by Robert Port, Oct 16. evening, 2000. For L103, Fall 2000
Swahili, like the other Bantu languages, has a set of suffixes for verbs that add a great deal of flexibility so they can be used in many contexts. At the end of the page, suggestions for what you should learn about these examples are offered.
You have already seen a simple Swahili verb like this:
0) Basic Verb: Subj.Agrmt + Tense + (Obj.Agrmt) + VerbStem
1) Mtoto a-na-penda chakula
child he/she-Present-love food
The child likes food.
The a-, the Subject Prefix, is a sort of pronoun agreeing with an animate singular subject. A second pronoun-like syllable can be inserted between the tense and the verb stem for the object. If we use the agreement appropriate for chakula, then we get:
2) Mtoto a-na-ki-penda chakula
child he/she-Pres-it-love food
The child likes the food
So, you would use the Object Prefix (here ki-) when you mean some specific food - rather like a definite article in English.
In Swahili, verb stems can describe most types of event schemas, including Doing-To, Doing, Happening, Experiencing, Moving and Transferring (but not, in fact, the states Being or Having). Each of these events has a `DOER' role: the role of the party that does the action described by the verb - whether doing-to, moving, happening, etc. Thus, for -lala `fall asleep', the Doer is the `Experiencer' who falls asleep. For -vunja `break', the Doer is the agent who breaks something. But vunja has another role as well - the participation of the Patient that gets broken.
The causative suffix is -isha or -esha. It is completely productive; it can be added to any verb stem. The meaning is `an additional role is played that CAUSES the DOER to act'. It adds the role of a Causer, who then usually has priority over the Doer to become the subject of the sentence.
Verb-Final -a. Note that all these verbs end in -a. This vowel is actually a suffix meaning Declarative Mood (not negative or hypothetical). So the verb stem is actually -andik-. But, to make it easier to read, I will generally not separate the -a with a dash, as andika -- except right here. Thus,
3) Juma a-li-andik-a barua (basic 2-participant action verb)
Juma he-past-write-Decltv letter
Juma wrote a letter
4) Juma a-li-ni-andik-ish-a barua (causative)
Juma he-Past-me-write-Add.Causer.Role-Decltv letter
Juma made me write a letter/ had me write a letter
5)Watoto wa-me-lala (typical 1-participant experience verb)
children they-Compltd-fall.asleep
The children are sleeping/ have fallen asleep
6) Mama a-li-wa-lal-isha watoto (2-participant action)
mother she-past-them-sleep-AddCauserRole children
The mother put the children to sleep
The causative suffix can make a one-participant schema into a 2- participant event (compare 5 and 6) (that is, an intransitive into a transitive) and changes a 2-participant verb into a 3-participant one (compare 3 and 4).
7) Ni-li-m-jul-isha Juma habari za kwetu
I-Past-him-know-Add.Causer.Role Juma news of home
8) Mimi hu-oga kila siku
I Habitl-bathe each day
9) Mama hu-og-esha watoto kila wiki
mothers habitually-bathe-Add.Causer.Role children each week
To make a passive verb, insert a -w- between the verb root (-pend-) and the Declarative -a. So for the 2-participant experience verb, -penda `like' we find:
10) Chakula ki-na-pend-w-a (na mtoto huyu)
food it-Pres-like-Subj.Not.Doer-Decltv (by child this)
Food is liked (by this child)
The passive -w- in Swahili means "the Subject is not the Doer (or the Causer)". That is the strongest candidate for causing the event is out of the focus of attention. Something other than the most responsible is the actual subject of the sentence. So whether the `na mtoto huyu' is spoken or not, some agent participant is definitely involved. Thus, this sentence could NOT mean `The food is likable' or `the food is generally liked' (as it could in English).
This can be combined with the Causative as well:
11) Watoto wa-me-lal-ish-wa (na mama wao)
children they-Compltd-sleep-Add.Causer.Role -Subj.Not.Causer (by mother their)
The children have been put to bed (by their mother)
Translate into idiomatic English:
12) ni-me-jul-ish-wa habari za kwetu
I-Compltd-know-Add.Causer.Role-Subj.Not.Causer news of home
The Stative is also a completely productive suffix meaning "the action does not have a Doer role". Like the Causative, this suffix has two different forms depending on the final vowel of the verb stem - either -ika, or -eka. (Can you figure out the pattern from the data on this handout?) Thus:
13) Chakula hiki ki-na-pend-eka
food this it-Pres-like-No.Doer.Role
This food is likeable /is liked (in general)
The Stative suffix describes "liking" in which there is no agent. So the inference is that the food plays an `object-like' role -- that it `gets liked'. So by inference, the food is liked but by noone in particular. In contrast, ki-na-pend-wa implies an agent role is being played.
Let's look at the same constructions with the verb `break', vunja.
14) Ni-li-vunja kikombe (basic 2-participant use)
I-Past-break cup
I broke the cup/a cup
15) Kikombe ki-me-vunj-wa
cup it-Completed-break-Subj.Not.Doer
The cup has been broken (by someone)
16) Kikombe ki-me-vunj-ika
cup it-Completed-break-No.Doer.Role
The cup got broken/ is broken (but it is still not a state)
17) Kikombe ki-na-vunj-ika
cup it-Present-break-No.Doer.Role
The cup is breakable/ is fragile/ The cup breaks (easily)
(A) Note the effect of changing the tense: in the completed-action
tense in (16), it means `it got broken' but in (17) in the the present
tense means `it is breakable'.
