; Tense and Aspect. Tense locate the entire proposition or situation in time externally, whereas Aspect typically encodes information that is specific to the verb. Thus, the category of aspect is more significant to the verb than tense in Zo, since it affects the meaning of the verb stem (Bybee 1985). But in Zo, these two are not easily separated or delineated explicitly, that is to say there is no clear-cut distinctions between the two categories, one cannot be dealt in isolation without the other, that is, they significantly interact with each other and conflated into one conceptual form of Tense-Aspect. Besides this state of affairs existing between them, there is a third factor that is Modalities or Moods which also prominent interact or combine with Tense-Aspect system A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 430 Verb Morphology pragmatically to realize alternated verb stems weakly indicating the existence of past time reference and prominently expressing future time reference with irrealis mood markers found in Zo language. Because of their close interactions the Tense-Aspect-Modality-Evidentiality give expressions of time location or location in time, therefore, they can be considered to form a Triangular TAME model in Zo. We shall speak of TAME systems in Zo rather than talking about them in separate and isolated forms. Tense Evidentiality Modality Aspect Figure 3: Tense-Aspect-Modality Model in Zo Zo aspects are base on conceptual hierarchy and are marked with syntactic forms to derive states (na, hi, ì, a,) achievements (tà: ‘occurred’ or ‘became’) and accomplishments (zóu ‘finished’ or ‘accomplished’). The Evidentiality would be lying somewhere in the middle of the triangle giving the completeness of the entire verbal expressions in Zo. 5.18 Tense system in Zo In my earlier works, i had proposed three kinds of tenses in Zo viz; Present, Past and Future. Each one of them is further analysed into four kinds as; Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous as shown below: I.Present Tense i) Indefinite SG markers PM markers ii) Present Continuous iii) Present Perfect iv) Pres. Perfect Continous Structure hi, ì, è ú, ú hi, ù v + hi: -zóu -zóu hi: English gloss or equivalent ‘am, be, is’ ‘are’ aux+v-ing ‘has’ or ‘have’ ‘have been’ A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 431 Verb Morphology II. Past Tense i) Indefinite SG PM Past ii) Past Continuous iii) Past Perfect iv) Past Perfect Continuous Structure English gloss or equivalent na + v + hi: ‘was’ na + v + ú hi: ‘were’ v + -tà: na+ v + lai: hi: ‘was V+ing’ na+ v+ -zóutà: ‘had Vpcl’ na+v+-zóu+lai: + hì: ‘had been V+ing’ III. Future Tense i) Indefinite Structure English gloss or equivalent v +-dí: ‘will’ ii) Future Continuous v+ -dí: hi: ‘will be’ SG v+ -vá;,và’ ,vé’ ‘will, would’ PM v+ -vá ú, vá ù ‘will, would’ PM v+ -vá ùi: (>2 pers) ‘we will’ or ‘let us’ PL Dual marker v+ -vài: (=2 persons) ‘we will’, ‘let us’ iii) Future Perfect: v+ -‘zóuta dí: /vá: ‘would have been’ iv) Future Perfect Continuous: -na+v+ na lai: dí: hi: ‘shall have been V-ing’ The final list of the Future tense markers (FUT.) are : vá: ‘will’, vá:te ‘you will.S’, và’ ‘i will’ vó: ‘i shall’, vé’n ‘will’, vé’ ‘shall’, vé ù ‘we will’, vá: ú te ‘you will.P’, vói: ‘we will’, tadì: vè:n ‘would you’, na vá: ‘would be’, ta vá: ‘would have’. On re-examinations of the above tense system in Zo which I proposed in my earlier work, the so-called tense markers, are actually aspectual or modal markers such as: na ‘inferential or definitive marker’, tà: ‘perfective marker’, hì: ‘declarative or confirmative marker’, è: ‘evidential marker’, zóu ‘completive marker’, zóutà: ‘completive-perfective marker’, na or kha vá: ‘uncertainty or doubt’. The majority of the Future tense markers are in fact, Irrealis modals, they are: vá: ‘will’, vá:te ‘you will.S’, và’ ‘i will’ vó: ‘i shall’, vé’n ‘will’, vé’ ‘shall’, vé ù ‘we will’, vá: ú te ‘you will.P’, vói: ‘we will’, tadì: vè:n ‘would you’, na vá: ‘would be’, vó:  ‘would’, ta vá: ‘would have’. Tense system in some TB languages is non-distinctive in nature as noted by Bauman (1975). Many TB languages fall in the category of “weakly tensed language” (Mei, 2002), in the absence of absolutive grammaticalized tense markings/ categories. Secondly, the same finite verb forms can be used with different temporal adverbs that refer to different times or tenses, without any morphological alternations. Like many TB A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 432 Verb Morphology languages, Zo does not have a “grammaticalized expressions of location in time” (Comrie, 1985), however, it heavily relies on Aspects, Modalities (Moods), Time adverbials to express the concept of time sequences or time location. It is overtly marked by aspectual-modal markers, Therefore, the deixis of location and time adverbials in combination with aspectual markers and modals (mood markers) play prominent roles in deciding the notion of time/tense specifications. Although, Zo language seems to fall in “weakly tensed language” category, however, there exists ample tense expressions or time location expressions in Zo through its modalities, aspects, evidentialities and verbal stem alternation/inflections in collocation with or without the time adverbials. Zo possesses several lexicalized temporal adverbs employed for expressions of time. It is possible to distinguish lexically tú: ‘now’ , iciá: ‘a while ago’ and da: ‘after a while’ in Zo language as deixis of time location. The tense in Zo is not marked morphosyntactically. It is however, overtly marked syntactically by Aspect markers (aspectuals) and modals as stated above. The Zo verb, does