Tense And Aspect In Ogbunike Igbo

ii. Okechukwu is not washing his clothes.
(C) Aspeekiti Mmaahu: (Affirmative and Negative)
Aspeekiti Mmaahu shows what one is used to or what one is known for. It does not point to any time. Just like Aspeekiti Ngawanye, it makes use of the auxiliary verb “na”. The difference is that while Aspeekiti Ngawanye talks about an-on-going event as at the time of utterance, Aspeekiti Mmaahu shows what one is used to or what one does often times; example

Affirmative
i. Uchenna na-azu ahia.
Uchenna is a trader.
Negative: it uses the suffix-ghi/ghi and prefix a-/e
i. Uchenna anaghi azu ahia.
Uchenna is not a trader.

(D) Aspeekiti Mfe: (Affirmative and Negative)
This indicates the Nature/State of things it makes use of the Stative Verb. This type of verb may make use of the suffix-ru like Tense Ndinaazu, for example

Affirmative
i. O buru ibu
He/she is fat
ii. O bughi ibu
He/She is not fat.

2:2:3 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BOTH
This section involves the examination of the similarities and differences of the categories under tense and aspect as developed by the Igbo monolingual grammar books and bilingual grammar books of the language. One important thing is that there is no difference in the opinions of the Igbo monolingual grammar books as it concerns the categories under tense, they all agree on the same 3 categories of tense that exists in the language.
(1) Tensi Ndiniihu
(2) Tensi Ndinaazu
(3) Tensi Ngaraadi

1. Tensi Ndinnihu
This category talks about what will happen in the future and it uses the auxiliary verb “ga” to demonstrate it. (Emenajo 1978:182) also agrees on this but calls it a future verb form.

2. Tensi Ndinaazu:
This is part of what (Igwe and Green 1979:24) call tense I which uses the –ra time suffix to express itself. Also (Emenajo 1978:168) agrees on this tense but says it is a part of indicative verb form. This category shows a past action that has been completed and ended.

(3) Tensi Ngaaradi:
It shows an action/event that should have been done but was not done it uses the auxiliary “gaara” to express itself. (Emenajo 1978: 189) calls it the unfulfilled verb form.

ASPECT
Under aspect, one can see that there is a little difference in the categories under it. Others believe in four (4) categories while (Ume and et-al 1989:99) believe in 3 categories.

These four categories include
1. Aspeekiti Mmecha
2. Aspeekiti Ngawanye
3. Aspeekiti Mmahu and
4. Aspeekiti Mfe

(1) Aspeekiti Mmecha:
This indicates an action that started in the past prolongs till the time of it’s completion. (Igwe and Green 1979:24) call it Tense II Affirmative Under the subject form Division, also (Emenajo 1978:179) says it is the perfective verb form. This category makes use of the suffix Vle or VLV, where V stands for a vowel, then ‘L’.

(2) Aspeekiti Ngawanye:
It is called the progressive verb form by (Emenajo 1978:173). It talks about an on-going action as at the time of utterance. (Enemor and Osinomumu 2005:75) and (Ume and et al 1989: 100) call this particular category Aspeekiti Ndigide. It makes use of the auxiliary “na” and an adverb to demonstrate itself.

(3) Aspeekiti Mmaahu:
This is also the second part of what (Ume and et al 1989:100) call Apseekiti Ndigide. It shows what one is used to or what one is known for, it does not point at any time. It makes use of the auxiliary “na” just like aspeekiti Ngawanye.

(4) Aspeekiti Mfe:
(Emenajo 1978:170) says that this category is the second part of the verb form called the indicative. This category shows the state /nature of things. It may or may not use the suffix –rv to demonstrate itself.

Finally one could notice that every other verb form Division mentioned above could be part or combination of one or more of the categories mentioned here. Also, it is worthknowing that all these categories have their Negative verb forms.

In conclusion, one can say that it is crystal clear that the category of tense and aspect exist separately in Igbo language as opposed to what the linguist (Emenajo 1978:167) claims that they interact in a subtle way and that there is more cases of aspect rather than tense alone or that there is the combination of both in Igbo language.

2:3 SUMMARY
The above shows all the categories of tense and aspects as exposed by the Igbo linguists as it concerns the Igbo language. Therefore based on those categories I will now look into my own dialect which is the Ogbunike Igbo.