Overview

What Aspect of the Verb ?

The verb aspects focuses the basic verb root on a type of action or event. For example: single event, a recurreing event, a prolonged event, a state resulting from the event or action, etc. For example (in English), I opened the door at some time (a single event) as a result, the door remained open (the door's state). I open the door every day (a recurring event), and each time I am opening the door (a prolonged action [actually, a prolonged focus on the action, but nevermind]).

Note not to confuse this with the verb-mode, which denotes how sure the speaker is that the event actually happened, i.e. did it definitely happen (factual, used mainly for the past), is it probable or not finished yet (tentative, used mainly for the future), or is it just a possibility (optative: "might", "may", etc.).

Definition

For active verbs, there are eight main stems:

Meaning of Verb-Aspects: Active Verbs

Aspect Name	Description
Punctual	a single, completed action
Imperative	a command
Habitual	a recurrent action, or an on-going action
Habitual-Past	a recurrent action in the past, or an on-going action in the past
Habitual-Continuative	an action which continues over a stretch of time
Stative	an action which is completed and which has an on-going effect or result, or an on-going action (or state/situation), or a single, completed action
Stative-Past	an action which was completed and which had an on-going effect or result in the past, or an on-going action in the past
Stative-Continuative	an action which continued over a stretch of time -- in the past

Note: Aspect and Mode

Punctual
A verb in the punctual aspect must come with mode-prefixes (factual "u'-", tentative/future "ë-", or optative "aa-").

Continuative (Habitual and Stative)
A verb in one of the Continuative aspects (Habitual-Continuative or Stative-Continuative) may come with a mode prefix, and may come without.

Other Aspects
A verb in any of the other aspects, comes without any mode prefix.

Example

The exact details of some of the meanings of some of the stem-forms we're still working out, but what you see above is a pretty reliable cheat-sheet. So, for instance, with the verb base -ihsak- "to look for something", you can get the verb stems:

Aspect-Meaning for the Verb Base -ihsak- "to look for something"

Aspect Name	Verb Stem	Meaning	Exaple
Punctual	-ihsák	"looked for it"	"u'sihsák" -- You looked for it. "ësihsák" -- You will look for it.
Imperative	-ihsák	"look for it!"	"sihsák" -- [you,] look for it !
Habitual	-ihsás	"look for it" (habitually); "be looking for it"	"kihsás" I look for it, I am looking for it
Habitual-Past	-ihsáskwa'	"used to look for it; was looking for it"	"kihsáskwa'" -- I used to look for it, I was looking for it (note: the "a" lengthens when it is on a stressed syllable)
Habitual-Continuative	-ihsaksék	"keep looking for it"	"kihsáksék" -- I keep looking for it "ëkihsaksék" -- I will keep looking for it (note: the "a" lengthens when it is on a stressed syllable)
Stative	-ihsakö	"have looked for it"	"akihsakö" -- I have looked for it (note: it is used in the Passive role)
Stative-Past	-ihsakônö'	"had looked for it"	"akihsakônö'" -- I had looked for it (note: it is used in the Passive role)
Stative-Continuative	-ihsakôôk	"kept looking for it"	"akihsakôôk" -- I kept looking for it "ëkihsakôôk" -- I will continue looking for it "ëwökihsakôôk" -- It will continue looking for me; I will continue to be looked-for

Stative Aspect and the Passive Role

With "Active verbs" -- those that can occur in the Punctual, Imperative, Habitual and Stative -- the Patient/Objective prefixes are always used in the Stative aspect so long as either the "agent" or the "patient" is an "it" (3rd person neuter). So, for instance:

kihsás
I/it:AGENT-look.for:HABITUAL "I look for it"


akihsakö
it/me:PATIENT-look.for:STATIVE "I've looked for it" or "it's looked for me"

But if neither the agent or the patient is an "it", then the Interactive prefixes are used, regardless of what aspect the verb is in.

köya'tihsás
I/you-look.for.someone:HABITUAL "I look for you"


köya'tihsákö
I/you-look.for.somoeone:STATIVE "I've looked for you"

There is one systematic exception to this. You can add a 3rd person neuter AGENT prefix ("ka-" or one of its variations) to an Active verb stem in the STATIVE aspect. The resulting meaning is something like a Passive, "it has been Xed". For example:

akya'kö
it/me:PATIENT-break.something:STATIVE "I've broken it"


kaya'kö
it/it:AGENT-break.something:STATIVE "it's been broken"

It's not a very common form, but it does occur from time to time... for example, if you wanted to talk about an expensive clock (or whatever) being broken, but you didn't want to either accept responsibility for breaking it, or blame someone else for doing it, you might say "kaya'kö" -- to say that it is broken, but to avoid having to say who did the breaking.

Now, with Stative verbs -- those that do NOT occur in the Punctual, Imperative or Habitual, but only occur in the Stative aspect -- there are two types: those that take Patient prefixes, and those that take Agent prefixes. For example:

kyanúwe'
I:AGENT-be.fast:STATIVE "I'm fast"


akyáné
I:PATIENT-be.chief:STATIVE "I'm chief"

There are no simple, easy ways to know whether you have an Agent State verb (like "be fast") or a Patient State verb (like "be chief"). However, Craig has written a couple of very interesting papers on this very topic, if you want to know the whole story about them.

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