The paper deals with a default aspectual construction in Eastern Dan (< Southern Mande < Mande < Niger-Congo). This construction may express different aspectual meanings, depending on the lexical semantics of a verb, on the presence or absence of a direct object or an adverbial, and on the pragmatic status of the argument: habitual, stative, counter-factual, progressive, imperfect, resultative or perfect, and completive meanings are all attested. At the same time, Eastern Dan has specialized verbal constructions for most of these aspectual meanings. In the paper, conditions for the realization of different aspectual meanings are discussed. A hypothesis on the origin of this construction is suggested.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)93-108
Number of pages26
JournalLanguage in Africa
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

    Research areas

  • verbal aspect, Aktionsart, habitual, perfect, imperfect, Dan, Mande

    Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities(all)

ID: 70662239