Chapter 113Completion, Repetition, and Event Phases

113.1 Finishing an action

Several constructions describe an event's beginning, continuation, repetition, or completion. Their grammar varies: some are auxiliaries following a predicate, while others contain a connective and a second verb. Nakagawa treats wa okere as carrying an action through to its end Nakagawa (2024: 450–453).

Satō notes that wa okere often concerns a resulting change that is regrettable Satō (2008: 89). The emotional interpretation is a tendency in that description. Nakagawa also gives degree readings with state predicates: onne wa okere describes a very old grandfather, and pirka wa okere very fine young men Nakagawa (2024: 453, examples 1035–1036).

The second verb can carry person marking, as in e=e wa e=okere ‘you finish eating it’. Nakagawa also preserves a speaker's a=tuypa wa okere, without the expected second a=, and relates this habit to okere losing some independence as a main verb Nakagawa (2024: 452–453, examples 1030, 1034).

113.2 Disappearance and a completed change

Wa isam often describes a completed event involving breakage, loss, or disappearance. Satō's example has an overturned bowl breaking Satō (2008: 88). Yoshikawa places disappearance at the center of the analysis and rejects an inherent meaning of misfortune Yoshikawa (2022: §2).

Nakagawa discusses a less literal case: an elder brother hotke wa isam, ‘has gone to bed’, while still visible in the same one-room house. He understands the expression as entering fully into the sleeping posture. Another example concerns sewing that leaves the cloth badly bunched up Nakagawa (2024: 451–452, examples 1027, 1032). These examples motivate a broader account in his description. The authors' analyses should remain distinguishable when interpreting a new passage.

113.3 Recent change, brief action, and repetition

The auxiliary nisa presents something as having already come about. Nakagawa gives the following narrative example Nakagawa (2024: 311).

Saru/Chitose tek can make an action brief or sudden: Nakagawa's examples include jumping into and out of bed and momentarily showing a grin Nakagawa (2024: 312, examples 477–478). Tokachi tek an has a different distribution, discussed in Chapter 112 (Kane An, Regional Continuatives, and Appearance).

Ranke marks repeated action in Nakagawa's Saru and Horobetsu examples. In the Saru puppy narrative, the puppy repeatedly goes away, returns, and jumps at the narrator; the final oka=an belongs to the narrator's continuing situation Nakagawa (2024: 311, example 471). Refsing treats ranke within her Shizunai account of linked events Refsing (1986: 198–199). Repeated V a sequences provide another resource for sustained or repeated activity; see Chapter 111 (A, Rok, and Aan: Earlier Situations and Discovery).

113.4 Other event contours

A beginning can emerge from a predicate and its context. Satō's epuykehe tane sipuske kor oka describes flower buds beginning to open Satō (2008: 86). Habitual activity likewise occurs with kor an, as described in Chapter 110 (Existential Aspect: Kor An and Wa An).

Wa anu concerns doing something and leaving its tangible result in place, such as gathering and drying greens. Nakagawa distinguishes this from abstract uses of Japanese ‘do beforehand’ Nakagawa (2024: 453–454). His wa inkar and wa inu descriptions concern trying an action with visually and otherwise perceptible results respectively Nakagawa (2024: 454–455). These constructions add their own meanings to the lexical event; their shared two-verb shape does not make them one aspect category.