The role of tense and aspect in Mbodomo narrative discourse

Abstract

In Mbodomo, a Gbaya language spoken in Cameroon, the tense/aspect of the verb plays an important role in narrative discourse. In general, tense/aspect is not marked on main clause verbs except in the story setting. Outside of the story setting, tense/aspect inflection is used for marking discontinuity of reference (topic, participants), situation (time, location), or action within the narrati ve text.