Phasal polarity expressions in Bambara (Mande) : pragmatic distinctions and semantics

Title data

Dombrowsky-Hahn, Klaudia:
Phasal polarity expressions in Bambara (Mande) : pragmatic distinctions and semantics.
In: Kramer, Raija L. (ed.): The expression of phasal polarity in African languages. - Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter Mouton , 2021 . - pp. 267-295 . - (Empirical Approaches to Language and Typology ; 63 )
ISBN 978-3-11-062751-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110646290

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The Mande language Bambara spoken in Mali possesses clause-final items for all four PhP-expressions: kàban and kélèn are ALREADY-expressions, fɔ́lɔ, bán NOT YET-expressions, túgun and bìlen NO LONGER-expressions, hálisà, háli bì, túgun and bìlen STILL-expressions. The study of different contexts shows that Bambara uses distinct lexemes to express pragmatic distinctions for ALREADY. kàban ‘already’ is retained for neutral scenarios to express a situation that holds at the moment of reference implying its non-occurrence at a preceding phase, whereas kélèn occurs in counterfactual scenarios to express that a situation holds at the moment of reference implying polarity opposition with respect to a presupposed simultaneous situation. For all other PhP-expressions, a pragmatically more marked situation is signaled by the cumulation of the neutral PhP-expression and hálisà or háli bì ‘still’ which are part of the PhP-system, too. hálisà or háli bì ‘still’ cooccur with bìlen, ‘still’ to yield counterfactual STILL. Similarly, hálisà or háli bì is added to the NOT YET items bán or fɔ́lɔ, to mark a counterfactual NOT YET-situation. The presence of allolexemes for the expression of STILL, NO LONGER, and NOT YET can be explained by different sources from which the PhP-expressions developed. The STILL-allolexemes túgun and bìlen originate from different dialects.