Naming the so-called continuous past tenses of the south-eastern Bantu languages with particular reference to Zulu

Abstract

Scholars have used terminology such as 'tenses of the participial', 'compound tenses' and 'continuouspast' or 'durative past tenses' to refer to a wide range of compound tenses of Zulu and the southeasternBantu languages in general. Doke (1981) even refers to those forms that denote 'unfulfilledor unaccomplished intention' as the 'contingent mood'. These terms are all inapt, and have probablymisled generations of Bantu grammarians to believe that these verbal forms constitute a combinationof two tenses with an implication of continuity inherent in them. It is proposed in this article that theterm 'relative tense' be used as an umbrella term to denote the 16 so-called compound tenses of Zuluand the other south-eastern Bantu languages collectively. A brief overview is given of the differencebetween the absolute and relative tenses whereafter the array of relative Zulu tenses are investigated.After considering the labels used to refer to the so-called continuous past tenses collectively andindividually, and considering the established terminology used in general linguistic sources on tense,appropriate terminology is suggested for the relative tenses collectively and individually. The relativetenses are unique in that they express a relation between coding time, reference time and event time.This salient characteristic of these tenses serves as the basis for their naming.