not inflect for gender, number and tense except in case of alternated Stem2 verbs to indicate concept of ‘pastness’. Considering the present moment as deictic center on time reference line we can have three basic tenses i.e three grammatical expressions of time; present, past and future are expressed through modals, aspect markers and inflected verb appearing as stem2. Zo language does not explicitly differentiate tense (expressions of time location) from aspects and modalities. Zo can be said to have a three-way syntactically overtly marked tense distinctions through aspect and modals i.e mood markers or particles, and also with inflected verb realized as stem2 to denote certain notions of past or passivity, as well as with evidentialities. The present and the past can be distinguished by the uninflected stem1verb i.e the root or primary/main verb and inflected root verb as stem2. The present concept is expressed by Imperfect aspect. The past concept is taken care of by Perfective aspect and evidentialities. The future is explained by the irrealis subjunctive (optative, presumptive, indicative) modalities. The past and future are expressed through modals and aspect markers/particles/auxiliaries or aspectuals (ASP.), which are ‘non-distinctive’ (Bauman, 1975) tense markers as compared the Western traditional grammar. The non-finite verbs including the stem2 verbs interact with A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 433 Verb Morphology pragmatic moods to exhibit the aspectual and temporal concepts of tense. Finally, the verb agrees with person in plural syntactically. Thus, broadly speaking, Zo possesses two kinds of grammatically distinctive tenses viz; Non-future (past and present) and Future. The distinctive contrasts between the Non-future vs. Future reference time in this language springs up not due to the existence of prominent absolute tense system, rather it is due to its overwhelming influence and significant role of AspectModality system. They interact syntactically with each other conveying time sequence or location of time i.e tense to form a Tense-Aspect-Modality (TAM) complex or even Tense-AspectModality-Evidentiality (TAME) complex. Therefore, when we discuss the time location in Zo, we shall be dealing with Tense-Aspect-Modality-Evidentiality (TAME) system instead of depending on each one of them as an separate or an isolated system. The evidentiality is closely related to the concepts of definitive/confirmative and indefinitive/non-confirmative modalities. The TAME complex provides for complete expressions of time location and neatly fits into any system of tensed-language. The Non-future tense comprises the present tense and the past tense. The Present tense in Zo is unmarked, while the Past tense or past notions are taken care of by the aspectual markers, are overtly marked with perfective aspectuals and the alternated stem2 verbs inflected/alternated morphono-tonemically. The Future tense is taken care of, by the various modals (mood markers or inferentials (evidentiality)). All modalities (Infinitive, Conditional, Adverbial. Proviso, Jussive, Exhortative, Prohibitive, Subjunctive, Obligatory, Passive etc.,) allowing appearance of Stem2 verbs in syntactic construction can used to convey the notion of past tense of a situation or an event in Zo. However, contrary to Comrie (1985, p.43) who opined that “no language has grammaticalized future tense.” On the contrary, it is seen that in Zo there is a grammatical category dí: ‘will’ to mark the future tense that is syntactically positioned and it occurs with or without temporal adverbials. The two tenses in Zo are Future tense and Non-future (present and past) tense. Future tense (1) gé:n dí: say FUT. ‘will say’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 434 Verb Morphology Non-Future (2) gé:n ‘say’, gé:n hi: ‘is saying’ NON-FUT. EVID. (3) gè:n.2 ‘said’ or ‘gèt.2 ‘said’ NON-FUT. EVID. Past Present 5.18.1 Simple Present Tense 5.18.1.1 Present Indefinite Tense in Singular and Plural formations; The present tense marker in Zo is zero or null and it is indicated by the symbol φ . Here, the auxiliary verb hì: is a perfect or confirmative marker, it can be followed by the Imperfective/Indefinite marker ‘a’. (30) (a) hì: φ kéi ka a 1S PROA. AUX. IMPERF. PRES. éi -té: i a 1P PM PROA AUX. PM ‘i am’ (b) hì: u IMPERF. φ PRES. ‘we are’ 5.18.1.2 (31) Present tense can also be simply expressed with Stem1 verb. kéi ka péi hi: 1S PROA. go.1 AUX. ‘i am going.’ 5.18.2 Simple Past Tense 5.18.2.1 Past Tense in Singular and Plural formations Morphologically, the finite verbs in Zo do not inflect for verbal agreement in past tense like English, but they are syntactically marked with so-called definite aspect markers. Syntactically, the past tense marker is preverbal na.DEF./INF. + V+ hì:. The Zo equivalent of the verb be in English, in past tense is a syntactic verb na hì: for Singular (S), na u hì: or na hì: u for Plural (P). The past tense marker maybe also termed as definite or perfective aspectual marker in tenseaspectual context, which is same as the Definite Aspectual marker (DEF.) or Inferential evidential (INF.) in aspect system. The concept of past tense or ‘pastness’ in Zo is rooted with A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 435 Verb Morphology Definiteness (na ‘past’ or ‘occurred’ or ‘happened’ na péi means ‘going happened ’) or Evidentiality and Confirmative modality (hì: ‘it is’ or ‘surely it happened) of an event or situation or reference point of time. The symbol for past tense is $. (32) (a) kéi ka na hì: 1S PROA. DEF./INF. CONF. $ ‘i was’ (b) éi -té: 1P PM i na hì: PROA DEF./INF. u CONF. PM $ ‘we were’ 5.18.2.2 Past tense can be expressed with Aspects, Modalities and Stem2. 