The Iraqw imperfective and its challenges to morphology

Verbal derivation in Iraqw has a templatic order with remarkable properties of apparently conflicting evaluations of the morphological status of form and meaning of the same marker. The m derivation needs to precede the t derivation but can only do so when the latter is not productive. Hence the t derivation is recognised as a (productive) morpheme in form because the m has to precede while the same t derivation is recognised as lexicalised and unproductive because only then a t derivation can be used in such verbs. This behaviour plays a role in the intricate system of imperfective reduplicative and other formatives. There is a great variety of these imperfective formatives with a daunting complexity in lexical differences but there also is a clear underlying system of first and second imperfective where the function of the first imperfective is the complete range of the imperfective semantic domain while the second imperfective is specifically habitual. The formation of the second imperfective takes the first imperfective as its base. This system allows for straightforward interpretation of a given form. The formation of the first imperfective is ultimately lexically determined but classes based on form similarities can be recognised. The lexical complexity is a result of series of historical changes and reinterpretations.