Is there a polarity-prominent language? A typological perspective on Dagaare verbal systems

Abstract

To date, the three-tier typology of verbal systems into tense-prominent, aspect-prominent and mood-prominent proposed by Shankara Bhat at the end of the twentieth century seems to have stuck. The present study reveals a novel type of prominence in Dagaare (Niger-Congo: Mabia/Gur), namely polarity prominence. The study shows that distinctions in tense, mood and modality are cast in terms of polarity. First, the tense category of futurity makes positive and negative distinctions in both future and non-future. Second, indicative and imperative moods are essentially distinguished by polarity markers unique to each mood, and the sub-types of each mood are shades of polarity. This polarity-based mood distinction extends beyond the verbal domain to the domain of clause final particles and focus marking, establishing polarity concord between items of the verbal group and periphery elements of the clause. In addition, the interaction between polarity and modality enacts a cline of polarity from full positivity to full negation with a median modality in the mid region. The study also demonstrates that, although Dagaare verb morphology encodes perfective/imperfective aspectual distinction, aspect is not a competing candidate for prominence in the language. The study reveals that a robust empirical framework of prominence needs to go beyond verbal inflection and as well incorporate finiteness into the criteria of prominence.