5.18.2.2.1 Past tense is expressed with Aspectuals (aspect markers) (33) ka vàn má -do POSS. good vanish IM.CMPL., ASP. (immediate completive) ‘my good disappeared’ (34) ka vàn má -tà: POSS. good vanish PERF., ASP. ‘my good disappeared’ 5.18.2.2.2 Past tense is expressed with Immediate completive/Confirmative/Definitive Evidential (35) a tai: khiè hì: 3S run IMCMPL.,ASP. EVID. ‘s/he/it ran away.’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 436 Verb Morphology 5.18.2.2.3 (36) Past tense is expressed with Completive and Confirmative Evidential túi: ka water 1S do:n zóu hì: drink CMPL. CONF. ‘i drank water’ or ‘i finished drinking water’ 5.18.2.2.4 (37) Past tense is expressed with Perfective Aspect marker kéi in ne ta ì 1S AGEN. eat.3 PERF. SPVM,S ‘i ate’ (38) ka vàn má -tà: POSS. good vanish PERF. ASP. ‘my good disappeared.’ 5.18.2.2.5 (39) Past tense can be expressed with Wh-question ka thàu: POCL. gun ná in hei’a na kòi 2S AGEN.INTER.DEF. keep è? Qtag ‘where did you keep my gun’ 5.18.2.2.6 (40) Past tense can be expressed with Stem2 verb, Modals and Aspectuals kéi ka pèi ziè: in, 1S PROA. go.2 REAS.MOD. CL. a buói tà: hì: PROA.trouble PERF. CONF. ‘because I went, trouble ensued’ orbeause of my going, it landed into trouble.’ 5.18.3 Future Tense 5.18.3.1 Future Tense in Singular and Plural formations Syntactically, the future tense marker is V+ dí:ŋ + hì:. The Zo equivalent of the verb will be in A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 437 Verb Morphology future tense is a grammaticalized syntactic form dí:ŋ + hì:, for Singular (S), dí:ŋ + hì:+ u or dí:ŋ + u + hì: for Plural (P). The symbol for future is &. (41) (a) kéi ka 1S PROA.V+FUT. V+ dí:ŋ hì: AUX & ‘i will…be’ (b) éi -té: i V+ dí:ŋ hì: u 1P PM PROA V+FUT.AUX. PM & ‘we will’ 5.18.3.2 Future tense can also expressed through Irrealis Modals: The future is expressed with various modals or mood markers as shown below: (42) túni: in ka péi dí: now.day AGEN.1S go IRR. ‘i will go today’ (43) éinì: péi vài: 1S go HORT., S ‘let both of us go’ (44) éité péi vá ùi: 1P go HORT.FUT. PM ‘let us go’ (45) ka vàn má vá: POSS. good vanish OPT. FUT. ‘my good will disappear’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 438 Verb Morphology (46) ka vàn má vé:n: POSS. good vanish HYPO. FUT. ‘my good shall/might disappear’ (47) kéi in ne- vá: 1S AGEN. eat.3 OPT.,FUT. ì SPVM, S ‘i will eat’ (48) kóuté: in 1P ne- vá: AGEN. eat.3 OPT.,FUT. ù SPVM, P ‘we will eat’ (49) kéi in ne- vó: 1S AGEN. eat.3 PERM. FUT.,S ‘i shall eat’ (50) éité in ne- vói: 1P AGEN. eat.3 PRESM. FUT.,P ‘we shall eat’ 5.18.4 Compound Tenses Zo language also has “compound tenses" as found in English viz; progressive, perfect, perfect progressive in all the three tenses using modals/auxiliaries and aspectuals or aspect markers. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 439 Verb Morphology 5.18.4.1 Present Imperfect/Indefinite Progressive (51) a. kòt ka bo:l [lai:] a: door 1S do.1 [still] INDF., S b. lám ‘i am still making the door.’ 5.18.4.2 (52) road a a péi u’a: LOC. PROA. go INDF, P ‘they were going (still) on the road.’ Present Progressive: Present Progressive is expressed by Modal auxiliary hi: kéi in ka né: 1S AGEN. PROA. eat hi: AUX. ‘i am eating’ (53) kóuté in 1P ka né: u AGEN. PROA. eat.3 PM hi: AUX. ‘we are eating’ 5.18.4.3 Present perfect tense: Present perfect tense is expressed with Perfective aspect marker tà: By placing perfective marker in postverbal position we get the immediate present perfect tense. (54) kóuté in 1S ka ne tà: u AGEN. PROA. eat.3 PERF. PM. ‘we have eaten’ (55) kéi in 1S AGEN.eat.3 ‘i have eaten’ ne- ta: ì PERF. SPVM, S A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 440 Verb Morphology (56) nóuté in 1S ne- AGEN.eat.3 ta: u PERF. PM te DEF./CONF. ‘you have eaten’ 5.18.4.4 Present perfect Progressive. It is expressed through perfective aspect marker tà: and Declarative mood marker hi:, optionally the Conitnuous marker lai: can be employed as in (60). (57) kóuté in 1S ka ne tà: u AGEN. PROA. eat.3 PERF. PM. hi: DECL. ‘we have been eatening’ (58) kéi in ka ne- 1S AGEN.PROA. eat.3 [lai:] hì: PROG. DECL. ‘i have been eatening’ 5.18.4.5 Past progressive: Past progressive is expressed with Definite aspect marker na and Declarative marker hi:. (59) kéi ka na ne 1S PROA. DEF. eat.3 hi: DECL. ‘i was eating’ (60) a vàn na má hi: POCL. good DEF. vanish DECL. ‘his/her good was disappearing’ A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 441 Verb Morphology 5.18.4.6 Past perfect. It is expressed with preverbal Definite marker na and postverbal perfective marker tà:. (61) kéi án na ne 1S food DEF. eat.3 ta ì: PERF. SPVM,S. ‘i had eaten food’ 5.18.4.7 Past Completive. It is expressed with postverbal Completive aspect marker zóu, optionally preverbal Definite marker na can be used to emphasize the past notion in Indicative mood with SPVM markings. (62) kéi án na ne 1S food DEF. eat.3 zóu ì: COMP. SPVM,S. IND. ‘i ate food’ or ‘i finished eating food’ 5.18.4.8 Past Completive-Perfect. It is expressed with preverbal Definite marker, postverbal Completive aspect marker zóu, postverbal perfective marker ta to emphasize the past notion in Indicative mood with SPVM markings. (63) kéi án na ne 1S food DEF. eat.3 zóu ta ì: CMPL. PERF. SPVM,S. ‘i had already eaten food’ 5.18.4.9 Past Perfect Progressive or Past Definitive Progressive . In past progressive/participle form it appears as stem2 in Perfective or Definitive Mood with enclitic -in in singular and –un in plural form in post-verbal position as shown below: (64) a. kòt ka bò:l [lai:] in door 1S do.2 [still] DEF. ‘when/while I was making the door.’ b. lám a a road GEN. 3S pèi un go.2 DEF.,P ‘while they were going on the road.’