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The aspectual system of the Northern Wakashan language Kwak'wala is incredibly rich, but understudied. The present study examines four aspectual and tense morphemes as they surface in a contemporary Kwak'wala dialect: -x(glottal stop)id, -ala, -a, and -xdi. We propose that Kwak'wala employs grammatical morphemes to denote perfectivity and pluractionality, and examine these morphemes' interactions with Vendler classes. Particular attention is devoted to the interaction between [-stages] predicates and perfectivity. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 1, the general phonological and morphological characteristics of Kwak'wala are described. Special emphasis is given to the phonological processes that are important for the analysis of the aspectual/tense suffixes. Section 2 provides an outline of the tense and aspectual system proposed by Boas (1911, 1947), and tests the distribution of the four suffixes listed above in contemporary speech. Our proposal regarding the perfective and pluractional markers is defined and tested. In Section 3 we integrate this proposal with current linguistic theory by analyzing the distribution of the morphemes with respect to Vendler classes. Section 4 offers our conclusions and future directions. Adapted from the source document

ELP Language
Kwak̓wala
ELP Categories
Language Documentation, Research, and Archiving
Resource Types
Document
Country
Canada
Media Image
Placeholder 5
Audience
Scholars and researchers University students
Tag
Linguistics Grammars and Language Description
URL
https://www.proquest.com/llba/docview/862776909/5D3C1A6FBF0E4CF6PQ/8?sourcetype…

Source URL: https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/node/114718