Formal and functional properties of grammatical aspect in Ayt Atta Tamazight
The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a description of the aspectual system of Ayt Atta Tamazight (henceforth AAT), a Berber language spoken in south-east Morocco. The thesis focuses on the role of aspect in narration and shows that the association of stativity with perfective marking and the properties of the chainedaorist construction jointly contribute to the observed distribution of verb forms in discourse. Furthermore, my thesis investigates the chained-aorist construction and proposes a novel analysis of it. The close scrutiny of AAT chained-aorist constructions suggests downplaying the role of sequentiality from the centrality previously attributed to it: even data from typically-sequential texts such as main storylines show the limitations of any account of aspect in discourse solely resting on the notion of sequentiality. This work suggests analysing the AAT chained-aorist construction in terms of initial-consecutive clause chaining. The initial-consecutive chaining form is analysed as a narrative device adopted to ensure textual cohesion. The analysis put forward here rests on an investigation of chained-aorist constructions across Berber alongside a cross-linguistic overview of the formal
Mauri, Simone
Formal and functional properties of grammatical aspect in Ayt Atta Tamazight. The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a description of the aspectual system of Ayt Atta Tamazight (henceforth AAT), a Berber language spoken in south-east Morocco. The thesis focuses on the role of aspect in narration and shows that the association of stativity with perfective marking and the properties of the chainedaorist construction jointly contribute to the observed distribution of verb forms in discourse. Furthermore, my thesis investigates the chained-aorist construction and proposes a novel analysis of it. The close scrutiny of AAT chained-aorist constructions suggests downplaying the role of sequentiality from the centrality previously attributed to it: even data from typically-sequential texts such as main storylines show the limitations of any account of aspect in discourse solely resting on the notion of sequentiality. This work suggests analysing the AAT chained-aorist construction in terms of initial-consecutive clause chaining. The initial-consecutive chaining form is analysed as a narrative device adopted to ensure textual cohesion. The analysis put forward here rests on an investigation of chained-aorist constructions across Berber alongside a cross-linguistic overview of the formal
formal_functional property grammatical_aspect primary_aim provide_description aspectual system henceforth language_speak south_east morocco focus_role aspect narration show association perfective marking property construction jointly contribute observed distribution verb_form discourse furthermore investigate construction propose_novel analysis close_scrutiny construction suggest downplay role centrality previously attribute even data typically sequential text main show limitation account aspect discourse solely rest notion work suggest analyse construction term initial consecutive clause initial consecutive chain form analyse narrative device adopt ensure textual_cohesion analysis put_forward rest investigation construction across alongside cross_linguistic overview formal