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 442 Verb Morphology (65) a gìn a 3S noise.2 3S tai:khiè u zá: ùn a hear. DEF.PM PROA. run out PM AUX hì: ‘Hearing the noise, they ran out.’ 5.18.4.10 Future progressive. It is expressed with Irrealis marker dí: with postverbal declarative mood marker and other Irrealis modals/auxiliaries. (66) kéi ka ne 1S PROA. eat.3 dí: hi: IRR. DECL. má -vá: ‘i will be eating.’ (67) a vàn POCL. good na in DEF. vanish OPT. CL. ‘his/her good would be disappearing….and’ (68) kéi án ne vé:: 1S food eat.3 HYPO. ‘i shall be eating food’ (69) kéi in na ne- 1S AGEN. DEF. eat.3 vá: ì OPT., SPVM, S ‘i would be eating’ 5.18.4.11 Future perfect. It is expressed with postverbal perfective marker and Irrealis marker in Evidential or Declarative mood. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 443 Verb Morphology (70) kéi ka ne ta dí: 1S PROA. eat.3 PERF. IRR. hi: DECL. ‘i will have eaten’ (71) kéi án ne -ta vé:: 1S food eat.3 PERF. HYPO. FUT. ‘i shall have eaten’ (72) kéi in án ne 1S AGEN. food eat.3 -ta và:: PERF. HYPO. FUT. ‘i shall eat my food’ or ‘i should be eating my food’ 5.18.4.12 Immediate future perfect tense. It is expressed with preverbal definite marker na, postverbal perfective marker ta: and Irrealis marker dí: in Declarative mood. (73) kéi ka na ne 1S PROA. DEF. eat.3 ta dí: hi: PERF. IRR. FUT. DECL. -ta vá: in OPT. FUT. CL. ‘i would have eaten.’ (74) a vàn POCL. good na má DEF. vanish PEF. ‘his/her good would have disappeared.’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 444 Verb Morphology (75) kéi in na ne- 1S AGEN. DEF. eat.3 ta và’ PERF. OPT., SPVM, S ‘i would eaten.’ (76) kéi án na ne 1S food DEF. eat.3 -ta vé:: PERF. HYPO. FUT. ‘i should have eaten.’ It is seen from above, that there is overwhelming predominance of aspects and modalilities that interact together with evidentialities exhibiting an entire or complete expressions of location in time in a web system. It is observed that the aspectuals, modals and even alternated verb as stem2 within modalities express the tenses in Zo. In certain cases, the Realis and Irrealis modals co-occur to produce the desired tense or time locations. Thus, we see that the ‘grammaticalization of location of time’ in Zo is a complex process involving the combinations of Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality known as TAME. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 445 Verb Morphology Table 1: Showing the Relationship of T A M E in Zo. Tense Aspects Modality Present Indefinite Progressive Continuous Perfect Perfect Progressive Past Indefinite Progressive Continuous Perfect Perfect Progressive Immediate; V+pàn Imperfective; V+a Irrealis Declarative Evidentiality & Verbal Stem Stem1 Progressive; V+hi: Continuous; V+lai: Completive; V+zóu Perfective; V+tà:hi: Imperfective ; Definite marker na+V+ a Irrealis Progressive na+V+ hì: Continuous na+V+lai:hi: Completive; na+V+zóu: Perfective; na +V+zóutà:hì: Realis Future Indefinite Progressive Continuous Perfect Perfect Progressive hi:,Stem2 Realis Imperfective V+tadí:: a Progressive V+ dí: hi: Continuous V+lai: dí: hi: Completive; V+zóu dí: Perfective; V+zóuta dí: hi: Irrealis; Indicative; dí: Hortative; vài:, vá ùi Hypothetical; vé:, vé:n, vé: Potential; vá:, và: Therefore, the time locations in Zo are very well handled by the aspectuals, modals and evidentialities. Thus, the TAME system neatly explains the entire expression of time location in Zo. Pragmatically, the relational analysis of tense and aspect to modalities to evidentialities allows for a unified system of the four categories which are realizable within the system of verbal stem alternations. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 446 Verb Morphology If we take into consideration the role of Irrealis moods in “weakly-tensed” language like Zo, it is possible to explain that the future marker ‘dí:ŋ’ is in fact, a modal i.e an irrealis mood marker for predicting an event subsequent to the present moment, therefore, some linguists like Yashwanta Singh (1999) opined that this kind of time location does not fall in the domain of absolute tense system. Thus, Zo language seems to fall in the class of “weakly-tensed language” with relative to the tense as defined expounded in some Indo-European languages. It is possible that Mei (2002) might have considered the WTL as a language without structured tense by comparing some languages with many Indo-European languages like Latin, Greek, English, French etc. On the other hand, if we consider the prevalence of several time expression systems in the forms of temporal adverbs, alternated verbs, aspects and modalities, Zo can be actually considered to possess a very rich system of “grammaticalized expressions of location of time” (i.e tense system)’ which is not found in Indo-European and many other languages. The contrastive deictic terms such as distinctive vs non-distinctive and absolute tense vs. relative tense are themselves can subjected to further inquiry. 5.18.5 Contextualized Functions of Temporal Adverbials in the Tense system of Zo. The location of time with the help of temporal adverbials play a very prominent role in Zo as in TB languages also. Temporal Adverbials or Time Adverbs i.e Adverbs of time can be used to indicate the present, past and future tense of an event or state or action without any inflections or alternations in the main verb i.e the verb form remaining the same all throughout. 