Tense and time analysis in Northern Sotho
Mabule, Maputle Stephen
The aim of this study is to devote attention to tense and
time as verbal categories in Northern Sotho. The
categories tense and time are scrutinized . Due to the
different interpretations of the categories tense and time,
linguists are not in agreement as far as these categories
are concerned. Special attention is focused on the two
types of tenses, namely, absolute and relative tenses.
Tense is a deictic category which relates the time of the
action, event or state of affairs to the time of utterance.
The reference point of the absolute tense is the deictic
center, whereas the forms containing -be or -ba as a
deficient verbs are used to indicate the shifting of the
reference point to before or after coding time.
Time, however, apart from the influence of tense, is also
established by (i) the semantic verb phrase categorization,
(ii) the influence of aspectual morphemes, (iii) the text
and context, (iv) the interrelation between tense forms and
temporal adverbials, and (v) the speaker's and addressee's
knowledge of the world. All this time establishing
mechanisms are accounted for in this research. In order to
be able to discuss the categories of tense and time in
their proper perspective some attention had to be devoted
to moods and actuality.
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