Resultatives, Remoteness, and Innovation in Eastern and Southern Bantu T/A Systems

Abstract

Bantu language T/A systems often present challenging analytical conundrums, as is the case, for example, with languages in eastern zones F and S, whose systems are representative of the kinds of contrasts found across the Bantu landscape. In several cases, languages in the different zones resemble one another more than they do languages in the same zone. Working within the scaled dissociative domain temporal model proposed in Botne and Kershner (2008) and Botne (2010, 2012), the author provides an explanation for why this striking variation occurs. The paper addresses several specific issues: (1) how a remote construction can become a resultative; (2) why similar, or even identical, remote forms in Kirangi dialects are conceptually distinct; and (3) why several forms are temporally reversed in some languages. Innovation that has led to the peculiar differences observed finds an explanation and motivation in differences in time scales, time regions, and time scope.