5.18.5.1 Present tense forms can be used to indicate nonpresent situations. The present tense form collocate with an time adverbials indicating past tense through perfective aspectual. Present tense is attested with temporal adverbs deictic centers. Temporal adverbs for present tense marking in Zo are; tú: ‘now’, tú:ni: ‘today’, tú:kùm ‘this year’, tú:in ‘at present’ , tú: nita: in ‘this evening’, lai: in ‘while’ or ‘during’ or ‘still’, tú:ni:in ‘today’, tú:kùm in ‘this year’ (77) tú: in le lóu now CL. CONJ. field na hlóu 2S plough PERF. Qtag ‘would you plough the field now.’ -ta dí’éi A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 447 Verb Morphology 5.18.5.2 Past tense in Zo is realized by sequence of past events denoted by the temporal adverbs. Temporal adverbs for past tense marking in Zo are; zà:ni:in ‘yesterday’, nikùm in ‘last year’, malai: in ‘in days goneby’ or ‘before the present time’, khàtveini: or khàtveilai: ‘day before yesterday’, tà:lai: ‘ancient time’, tuòn in ‘primeval time’, iciá:in ‘a moment ago’, (78) nikùm in ka pá: in lóu last.year CL. POCL. father AGEN field a hlóu hi: PROA. plough AUX. ‘last year my father ploughed the field.’ [literally; last year my father is ploughing the field.] (79) iciá: -in ka nú: to án ka né: hì: ADV.time CL POCL.motherASSOC. food 1S eat. AUX. ‘shortwhile ago, i had/ate food with my mother.’ 5.18.5.3 Future tense: Temporal adverbs for marking Future tense: tú: nuá: ‘after this time or moment’, iciá: ‘a moment before the present moment’, da: ‘after a while’, nuá:cié le ‘afterwards, ‘in future’, nucié le ‘afterwards’, da:cié in ‘after sometime’, thái:cié in ‘day after tomorrow’, zi:mo: in ‘in the morning’ , zi: ə ‘by tomorrow’, nita: ciéin ‘in the evening’, , zóu in or zò: in ‘after’. (80) zi: a ka tomorrow LOC. 1S péi nuom hi: go. want AUX. ‘i want to go/leave tomorrow.’ In the next example, the event or situations referred to by present tense forms are located/situated in the future with adverbial time. (81) zi: sèp. -pàt ni: tomorrow work.2.begin.2 day a hi PROA. AUX. ‘tomorrow is Monday.’ [lit. Tomorrow is day of starting work] A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 448 Verb Morphology In contextualized expressions, the past tense can be collocated with nonpast and future tense forms with temporal adverbs as shown below: (82) zà:ni zà:n yesterday zi: a night CL. tomorrow GEN. go. na cì: a, tú:ni: in thái: cié -a péi dí: 2S say CL. today CL. day-after-tomorrow EVM.CL. go FUT. na ci a, bà pe:n ka dí: hì: kiá in 2S say again CL.what one gìntà:t POCL. believe.2 péi dí: hi ì FUT. AUX. SPVM a éi? FUT. PROA.AUX. Qtag ‘yesterday night you said that you will be going by tomorrow, and today you say again, that you are going day-after-tomorrow, which one shall i believe?’ In the above example, the time adverbs and tense forms combine in different ways to give contextualized expressions. The future tense form péi dí: ‘will be going’ co-occurs with both the past time adverbial; zà:ni zà:n ‘yesterday-night’ and the future time adverbial; zi: ‘tomorrow’; the future tense form péi dí: ‘are going’ or ‘will be going’ co-occurs with both the present time adverbial; tú:ni: ‘today’ and the future time adverbial; thái: ‘day-after-tomorrow’. In such case, the future and past or present tense forms have contextualized functions with temporal adverbials or time adverbials in Zo. 5.19 Aspects The sentence, amà: in a né:hi: ‘he is eating’ (as sense of continuation or progress of eating is conveyed) in contrasts with amà: in a né: ahì: ‘he ate’ (completed or finished sense). Let us look at another sentence; amà: in a na gièl (lai: ta ) hi: ‘he was writing’ (actually still continuing the action, continuity of an action) and ama: na gièl ahi: ‘he wrote it.’ In the above two kinds of sentences, they do not involve tense, instead both fall in the domains of Aspects; Imperfective aspect and Perfective aspect. Aspect, unlike tense is not a deictic category. m English distinguish between Imperfective and Perfective, Progressive or Continuous and Non-progressive or Simple duration of an action. It also has Habitual aspect contrasts as in ‘used A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 449 Verb Morphology to’ which is analysed as habitual mood similar to Zo habitual aspect/ modality (mood/aspectual markers in Zo; let, zé:l, ái). Aspect indicates event, state or process of an action that is denoted by a verb with the help of auxiliaries or particles (formatives or clitics) or as syntactic preverbal and postverbal affixes to it. Aspect is not concerned with the relating the time of the situation to any other timepoint, but rather with the internal temporal constituency of the unitary situation (Comrie 1985, Yashwanta Singh 1999); thus, Aspect implies internal time and Tense implies external time. “aspects are different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation.” (Holt, 1943, p.6). Comrie (1976) had shown that there are two main aspects viz; Perfective and Imperfective as shown in diagram below. Figure 4: Classification of Aspects (Comrie, 1976) Comrie (1993 [1976]:52) defines aspect as an "internal temporal constitution of a situation", and the perfect as indicating "the continuing present relevance of a past situation". There are aspects of Imperfect and Perfect, Finished or Unfinished, Completive or Noncompletive, Iterative vs. Non-iterative (Lyons 1977) of a state or process, an action or an event taking place vis-à-vis the speaker or hearer/addressee. The Zo aspect also explains definiteness and indefiniteness; whether the speaker is definite about the occurrence of the action in question or not, or whether s/he her/himself has seen or experienced it or confirmed such action or event or if he has a secondary information about it known as Evidentiality as found in some other languages also. The Evidentiality will be dealt as separate entity from aspect or modality in this analysis, interacting with them as a complex system. