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Progressivity and habituality in Shumcho

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Published/Copyright: February 26, 2019

Abstract

This article is concerned with some features of the tempo-aspectual system of Shumcho, a small West Himalayish (Tibeto-Burman) language spoken in a few villages in the district Kinnaur (State of Himachal Pradesh) in the Indian Himalayas, and provides a descriptive account of the language’s strategies to express progressive or habitual action and the effects of the respective markers with various types of predicates. I also consider the semantic (evidential) properties of the copulas and their interaction with the aspect/tense system, and offer some thoughts on the historical development of imperfective and perfective constructions as met in the present-day language.

Abbreviations

1/2/3/4

first/second/third/fourth person

1/2

first/second person AgrO or AgrS

abl

ablative

adess

adessive

AgrO

object agreement

AgrS

subject agreement

ass

assertive

aux

auxiliary

coh

cohortative

cond

conditional

conv

converb

cop

copula

dat

dative

dd

discourse-deictic prefix

dm

discourse marker

emph

emphatic

erg

ergative

etc.

etcetera

excl

exclusive

exp

experiencer

f, f

feminine

foc

focus

fut

future

gen

genitive

h

honorific

imp

imperative

impf

imperfective

incl

inclusive

inf

infinitive

intr

intransitive

irr

irrealis

loc

locative

m, m

masculine

mir

mirative

neg

negation

nh

non-honorific

onom.

onomatopoetic

past

past

perf

perfective

pl

plural

poss

possessive

prs

present

prog

progressive

q

question marker

qty/nr

quantity/number

s

singular

TAM

tense, aspect, or mood marker

top

topic marker

WH

West Himalayish

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Published Online: 2019-02-26
Published in Print: 2019-04-24

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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