TALK: Menán du Plessis (Stellenbosch University)

The verb system of ǀXam was extremely complex. In this presentation, the focus will be only on the deficient verbs and some of the auxiliaries. The latter are included since deficient verbs frequently undergo further stages of grammaticalisation, in the course of which they can become components of the auxiliary. The presence of such verbs in ǀXam was noticed by Wilhelm Bleek, and the sixteen deficient verbs illustrated and discussed here – following a brief explanation of what they are– will be mainly the ones he identified. When it comes to the epistemic modalities reflected in both lists, it will be apparent that it is difficult to tease apart such distinctions as Probablity, Possibility, Certainty and Belief. This is largely because the translations offered by Bleek and Lloyd tended to merge into one another, and typically involved the repeated use of words such as ‘truly’, ‘altogether’, ‘surely’, ‘probably’, ‘really’ and…