5 Verb categorization
5.3 Verb classes
5.3.5 Resultative achievements
Resultative achievements encode a change-of-state together with the resultant state. Their phasal structure can thus be schematized as in Figure 5.5 forhoboka
‘be(come) happy’. Other examples arebenga‘hate’,gana‘like, love’,gona ʊtʊlo
‘sleep’ andtwala‘carry, bring’.
being happy C N
Figure 5.5: Phasal structure of resultative achievement
In the simple present, resultative achievements have a futurate reading as well as a habitual/generic one, but no progressive reading (48).
(48) a. i-kʊ-hobok-a
1-prs-be(come)_happy-fv 1. ‘S/he will become happy.’
2. ‘S/he becomes happy (e.g. on each particular occasion).’
b. i-kʊ-m-beng-a 1-prs-1sg-hate-fv 1. ‘S/he will hate me.’
2. ‘S/he hates me (e.g. shows it every time we meet).’
The periphrastic progressive construction with resultative achievements refers to the resultant state (49). This is unlike transitional achivements (§5.3.4), which do encode an Onset state.
(49) a. a-lɪ 1-cop
pa-kʊ-hobok-a
16-15-be(come)_happy-fv
‘S/he is happy.’
b. a-lɪ 1-cop
pa-kʊ-m-beng-a 16-15-1sg-hate-fv
‘S/he hates me (e.g. is acting hostile).’
Some, but not all, resultative achievements can be coerced into a progressive reading with the simple present as the complement of the persistive aspect aux-iliary (50). As with transitional achievements, what is referred to in this case is the resultant state.
(50) a. a-kaalɪ 1-pers
i-kʊ-hobok-a
1-prs-be(come)_happy-fv 1. ‘S/he still becomes happy.’
2. ‘S/he is still being happy.’
5.3 Verb classes b. a-kaalɪ
1-pers
i-kʊ-m-beng-a 1-prs-1sg-hate-fv
1. ‘S/he still hates me (e.g. still shows it every time we meet).’
2. ‘S/he is still hating me (e.g. acting hostile).’
c. a-kaalɪ
‘S/he still carries a/the basket (regularly).’
not: ‘S/he is still carrying a/the basket.’
As with all inchoative verbs, the common way to refer to the resultant state is with the use of the perfective aspect, which is licensed as the complement of the persistive aspect auxiliary (51), a combination that denotes the persistence of the resultant state.
(51) a. a-kaalɪ 1-pers
a-hobwike
1-be(come)_happy.pfv
‘S/he is still happy.’
b. a-kaalɪ 1-pers
a-m-beng-ile 1-1sg-hate-pfv
‘S/he still hates me.’
The time-span phrase ‘take X time’ refers to the time elapsing before the entry into the new state:
(52) a. eeg-ile
‘S/he took a long time to become happy.’
b. eeg-ile
‘S/he came to hate me within a short time.’
Related to the behaviour of resultative achievements with the simple present and periphrastic progressive, the auxiliaryanda‘begin, start’ in the single event reading refers to an initial subphase of the resultant state:
(53) a. and-ile 1.begin-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-hobok-a
aug-15-be(come)_happy-fv
‘S/he has begun to be happy.’
b. and-ile 1.begin-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-m-beng-a aug-15-1sg-hate-fv
‘S/he has begun to hate me.’
Parallel to what has been observed for transitional achievements, at least some resultative achievements can be coerced into a progressive reading of the resul-tant state in the syntactic frame of the simple present as the complement of the persistive aspect auxiliary.
(54) a-kaalɪ 1-pers
i-kʊ-hobok-a
1-prs-be(come)_happy-fv
1. ‘S/he still becomes happy (e.g. on each certain occasion).’
2. ‘S/he is still being (behaving) happy.’
(55) a-kaalɪ 1-pers
i-kʊ-m-beng-a 1-prs-1sg-hate-fv
1. ‘S/he still hates me (generally speaking).’
