Tense and agreement markers in Bekwarra

Abstract

The concept of tense and agreement have remained a controversial issue particularly in languages that exhibit a close relationship between the two concepts. Studies have revealed that while some languages mark a distinction between the two concepts, they are closely knitted in languages that do not mark a clear distinction between the two concepts and it becomes difficult to separate them. This study examines the concept of tense and agreement in Bèkwárra, a language spoken in the Northern part Cross River State, Nigeria. The study adopts the descriptive model of analysis. Findings revealed that completed and ongoing actions make use of verbs in their base forms without any inflection with the agreement markers a, e and o, while progressive aspect is marked through verbal inflection by replacing the verb that ends with either i, e. u or o with a and the agreement marker a changes to i. Perfective tense is marked with the tense marker ma while future tense is marked with its marker bá.