Eski fitir-la touzour insertin? Is the future still uncertain?: The acceptability of Mauritian Creole’s elusive VA marker in future contexts

Abstract Most research regarding Mauritian Creole future marking was carried out in the 1990s and assumed differences in ‘certainty’ dictated the choice of future marker ( Baker 1993 ; Hazaël-Massieux 1993 ; Touchard & Véronique 1993 ). The consensus was that the two main markers, POU and VA , were used for ‘definite’ and ‘indefinite’ future events respectively. However, this distinction was inadequately defined, and although intuitively solid, it could not account for many naturally occurring instances. Davidson (2021) quantified a range of features relevant for future expression and a new obligation meaning of VA was mentioned by some speakers. In this paper, we explore in more detail the POU/VA opposition, considering contexts with different nuances of obligation/necessity and their compatibility with VA . Overall, VA is more acceptable in contexts which can be interpreted as obligation/necessity and it is now not only restricted to indefinite or ‘less certain’ contexts.