Chapter 110Existential Aspect: Kor An and Wa An
Activities, habits, resulting states, person and number controllers, lexical interpretation, negative constructions, and regional limits.
110.1 Activity and resulting state
A predicate followed by kor an commonly describes an activity or change in progress. With wa an, many predicates describe the state resulting from a change. The existential has plural forms oka and okay. These patterns are prominent in Saru and Chitose descriptions Nakagawa (2024: 439–441)Satō (2008: 195–198).
The verb's meaning matters. Nakagawa distinguishes activity, change, and state predicates, while observing that a state word can also express a change into that state Nakagawa (2024: 437–438). With motion ek, his ek kor an describes coming, and ek wa an describes having arrived Nakagawa (2024: 441, examples 986–987).
110.2 Habitual activity and continuing circumstances
Kor an can describe regularly repeated activity. Nakagawa's Saru net-making example explicitly says ‘every day’; his charcoal-burning example describes someone's livelihood Nakagawa (2024: 441–442).
‘I really enjoy weaving my little net bags day after day.’
Nakagawa 2024: 441–442; Saru, Example 988, citing Honda 2001:24
The repeated temporal expression makes the habitual setting explicit. The sentence need not refer to weaving at the instant of speech.
Yoshikawa keeps the boundary between aspectual interpretation and accompanying circumstances open. In this account, the existential supplies continuation, while the whole construction and lexical predicate determine what continues Yoshikawa (2022: §§2–3, 5).
110.3 Whose state does the existential describe?
Each predicate has its own argument structure. When both concern the same person, the appropriate person series still depends on whether the first verb is transitive or intransitive. Nakagawa's a=supa wa a=e kor an=an uses fourth-person actor prefixes on ‘cook’ and ‘eat’, followed by the fourth-person subject suffix on the existential Nakagawa (2024: 443, example 991).
Satō explicitly relates the existential's person and number to the affected object in this type of result-state construction Satō (2008: 198, 201). Nakagawa also contrasts a singular hidden pot with plural clothes being worn: an and okay refer to those objects Nakagawa (2024: 439–440).
110.4 Lexical interpretation and disagreements
Similar translations can conceal different constructions. Nakagawa describes mokor wa an ‘be asleep’ through the result of falling asleep. He contrasts tere wa an ‘wait’ with ekanunara kor an ‘wait expectantly’, and discusses differences between intransitive inkar and transitive nukar ‘see’ Nakagawa (2024: 444–445).
His earlier account invoked active engagement in the event. He reports Satō's criticism that the fundamental contrast is continuation of an action versus continuation of its result, with active engagement arising contextually Nakagawa (2024: 446, reporting Satō 2006:65). Satō's grammar also analyzes understanding as either a developing process or an acquired state, while treating the extension to perception predicates cautiously Satō (2008: 199).
110.5 States and regional limits
A temporary-state reading occurs in some existential combinations, but is not inherent in every wa an. Yoshikawa's Shizunai examples include being a particular deity or a human being, where the author finds neither a clear temporary reading nor a clear difference from the simple copula Yoshikawa (2021: 11–12, §3.2). The published forms also include e=ne wa an and oka wa an, which qualify a mechanical requirement that both predicates always show matching person and number forms.
Tokachi provides a different restriction: Takahashi's account excludes first-person subjects from progressive kor an and uses kan an for such events Takahashi (2022: §4). These regional facts belong alongside the Saru/Chitose patterns.
110.6 Negation and further combinations
For remaining without doing something, Satō gives the Chitose pattern (ka) somo ki no an Satō (2008: 201). This is a specific negative construction; its linker and scope must be considered alongside the positive patterns.
Both existential combinations can also precede a. Ma's Saru/Chitose study includes continuing activity, recent activity, habits, and persistent result states in these combinations Ma (2023: 32, table 1). The meaning of the longer sequence requires its own analysis; see Chapter 111 (A, Rok, and Aan: Earlier Situations and Discovery).
References cited in this chapter
Ma (2023) ·Nakagawa (2024) ·Satō (2008) ·Takahashi (2022) ·Yoshikawa (2021) ·Yoshikawa (2022)