The development of the encoding of deictic motion in the Bantu language Rangi: grammaticalisation and change

Abstract

Abstract The close cross-linguistic relation between the domains of space and time has been well described. The frequent emergence of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) markers from deictic motion verbs in particular, has also been extensively detailed in the literature. This paper focusses on the less well-known link between associated motion, a category of functional morphemes expressing (deictic) motion events, and TAM, in a language contact situation. Specifically, it provides a synchronic and diachronic description of three associated motion prefixes, joo-, tóó- and koo- , found in the Tanzanian Bantu language Rangi, spoken in an area of high linguistic diversity. It proposes that the prefix joo- encodes movement towards a deictic centre, tóó- encodes movement towards a goal which is not the deictic centre, and koo- encodes movement away from a deictic centre. It further contends that while tóó- and koo- have maintained a purely deictic function, joo- has grammaticalised to assume an additional function whereby it encodes future tense, possibly aided by the absence of a dedicated future tense marker in the language. This three-way morphological encoding of spatial relations on the verb form is not a common characteristic of East African Bantu languages. However, this paper proposes that the system in Rangi can be accounted for on the basis of cross-linguistically widely attested pathways of grammatical change.