Tense And Aspect In Ogbunike Igbo

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter gives a general overview of the two grammatical categories of tense and aspect. It surveys the meaning of the notion of tense and aspect from various sources like the dictionaries, some scholarly essays and articles as well as some text books. It goes further to look deep into the various Igbo grammar Text Books, surveying, analyzing as well as comparing them with the over all view of establishing the categories under these two notions of tense and aspect within the Igbo language.

2.1 THEORETICAL STUDIES.

Several authors have written on tense and aspect. Although they presented their views from different perspectives, the most important thing is that the meaning of the terms seem to have remained constant. This chapter therefore reviews the work on the two grammatical categories tense and aspect by surveying the different definitions of tense and aspect as seen in some dictionaries, certain scholarly articles and essays that pertains to tense and aspect, as well as articles in different books dedicated to the examinations of the notion of tense and aspect.

2.2.1 TENSE Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines tense as any of the forms of a verb that may be used to show the time of the action or state expressed by the verb. The present, the past and the future tense. Ogayi (1999:42) as citied in Akanisi (2003:31) states that tense is a form of the verb that shows the time of the action or state of being expressed by such a verb. He further states that tense is an aspect of grammar and an obligatory element in every English sentences. John. I. Saeed (2003:124) says that tense allows a speaker to locate a situation relative to some reference point in time, most likely the time of speaking. He further affirms that in English usually tense is marked on the verb by endings and the use of specified auxiliary verbs. He says that tense is a deictic system since the reference point for the system is usually the act of speaking.

This means that deictic systems are the ways in which a speaker relates references to space and time to the “here and now” of the utterance. Joy Eyisi (2004:43) refers tense to any of the forms of a verb that may be used to indicate the time of the action or state expressed by the verb. She goes further to say that traditional grammarians equating tense with time enumerated many tenses in English. But today many linguists have seen the traditional flaws and so emphasize that every race, every generation has only tense classifications of time, namely the present time, the past time and the future time.

Finally all the above definitions are related and agree on the concept that the grammatical category of tense refers to the capability of the verb to show by distinctive forms or arrangement the time of the action as indicated by the verb.

2.1.2 ASPECT

Here, surveys the different definitions of the grammatical category of aspect as seen from the dictionaries some scholarly articles and essays including different books that pertain to the notion of aspect. Oxford English Dictionary Explains that aspect expresses action or being (or state) in respect of it’s inception, duration or completion. Ogayi (1999:42) as cited in Akanisi (2003:33) states that aspect interacts closely with tense and it is an optional element in a sentence. Joy Eyisi (2004:47) indicates that aspect is the form or category of the verb which shows inception, duration or continuity or completion. In other words it is the form of a verb that indicates whether an action happened in the past but is still continuing or whether it has completely terminated.

The above definitions gave different explanation about aspect, however, some linguists see little or no difference between tense and aspect. They believe that tense and aspect do intersect to the extent that in some languages it is not always easy to draw a sharp distinction between the two categories. John .I. Saeed (2003:126) avers that it is difficult to make remarks about tense without discussing aspect. This is because they interact in subtle ways and are marked on verb in similar ways, often sharing composite ending. Aspect systems allow speakers to relate situations and time, but instead of fixing situation in time relative to the act of speaking like tense does, aspect allows speakers to view an event in various ways: as complete or incomplete, as so short as to involve time, as something stretched over a perceptible period or as something repeated over a period.

Emenajo (1978:167) indicates that the distinction between tense and aspect is subtle and in practice, sometimes quite difficult to make. He opines that the only way to demarcate tense and aspect is by the addition of adverbs to indicate the specific time of action, event or situation. In conclusion, aspect exists in languages but unlike tense which points to the actual time of reference, aspect gives or adds information as to the duration of events

2:2 EMPIRICAL STUDIES

This section comprises of three parts, which involves an expositions of the various categories of tense and aspect in Igbo Language as developed by the Igbo Bilinguals and monolinguals, as well as it’s comparative analysis.

2:2:1 IGBO BILINGUAL GRAMMAR BOOKS

(1) Emenajo (1978:166-198) reveals that in Igbo language Duration rather than absolute time limit is emphasized and if that is so, then aspect rather than tense is most appropriate category for referring to the Igbo verbal system. He further states that the Igbo sentence contains a verb that carries the aspect marker in the underlying form and they are called the “verb forms” which includes

1. The Indicative

2. The Progressive

3. The Perfective

4. The future

5. The Unfulfilled

6. The imperative

7. The Hortative

8. A complex sentence due to Linking

9. A complex sentence due to Downgrading

10. A Serial verbs construction.

(1). The Indicative:

He says that this form embraces 2 verb forms called past tense or subject verb form, and it’s distinctive feature is that the verb always takes the harmonizing indicative marker = rv (where V is the vowel of the last syllable of the verb stem) in the underlying structure. (2). Also the verb does not have a verbal prefix for example. 1. Ada bu nwanyi Ada is a girl 2. Ada jere ahia Ada went to market.

(2) The Progressive:

This refers to the set of verbal constructions which has been variously called the Na-form of the verb by many people and it’s feature/marker is that an auxiliary verb ná on a low tone is present in the verbal slot followed by a participle for example:

i. Emeka na eri nri

Emeka is eating food