(B) Notice that despite the traditional label `Stative', these verbs
still really describe actions or events, not states!
Contrast this explicitness about whether an agent is involved with English. "Break", like nearly all English transitive verbs, can be used intransitively as well. First, we normally can say both:
18) I broke the cup (typical transitive use, an agent and a patient)
19) The cup broke the window (less typical transitive, an instrument and a patient)
By putting an inanimate in subject position along with a second participant (example 19), we interpret the cup as an instrument (since logically we know something else must have propelled the cup).
But also, secondly, with a single participant, we get intransitive interpretations:
20) These cups break (intransitive usage, present tense )
21) Those cups broke (intransitive, past tense)
If we have a cup as subject but no other participants (example 20), then the verb is interpreted intransitively - without an agent role mentioned. Comparing 20) and 21), you see the verb tense has the same effect in English that it does in Swahili: `breakable' vs. `broken'!
HOWEVER, 21 is ambiguous in a way that Swahili 15) and 16) are not: 21) does not necessarily imply that there is no agent. For example, notice that 13 is quite normal.
22) These cups broke when I dropped them.
But you could NOT say in Swahili (since it contains a contradiction):
23) *Vikombe vi-li-vunj-ika ni-li-po-vi-angusha }
cups they-Past-break-No.Doer I-past-when-them-drop
*The cups broke-NoAgent when I dropped them.
[The star * means `impossible, ungrammatical or incoherent utterance']
You would have to use the Passive, since the agent role exists but is not played by the subject of the sentence:
24) Vikombe vi-li-vunj-wa ni-li-po-vi-angusha.
cups they-past-break-Subj.Not.Doer I-Past-when-them-drop
The cups broke when I dropped them.
This suffix is usually either -ia or or -ea (depending on the context). In Swahili, if speakers need an event to have a `recipient or goal' to be involved, they must explicitly mark that - by using the Applied Suffix. So, this suffix means `an additional role is played, less responsible or less causal than the Doer'. So, some other role between the Patient role and the Doer is involved. Exactly what that role is must be inferred from the context. Sometimes the player of that role is redundantly marked with a `preposition'. The added role is typically either a Recipient, a Beneficiary, a Goal, an Instrument, or an Affected Party.
25) Mtoto a-li-ni-vunj-ia mkate kidogo
child he-Past-me-break-AddlRole bread a-little-bit
The child has broken me off a little piece of bread/ broke off some bread for me
26) Mama a-li-m-kat-ia mtoto nyama
woman/mother she-Past-him-cut-AddlRole child meat
The woman cut the child (some) meat/cut some meat for her child.
So any `Beneficiary' role can be added using the Applied Suffix. But other roles can be added as well, for example:
27) Juma a-na-m-pend-ea Hadija macho yake
Juma he-Pres-her-love-AddlRole Hadija eyes her
Juma loves Hadija for her eyes
So the eyes are a kind of Instrument for the loving, since they support or encourage his love. The other role can be just `someone affected' too.
28) Babake a-me-m-f-ia Juma
His-father he-Compltd-him-die-AddlRole Juma
Juma's father died on him.
[ Or the Applied and the Passive can be combined to get the affected party into subject position:
29) Juma a-me-f-i-wa na babake
Juma he-Completd-die-AddlRole-Subj.Not.Doer by his-father
Juma has been `died-on' by his father/ Juma's father died (on him)/
Juma is in mourning for his father
Or even a place can be a kind of instrument:
30) Juma a-li-f-ia bahari-ni
Juma he-past-die-AddlRole sea-at.location
Juma perished at sea/ died at sea
Notice that the -ni suffix is much like a preposition, so there is a redundancy between the Applied suffix and the preposition on the noun `sea'. This is not unusual.
Sometimes, the additional role can be ambiguous. Look at -iba, `steal':
31) Mzee a-li-wa-ib-ia chakula
Old-man he-Past-them-steal-AddlRole
a) The old man stole food from them (affected party)
b) The old man stole food for them (beneficiary) ]
What do these mean?
32) wa-na-omb-ea Mungu kwa mvua
they-Pres-ask.of-AddlRole God for rain
Note the redundancy again of -ea and kwa, since both add the notion of `do the action for something'.
33) wanawake hu-pik-ia jiko-ni
women Habitually-cook-AddlRole kitchen-place
34) simba wa-li-m-l-ia karibu na kambi (example from a book)
lion(s) they-Past-him-eat-AddlRole near to camp
Since the two suffixes, Applied and Causative, do not contradict each other, they can be combined to add TWO roles to the event. So if wetake a transitive verb with Agent and Patient (like andika `write'), with -ish-ia or -esh-ea (AddHigherRole + AddLowerRole).
So translate this into English.
35) Mama a-li-mw-andik-ish-ia mtoto barua kwa skuli
woman she-Past-him-write-Add.Causer.Role-Add.Intermediate.Role child letter for school
These suffixes, along with several others, give Swahili great flexibility in describing events using an easily expandable vocabulary. Although this system is clearly part of the grammar of Swahili, it plays a role rather like derivational suffixes in many other languages- since they enrich the lexicon.
What should you know about these Swahili data? Remember you will have all these notes when taking your exam. So you don't have to learn Swahili. Just understand the general principles. So you should study the examples discussed in lecture from the long notes. Be able to answer questions or problems like the following: