Chapter 128Inability, Inexperience, and Lack of Knowledge
Lexical contrasts, independent and auxiliary uses, capacity and circumstances, and dialect and register restrictions.
128.1 Lexical meanings of inability and ignorance
Several verbs include a negative meaning in their lexical sense. Tamura's Saru dictionary distinguishes inability, lack of familiarity or experience, and lack of knowledge or understanding Tamura (1996: s.vv. eaykap, eramiskari, erampewtek).
| Predicate | Principal contrast in the dictionary |
|---|---|
| eaykap | Be unable or unskilled; counterpart easkay. |
| eramiskari | Not know or recognize someone; have no experience of something; counterpart amkir. |
| erampewtek | Not understand or possess the relevant knowledge; counterparts eraman, eramuan. |
The English word ‘know’ overlaps several of these distinctions. Tamura explicitly contrasts not recognizing a person with not understanding something Tamura (1996: s.vv. eramiskari and erampewtek).
128.2 Independent predicates and auxiliary uses
A person index on the negative verb identifies an independent-predicate use. When the same form follows a person-marked verb as an auxiliary, it adds a meaning to that preceding event. Nakagawa's table distinguishes the two uses Nakagawa (2024: 314–315, table 75).
Compare Nakagawa's Saru a=kar erampewtek, used by a narrator who had not known about making a pole for displaying the bear's skull Nakagawa (2024: 315, example 489). The relevant ignorance concerns the action or practice described by the preceding predicate. Chitose eramuskari and Ishikari eramuskare are among the variants in the source examples Nakagawa (2024: 314–315, examples 487–488).
128.3 Capacity and circumstances
Eaykap has a broad range covering ability and other obstacles. Tamura particularly associates koyaykus with circumstances or current conditions. Her example comments on a child who has grown too heavy to lift Tamura (1996: s.vv. eaykap and koyaykus).
‘I can't lift [the child].’
Tamura 1996; Saru, s.v. koyaykus, excerpt from an S example
The preceding words express surprise at the child's weight. The dictionary identifies the utterance as praise of the child's growth.
These descriptions do not make circumstances the exclusive domain of koyaykus. For further distinctions involving completion, inclination, and endurance, see Chapter 117 (Ability and Inability).
128.4 Dialect and register limits
Satō finds independent a=eaykap in literary Chitose, while reporting no ordinary colloquial k=eaykap in his material. He proposes a stylistic factor in the difference Satō (2008: 90).
Refsing finds Shizunai koyaykus, maka, and nukuri only as auxiliaries, without intervening ka, in her sample Refsing (1986: 211, §14.9.4.9). Tamura and Nakagawa describe transitive uses in Saru for some of these forms. The lexical entries and constructional distributions need to be kept with their respective dialect and register evidence.