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 450 Verb Morphology Following Comrie’s Model (1976) as given above, in Zo there are two primary aspects viz; Imperfective and Perfective. Further, there are sub-categories of aspectuals; Imperfective is subdivided into 5(five) sub-categories viz; Imperfect, Progressive, Continuous, Habitual and Not-yet aspects. The Perfective is sub-divided into Perfect/Conclusive and Completive aspects. The aspects system in Zo is illustrated as below: Aspect Perfective Imperfective Imperfect Progressive Continuous Habitual Not-yet Perfect Completive Figure 5: Classification of Aspects in Zo We shall now discuss the different kinds of aspects attested in Zo. 1) Imperfective aspect Aspectuals i. Imperfect/Non-progressive unmarked or marked with a, pai, pàn ii. Progressive aspect hi: ka hi:‘is frying’ iii. Continuous aspect lai: hi: ka lai:hi:‘is frying’ iv. Habitual aspect let, ái, zé:l, ka let, ‘used to fry’ v. Not-yet aspect nái: NEG. ka náì: lóu ‘not yet fried’ 2) Perfective aspect i. Perfective aspect tà:, ka tá: ‘fried’, vomtá: ‘became black’ ii. Completive aspect zóu; ka zóu: ‘have/has fried’ Various combinations of perfective and completive aspects with evidentialities (evidentials) produce an aspectual sub-system which I termed it as Compound aspects. These aspects neatly explains the time location i.e tense readings like the English tense system in Zo. The following are the compound aspects attestable in Zo. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 451 Verb Morphology Compound Aspect markers i. Perfective tà: hi: ii. Perfective-Evidential tà hì: iii. Completive-Progressive zóu hi: iv. Completive-Evidential zóu hì: iv. Completive-Perfective zóutà: v. Completive-Perfect-Evidential zóutà hì: vi. Completive-irrealis modal zóu dí: hì: vii. Completive-perfect irrealis modal zóu tə-dí:hì: Before going further let us look at two important aspect markers as found in Zo viz; Perfective marker and Completive markers. 5.19.1 Perfective marker: -tà: ~ -tá: In all the tense forms, the Zo has a distinct postverbal perfective marker -tà:. This marker –tà: can denote an action or event just completed or perfected, just prior to the time of utterance or just subsequent to future action or event, it would be roughly translated as ‘already’ or ‘immediate’. Therefore, i have termed it as Perfective marker that is the marker of an action performed already a shortwhile ago, or immediate past or an action that will be performed in near immediate future. This perfective aspect marker tà: ‘perfective’ has three allotones viz; tá: ‘occurred’ or ‘happened’ tà: ‘over’ or ‘already’ or ‘done’ used with Indefinite/Simple past tense and tə ‘just’ or ‘already’ or ‘conclusive’ used with irrealis subjuntive-optative modality to indicate future time references or future time. At times, this aspect expresses definiteness and emphasizes the action itself. When it sytactically occurs with the Copula or the Continuous marker hi:AUX. we get a Compound aspect known as Perfect-Evidential aspects by virtue of its syntax with two allotones i) hi:AUX and hì: DEF. (stem2 of hi: AUX). This marker can be suffixed to the Completive marker zóu to denote immediate or just completed action or as Compound perfective aspect marker as zóutà: ‘had + V’ or ‘already done or completed’. It can also lie as a preverbal prefix to the modal future tense markers: dí:ŋ or và’ŋ or vé’ŋ or và’n to denote full completion in immediate future. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 452 Verb Morphology 5.19.2 Completive markers: -zóu: and -sà:. Zo has a distinct postverbal completive markers -zóu: and -sà:. This marker –zóu denotes that the action or event is just completed, it would be roughly translated as ‘finished’ or ‘past’. Therefore, i have termed it as Completive marker that is the marker of an action performed already shortwhile ago or in the immediate past. This marker can be suffixed to the finite verb to denote immediate or just completed action or as Compound completive-perfective aspect with marker; zóutà: ‘had + V’ or ‘already done or completed’ in other words indicating past perfect tense. It can also lie as a postverbal prefix to the modal future tense markers: dí:ŋ, và’ŋ, vé’ŋ, vá, vài:, vá ùi, vé:, vé:n to denote full completion of an action or an event in immediate future. The term sà: ‘already’ or ‘over’ or ‘gone’ is used to denote some past event in the near past or distant past performed or completed in toto. 5.19.3 Immediate Completive markers: Some aspectual markers such as do, khiè, má convey the notion of immediate completion of an action performed or will be performed in near future. Now let us see the various aspects found in Zo, one by one. The Aspect categories in Zo are overtly marked syntactically. The structure of Zo Verbal phrase is Verb + Aspectual + Modal + Evidential. Depending upon the realization of aspect, modality and evidentiality, one or more slots maybe missing or all of them may co-occur. 5.19.4 Imperfective aspects: The structure of imperfect aspect marker is V + a. (83) əmà: -in tà:ŋ.thu s/he ancient.word one AGEN. khàt a ŋai: a PROA. listen IMPERF. φ PRES s/he listens to a folktale and….continues to listen to… The imperfective aspect gives present tense reading with reference to the speaker or time of utterance as deictic center. 5.19.4.1 Imperfect aspect: This aspect is also known as Simple or Non-progressive aspect, it denotes an action that is continuous but not ongoing or it occurs within a very short point of time. It gives present tense reading. The structure of imperfect aspect marker is V + a. The imperfect marker in Zo is the enclitic a. