Aspect as an essential sub-category of the verb in Northern Sotho

Abstract

In this article it is shown that the application of the term aspect in existing descriptions of the Northern Sotho verb is unsatisfactory in several respects. The article explicates the cognitive import the term aspect is intended to have in those grammatical traditions from which the theory of aspectology originated. It is shown how the most fundamental aspectual dichotomy, i.e. that between perfective versus imperfective, operates in the verbal system of Northern Sotho. This analysis leads, inter alia, to the conclusions that (a) the terms perfect and imperfect ‘tense’ should be done away with by replacing them with past tense and present tense respectively; and (b) that the consecutive and habitual should be regarded as aspects of the indicative, rather than as two separate moods.