Open AccessThe role of tense and aspect in Mbodomo narrative discourse
Author(s) -
Ginger Boyd
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
studies in african linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.178
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2154-428X
pISSN - 0039-3533
DOI - 10.32473/sal.v29i1.107368
Subject(s) - linguistics , inflection , narrative , verb , past tense , present tense , history , psychology , philosophy
In Mbodomo, a Gbaya language spoken in Cameroon, the tense/aspect of the verb plays an important role in narrative discourse. In general, tense/aspect is not marked on main clause verbs except in the story setting. Outside of the story setting, tense/aspect inflection is used for marking discontinuity of reference (topic, participants), situation (time, location), or action within the narrati ve text.