Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

On its own (without prehodiernal -ka-), -a- occurs rarely with true statives such as -saka
‘want, like’ and -pona ‘live’. When it does occur stative durative verbs, such as -chiswa ‘be
sick’, a past interpretation is also generally associated with -a-. To say ‘I am sick’, speakers
generally use the -la- form (discussed in chapter 4), rather than -a-. This contrast is shown
in (107), where the -a- form describes a situation that held earlier in the day.
(107) a. ndàchìswà
nda-chis-w-a
1sg.cmpl-hurt-pass-fv
‘I was sick [this morning]’ (situation completed) (ZT2009Elic34)
b. ndìlàchìswà
ndi-la-chis-w-a
1sg-pres-hurt-pass-fv
‘I am sick’
The lack of frequent use of -a- with statives such as -saka may be related to the enduring
(i.e. permanent or semi-permanent) character associated with such predicates. Location of
their completion prior to perspective time is unexpected. However, it can occur, as in (108),
which was accepted by a consultant.
(108) ndasaka kono tandichisaka
nda-sak-a kono ta-ndi-chi-sak-a
1sg.cmpl-want-fv but neg-1sg-pers-want-fv
‘I wanted [e.g. to do or have something] but I don’t/won’t want [to/it] anymore’
(ZT2007Elic123)
In other cases, -saka with the -a- marker may have an active meaning such as ‘seek’ or
‘look for’ rather than stative ‘want’, in which case it behave as other non-stative duratives.
Based on its interactions with durative verbs alone, -a- might easily be analyzed as a
simple (hodiernal) past/perfective form. All that can be said with respect to -a- is that the
situation’s completion is prior to perspective time. These semantics are illustrated in (109),
using the event schemata introduced in 1.3.2. The perspective time (PT) is located after the
verbal nucleus (N). O marks situation onset; C represents the coda. The P-domain represents
the cognitive “world” – i.e. the here-and-now reality – associated with the perspective time.
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