Djambarrpuyŋu morphosemantics: tense, reality status, and the verbal paradigm

Abstract: In Djambarrpuyŋu — a Yolŋu language spoken in northern Australia — verbs stems are inflected for one of four different inflectional categories. Previous descriptions of these categories’ functional domains have eschewed a unified analysis of their semantics. The reason for this is the apparent polyfunctionality of each inflection, in large part driven by a number of striking phenomena, notably: (1) cyclic tense (the temporal interval/s that are compatible with each inflection are ostensibly discontinuous) and (2) asymmetric negation (where a mood/reality status distinction available in positive clauses is unavailable in negative ones.)

In this talk, I provide a branching-times-theoretic analysis of of Djambarrpuyŋu’s inflectional categories as tense/mood markers by appealing to two privative semantic features: a temporal one (precontemporaneity) and a modal one (nonveridicality).