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 453 Verb Morphology (84) amà: in s/he túi a do:n a φ AGEN.water PROA. drink IMPF. ‘s/he drinks water.’ (85) əmà: -in tà:ŋ.thu s/he ancient.word one AGEN. khàt a ŋai: φ a PROA. listen IMPF. PRES ‘s/he listens to a folktale and….continues to listen to…’ In discourse contexts, the Completive or Perfect aspect followed by the Imperfective marker or the Indefinite enclitic ‘a’ to express the continuity of an event or an action performed by an entity, in such case, we still have Present Imperfective Aspect readings. In fact, this enclitic is a kind of a ‘discourse linker’ in a speech act or discourse contexts. (86) əmà: -in s/he AGEN.ancient.word one tà:ŋ.thù khàt a ŋai: -zóu a φ PROA. listen CMPL.IMPF.CL ‘s/he has listened to a tale and….’ (87) əmà: -in s/he AGEN.ancient.word one tà:ŋ.thù khàt a ŋai: tà: a $ PROA. listen PERF. IMPF.CL ‘s/he listened to a tale and….’ (88) əmà: -in s/he AGEN.ancient.word one tà:ŋ.thù khàt a ŋai: -zóutà: a $ PROA. listen CMPL.PERF. IMPF.CL ‘s/he had listened to a tale and….’ 5.19.4.2 Immediate aspect: There is another type of imperfect aspect in Zo, known as Immediate aspect which denotes an action or event that occurs at once or soon or that expresses a change in the existing states or that will happen in the near future. The Immediate aspect markers are; pəi ‘just’, pàn ‘just starts a little moment ago’. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language Verb Morphology (89) əmà: in s/he túi a do:n 454 φ pai AGEN.water PROA. drink IMD. ‘s/he drinks water at once’ (90) əmà: in s/he túi a do:n φ pàn AGEN.water PROA. drink IMD. ‘s/he just starts to drink water a short while ago’ 5.19.4.3 Progressive aspect: The structure of progressive aspect marker is V + hi:. This aspect denotes an action that is being performed or an event or an action that is ongoing. It portrays a shorter duration of time. The Zo progressive durative aspectual marker hi: ‘be/is V+ing’. AUX. It can combine with Continuous aspectual lai: ‘still on’ to denote longer point of time. (91) əmà: -in tà:ŋ thu s/he ancient.word one AGEN. khàt a ŋai: hi: φ PROA. listen PROG. PRES ‘s/he is listening to a tale.’ (92) əmà: in s/he túi a do:n φ hi: AGEN.water PROA. drink PROG. ‘s/he is drinking water’ 5.19.4.4 Continuous aspect: This aspect denotes an action that is continuing that is not about to stop or end or change. The Continuous or durative aspectual marker lai: ‘still’, ‘during’ or ‘while’ or ongoing duration’. It is succeeded by the Progressive marker. This aspect marker is in opposition with the Completive marker zóu ‘finished’. Thus, there is aspectual polarity in this language. (93) əmà: in s/he túi a do:n lai: hi: φ AGEN.water PROA. drink CONT. PROG. ‘s/he is [still] drinking water’ [s/he is still drinking hasn’t stop the action] A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 455 Verb Morphology (94) əmà: -in tà:ŋ thu s/he ancient.word one AGEN. khàt a ŋai: lai: φ hì: PROA. listen CONT. CONF. ‘s/he is [still] listening to a tale’ or ‘s/he has been listening to a folktale’ (95) əmà: -in tà:ŋ thu s/he ancient.word one AGEN. khàt a ŋài: lai: ìn φ PROA. listen CONT. IMPF.,CL. ‘s/he is [still] listening to a tale’ or ‘s/he has been listening to a folktale’ 5.19.4.5 Habitual aspect: The habitual aspect can be past habituals and future habitual. It usually expresses habitual action either in the past. The future habitual is expressed by zé:l ‘sometimes’ or ‘off and on’. It cannot be realized in present tense. The past habituals are; lèt, and ái; the English gloss is ‘used to’. The habitual aspect cannot co-occur with negative polarity. (96) Phai: a ka Imphal LOC. 1S hò: lèt hi: go HAB. DECL./COP. ‘I used to go to Imphal’ (97) Phai: a ka Imphal LOC. 1S hò: zé:l dí: go HAB. IRR. & hi: DECL./COP. ‘I will go to Imphal off and on’ 5.19.4.6 Not-yet aspect (NYT): This is a Negative imperfective aspect. The Not-yet aspect marker is nái ‘yet’ or ‘still’, it is always syntactically succeeded by Negative marker. (98) əmà: in he túi a do:n ná:i si hi: AGEN.water PROA. drink NYT. NEG. DECL. ‘he has not yet drunk water’ or ‘he did not drink the water yet/still’ (99) əmà: a he péi PROA. go ná:i si hi: NYT. NEG. DECL. ‘he has not yet gone’ or ‘he did not go yet’ A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 456 Verb Morphology There are also some eventive or durative adverbial particles as aspect-mood markers such as; cíé, lai:, pum, ko:m, so:m, kuòn etc., which inflect the stem1 verb to stem2 verb giving minor aspect-modal system. 5.19.5 Perfective aspects: This aspect plays important roles in time location in Zo, it can occur in past and future as well. It indicates that an action or an event has already taken place or has already occurred. It denotes immediate or short duration of an event that has already ended or has already been completed or might be or will be completed in near future. This aspectuals are closely interwined with past time locations in Zo, along with modals to indicate future events. At times, this aspect expresses definiteness and emphasizes the action itself. When it sytactically occurs with the copula or the Continuous marker hi:AUX. we get a Compound aspect known as Perfect-Evidential aspects by virtue of its syntax with two allotones i) hi:AUX and hì: DEF. (stem2 of hi: AUX). or as evidential Confirmative marker (CONF.). The latter denotes immediate perfection of an action just a few moments ago or sometime ago known to the speaker. This marker hi: also is considered and