Habitual constructions in Kwaza

Abstract This chapter presents and discusses strategies for the expression of habitual aspect in the Amazonian language isolate Kwaza. There are five dedicated habitual strategies. Three of those are morphosyntactic strategies that employ existing grammatical constructions in a specific way. There is furthermore one lexical strategy involving the verb root ĩ´ĩta- ‘(as) always’, which usually occurs as the second part of a compound. And there is a negative habitual suffix - hɨ̃si that occurs in the position of a sentential mood marker. In addition to these habitual strategies some other constructions are presented that can marginally have a habitual connotation. With this research I hope to contribute both to theoretical inquiry and to refinement of language description.