Chapter 111A, Rok, and Aan: Earlier Situations and Discovery

111.1 An earlier situation in context

The auxiliary a places a situation in relation to another time or event. Its interpretation has been described through past time, completion, anteriority, and narrative sequencing. The choice among these analyses matters: an English past-tense translation alone does not establish what the auxiliary contributes Nakagawa (2024: 305–306)Yoshikawa (2022: §§4–5).

Nakagawa's next discussion shows why a is not simply an obligatory past-tense ending. A narrator describes formerly being the wife of the Poroshiri deity with a, then recounts leaving and giving birth without marking each later event with it Nakagawa (2024: 306, example 450).

111.2 Number and repetition

Nakagawa pairs a with plural rok. The relevant plurality can concern the object: in example 449, a single narrator has hung several things at a window, and the expression contains a=racitkere rok pa p Nakagawa (2024: 305–306, table 74 and example 449). A rule based solely on how many people perform the action would miss this use.

Repeated V a sequences can describe sustained or repeated activity. Refsing's examples distinguish talking on and on from making successive cuts; the event determines the natural interpretation Refsing (1986: 198–199, examples 290–292).

The shorter onkami=an a =an a also occurs. Nakagawa treats this as an abbreviated repetition; the full form above remains possible Nakagawa (2024: 307, examples 453–454).

111.3 Aan and retrospective discovery

Nakagawa describes aan as recognizing, at a particular moment, what an earlier situation had been. In his example 455, a dog who had taken human form speaks after death in a girl's dream. Only then does he explain that the young man who killed him had been hiding in the house. The expression nuynak wa an aan belongs to that retrospective discovery Nakagawa (2024: 307).

Related forms include Chitose anan, Horobetsu and Tokachi awan, and Tokachi hawan. Nakagawa lists plural rokoka and regional rokokay, as well as Chitose rokoka anan Nakagawa (2024: 307–308). These are documented regional forms, not freely interchangeable spellings.

111.4 What the analyses explain

Yoshikawa analyzes a as perfective and aan as perfect, connecting them with direct and indirect evidence. The account also includes directly observed, unexpected situations with aan. Its evidence comes chiefly from Saru and Chitose narratives, mostly in the fourth person Yoshikawa (2022: §§4–5). Discovery, surprise, and lack of direct observation therefore need separate attention.

Ma instead emphasizes the ordering of situations in Saru narratives, including relative clauses whose time is understood against a main-clause event. This is a taxis analysis: the central relation is between events Ma (2021: 77–83, §§3.3–4). Ma's later study of kor an a and wa an a includes activity and states continuing to the time of speaking, sometimes with possible further continuation. An earlier-state contrast does not invariably mean that the state has ended Ma (2023: 32, table 1).

Sentence endings also require context. Satō describes an ordinary tendency for a particle to follow final a, while expressly allowing questions ending in a Satō (2008: 187–188). For existential combinations, see Chapter 110 (Existential Aspect: Kor An and Wa An); for the evidence-related endings, see Chapter 108 (Time, Aspect, Modality, and Evidentiality).