Sequentiality-Futurity Links

Abstract

Proto-Oceanic had a clausal coordinator *ka ‘and then’, which expressed sequential relations between propositions. Proto–Central-Eastern Oceanic had a future tense marker *i. The present paper provides (further) evidence for reconstructing both *ka and *i. In some languages, the reflex of *ka has developed into a general coordinating conjunction ‘and’ that does not signal sequentiality. Consideration of the functions of the reflexes of the two protoforms reveals two kinds of links between sequentiality and futurity. First, in some languages the reflexes of *ka and *i cooccur in a word: the future tense-marking forms are based on the sequentiality-marking forms. And second, in some languages the reflex of sequentiality-marking *ka has come to mark future tense (or irrealis or inceptive aspect). Contrary to Reesink’s (2005) suggestion, Proto-Oceanic *ka did not have its origin in a Papuan language; in fact, it itself was a reflex of a Proto-Austronesian form.

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