treated as evidential chapter. The primary perfective aspect marker tà: ‘perfective’ has three allotones viz; tá: ‘occurred’ or ‘happened’ tà: ‘over’ or ‘done’ used with Indefinite/Simple past tense and tə ‘just’ or ‘already’ or ‘conclusive’ used with irrealis subjuntive-optative modality to indicate future time references or future time. The Perfective aspect can be sub-categorized into two types viz; Simple and Compound types. The structure of Simple perfect marker are; V + hì: confirmative particle hì: expresses a confirmative sense or Definiteness aspect. The differences in the syntactic markers between Progressive marker hi: and Perfective marker hì: lies in the stem alternations i.e the former is uninflected/root form and the latter is inflected/alternated form as indicated by the falling tone symbol. The structure of extended Compound perfect markers are; V+ tá:+ hì: denotes a notion of double or Perfect Confirmation, and V+ zóu + hì: or V+ zóu + tà: + hì: denotes an event or an action already performed or perfected or completed or finished in an unambiguous term to give Completive aspect. In fact, this aspects can be explained with the help of evidentialities, as such hi: and hì: can be treated as evidentials. A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 457 Verb Morphology 5.19.5.1 Simple Perfective aspects: Simple Perfective aspect with confirmative aspect marker has two types of structures viz; V+ hì: as in (100) and in alternated verbal construction it has V2+PROA.+hì: structure as shown below in (101). (100) əmà: -in s/he AGEN. ancient.word tà:ŋ.thu khàt one a ŋai: hì: $ PROA. listen EVID. ‘s/he listened to a folktale’ (101) əmà: -in s/he AGEN. ancient.word tà:ŋthu khàt one a ŋài: a PROA. listen.2 hì: $ PROA. EVID. ‘s/he already listened to a folktale’ 5.19.5.2 Compound Perfective aspects. 5.19.5.2.1 Compound Perfective-Evidential aspect with perfect-evidential marker; -tà: hì: This type of compound aspect gives past reading. (102) əmà: -in tà:ŋ. thu s/he AGEN. ancient.word khàt one a ŋai: -tà: hì: $ PROA. listen PERF. CONF. ‘s/he listened to a folktale’ 5.19.5.2.2 Completive aspects: This aspect denotes an action that is already finished or performed. This aspectual marker is zóu ‘finished’ or ‘done’ or ‘completed’. This aspectual can syntactically co-occur with perfect aspectual, as well as prospective aspectual or together with them giving compound aspects in Zo. When it occurs syntactically preceding an irrealis modal ‘dí:’, it predicts an action that will be concluded or just completed in near future giving a Completive-prospective aspect in subjunctive irrealis modality. Further, it can co-occur with the conclusive/perfect marker tə- to give a immediate completive compound aspect termed as Completive-perfect prospective aspect. Evidentials hi: AUX or hì: DEF. occuring finally gives Compound aspects such as; Completive-Evidential, CompletivePerfect-Evidential,Completive-prospective-Evidential,Completive-perfect prospective-evidential aspects. A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo language 458 Verb Morphology 5.19.5.2.2.1 (103) Simple Completive aspects. It gives Present perfect tense reading. amà: in s/he túi do:n $ zóu AGEN.water drink CMPL. ‘s/he has drunk the water’ or ‘s/he finished/completed drinking water’ (104) əmà: –in tà:ŋthu khət s/he AGEN. tale one ŋai: $ zóu listen CMPL. ‘s/he has listened to a tale’ 5.19.5.2.2.2 Compound Completive aspects. i) Completive-Progressive aspect. The structure of Completive-Progressive aspect marker is V + zóu + hi:. It gives present perfect tense reading. (105) əmà: –in tà:ŋthu khət s/he AGEN. tale one ə ŋai: zóu $ hi: PROA listen CMPL. PROG. ‘s/he finished listening to a tale’ or ‘s/he has listened to a tale’ ii) Completive-Evidential aspect. It is expressed with Completive- Confirmative marker, its structure is V + zóu + hì: . It gives past perfect tense reading. (106) əmà: –in tà:ŋthu khət s/he AGEN. tale one ə ŋai: 1S listen CMPL. CONF. zóu hì: $ ‘s/he had listened to a tale’ iii) Completive-Perfective aspect: Its structure is V+zóu+tà:. It gives past perfect reading. (107) amà: in s/he túi do:n zóu -tà: $ AGEN.water drink CMPL. PERF. ‘s/he had drunken the water’ or ‘s/he completed drinking water’ A Descriptive Grammar of Zo language 459 Verb Morphology iv) Completive-Perfective-Evidential aspect. It is expressed with Completive-PerfectEvidential marker, its structure is V+ zóu +tà: + hì:. It gives past perfect tense reading. (108) əmà: s/he -in tà:ŋ. thu AGEN. ancient.word khàt one a ŋai: -zóu tà: hì: $ PROA. listen CMPL. PERF. EVID.,CONF. ‘s/he had finished listening to a folktale’ (there is no more to be listened to…) (109) amà: in s/he túi do:n zóu hì: -tà: $ AGEN.water drink CMPL. PERF., DEF. ‘s/he had finished drinking water’ [lit. s/he completed drinking the water certainly] v) Completive-irrealis modal aspect. It gives future perfect reading. (110) amà: in s/he túi do:n zóu dí: AGEN.water drink PERF. IRR. hì: & CONF. ‘s/he will have drunken the water’ or ‘s/he would have finished drinking water’ vi) Completive-perfect irrealis modal aspect. It gives the Immediate future perfect tense reading. (111) amà: in s/he túi do:n a zóu tə- dí: AGEN.water drink PROA. CMPL.PERF. IRR. hì: & CONF. ‘s/he would had drunken water surely’ We can have sub-types of compound aspects also with irrealis optative, subjunctive modals such as vá:, vé:n, và: etc,., to explain the future tense concepts in Zo language. Thus, it seen that the aspect-modal markers play crucial role in giving complete expressions for location of time in Zo, they are significant grammatical categories in Zo verb morphology for time location i.e tense markings.