Four counter-presumption constructions in Shua (Khoe-Kwadi, Botswana)

•Four unusual and infrequent structures in Shua are described in detail.•These structures are grammatical signs that code counter-presumption meanings.•Their forms are relatively fixed and can be characterised in terms of templates.•The form-meaning associations in the signs are partly motivated.

This paper is concerned with four unusual grammatical structures in Shua (“Khoisan”, Botswana). Three of these presume the exceptionality of a salient discourse entity as a thing of its type and contradict this with an assertion of non-exceptionality; the fourth presumes the typicality of the salient entity, contrasting this with a claim to exceptionality. The paper describes the formal properties and meanings of these structures, distinguishing between their coded and inferred meanings. It is argued that the coded meaning of each is of the interpersonal type. The paper further suggests that the structures represent four distinct constructions that are partly motivated, and that crucial to each is repetition of key lexical components.