2. ‘S/he is still hating me (i.e. acting hostile).’
The auxiliarymala‘finish’ refers to the resultant state. As has been observed in the preceding sections,malarequires its subject to have the semantic role of agent or force:
(56) a-mal-ile 1-finish-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-twal-a aug-15-cary-fv
ɪ-kɪ-kapʊ aug-7-basket
‘S/he has finished carrying a/the basket.’
(57) a-mal-ile 1-finish-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-gon-a aug-15-rest-fv
ʊ-tʊ-lo aug-12-sleep
‘S/he has finished sleeping.’
(58) * a-mal-ile 1-finish-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-hobok-a
aug-15-be(come)_happy-fv (intended: ‘S/he is not happy anymore.’) (59) * a-mal-ile
1-finish-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-m-beng-a aug-15-1sg-hate-fv
(intended: ‘S/he does not hate me anymore.’)
As is the case with transitional achievements, a single event reading with the egressive auxiliarylekais available for at least some resultative achievements:
5.3 Verb classes
‘S/he has ceased to be sleeping.’
b. a-lek-ile 1-cease-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-n̩-gan-a
aug-15-1-like/love-fv
‘S/he has ceased to love him/her.’
c. ? a-lek-ile 1-cease-pfv
ʊ-kʊ-hobok-a
aug-15-be(come)_happy-fv
‘S/he has ceased to be happy.’
One verb in the sample,manya ‘know’, patterns to a large extent with resul-tative achievements. Unlike the latter, however,manyais incompatible with the periphrastic progressive:
(intended: ‘S/he is learning English.’ or ‘S/he knows English.’)
In all other respects,manya‘know’ behaves no differently from the verbs dis-cussed so far in this section. Thus in the simple present it has a generic (62) as well as a futurate reading (63). To refer to the state of having knowledge, the perfective aspect is employed (64) and its compatibility with persistive aspect shows that this state forms part of its lexical meaning (65).
(62) a-baa-sukuulu
‘Now you’ll get to know me, why don’t you answer when I’m asking you?’ [Saliki and Hare]
(64) a-meenye 1-know.pfv
ɪ-kɪ-ngelesa
aug-7-English(<SWA)
‘S/he knows English.’
(65) a-kaalɪ
‘S/he still knows English.’
The time-span verb phrase ‘take X time’ refers to the time elapsing before entering into the state of knowledge (66). Also note thatmanyain the narrative tense – see §7.3 – normally yields a change-of-state reading (67).
(66) eeg-ile
‘S/he took many years to (get to) know English.’ [ET]
(67) ʊ-mw-ene
‘And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them …[J. immediately understood in his heart …he asked them …]’ (Mark 2: 8)
In their discussion of neighbouring Ndali and Sukwa, Botne (2008) and Kersh-ner (2002), respectively, recognize a separate group of purely static verbs, which among others includes the cognates of Nyakyusabenga‘hate’,gana‘love’, and, in the case of Sukwa, manya‘know’. As seen above, in Nyakyusa the first two pattern with other verbs such ashoboka‘be(come) happy’ as resultative achieve-ments. It is noteworthy that these putatively stative verbs in Ndali and Sukwa pattern with the other classes of inchoatives with respect to their behaviour with perfective aspect (“completive” in Botne & Kershner’s terms; see §6.5.3.2 for dis-cussion), which is unfortunately not further discussed by these authors. The va-lidity of a separate class of states in Nyakyusa remains open to further research.
Note that Seidel (2008) does not recognize such a class for Yeyi R41. Concerning the broader Niger-Congo context, Toews (2015: ch. 5.4) finds that Siamou (Kru) entirely lacks state verbs. In order to describe stative situations, other strategies are evoked, namely non-verbal predicates, a stativizing verbal suffix, imperfec-tive aspect with certain non-inchoaimperfec-tives (often as the result of a figuraimperfec-tive read-ing) and perfective aspect with inchoative verbs.
5.3 Verb classes