Knowledge base · Part XIV — Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Modality · this topic as a network
110. The Existential-Aspect System: kor an Progressive and wa an Resultative-Perfect
How do existential verbs function as auxiliary verbs to express progressive and resultative aspects?
In Sakhalin Ainu, the construction wa 'isam expresses completion resulting in the absence or disappearance of the subject or entity. (Murasaki 2025: 37, 59) In the Shizunai dialect, the imperfective aspect is marked by the conjunctionalizer wa followed by the existential verb an (singular) or oka (plural). (Refsing 1986: 195) In the Shizunai dialect, the restrictive postposition patek may be interpolated between wa and an to indicate that the subject performs an action to the exclusion of everything else. (Refsing 1986: 195) In the Shizunai dialect, the imperfective aspect auxiliary is occasionally formed with the conjunctionalizers hine or no instead of wa. (Refsing 1986: 195) When the verb an ('be', 'exist') follows wa, the construction expresses the resultant state of the preceding action ('be in the state of having done'). (Nakagawa 2024: 339) When kor is followed by an 'to be', it expresses that the preceding action is in progress. (Nakagawa 2024: 340) In Saru Ainu, the resultative state expressed in Sakhalin Ainu by 'aa kusu an' would be expressed by 'a wa an'. (Nakagawa 2024: 345) Grammatical aspect in Ainu is generally treated as forms consisting of a conjunctive particle followed by the verb an 'be, exist' (such as wa an, kor an, kane an, kan an, tek an), which Yoshikawa (2021a, 2023) calls 'existential aspect'. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 439) The conjunctive particles vary considerably across dialects, resulting in substantial dialect variation in grammatical aspect. (Nakagawa 2024: 439) The construction wa an attaches primarily to change-of-state verbs to express the state resulting from the change. (Nakagawa 2024: 439) When wa an attaches to an intransitive verb, it indicates that the subject is in the state following the action or change. (Nakagawa 2024: 440) When the subject of wa an is plural, wa an becomes wa oka. (Nakagawa 2024: 440) When wa an attaches to a transitive verb, it indicates that the object is in the state following the action. (Nakagawa 2024: 440) Because stative verbs can also express a change, the state resulting from that change can be indicated by wa an. (Nakagawa 2024: 440) The construction kor an in Saru/central Hokkaido dialects corresponds to kane an in the Shizunai dialect. (Refsing 1986: 32) Refsing analyzes kane an (corresponding to kor an) as marking uncompleted aspect, whereas Kindaichi analyzes kor an as progressive aspect. (Refsing 1986: 32) The perfective aspect in the Shizunai dialect is formed by combining the coordinative conjunctionalizer wa with the intransitive verb isam 'not be / be gone'. (Refsing 1986: 192) The perfective aspect with wa isam is used when a process is completed by exhausting its possibilities for continuation, or when it results in the disappearance of the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb. (Refsing 1986: 192) The imperfective aspect describes a process that is coextensive with or exceeds the speaker's temporal frame, continuing before and beyond the focused temporal area. (Refsing 1986: 192) Wa is the conjunctionalizer most frequently used in analytically constructed auxiliary verb constructions. (Refsing 1986: 241) Occasionally no may replace wa in the analytically constructed auxiliary for the imperfective aspect, yielding no an/oka. (Refsing 1986: 241) hine occasionally replaces wa in analytically constructed auxiliaries for the imperfective aspect (wa an/oka) and completed aspect (wa okere). (Refsing 1986: 242) The progressive aspect is marked by kor, which etymologically means 'have'. (Shibatani 1990) The structure of kane an consists of the conjunctive particle kane and the existential verb an. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) When kane an co-occurs with a stative verb, there is almost no semantic contrast with the stative verb used alone, both expressing a constant, simple state. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) Kane an basically shows the continuation of the result of a change, but unlike wa an, it tends to actively express an attribute or status of the subject, and the subject's action or state tends to become a metaphor. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) The structure of hine an consists of the conjunctive particle hine and the existential verb an. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) Verbs that co-occur with hine an tend to be change-of-state verbs, similar to wa an. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) When hine an co-occurs with action verbs, it does not express aspectual continuation of the action, but only connects the preceding and following clauses. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3)
The pair-verb frame and the existential auxiliary
How are existential verbs used as second predicates in pair-verb constructions to express aspect?
In the pair verb construction ('V + conjunction + supplementary verb'), both verbs have full finite forms, take pronominal affixes, and do not necessarily involve coreferential subjects. (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) Only a few conjunctions (wa, kor, and rarely hine) are used to link the two verbs in pair verb constructions, and their use is largely fixed within certain constructions. (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) In wa an and kor an constructions, personal affixes must attach to both the main verb and the auxiliary verb an (e.g., ku=tere wa k=an). (Nakagawa 2024: 442) Because each verb phrase contains only one finite head verb, constructions like ku=tere wa k=an consist of two verb phrases and can be analyzed as two complete clauses linked by a connective particle. (Nakagawa 2024: 442) In Ainu, aspect is basically expressed by a compound predicate consisting of the conjunctive particles kor and wa combined with the existential verb an (plural oka(y)). (reported in Yoshikawa 2022: 19.1) In many dialects of Ainu, there is an aspectual opposition between progressive kor an and resultant wa an. (reported in Yoshikawa 2022: 19.1) Aspectual forms in Ainu are not obligatory in their use. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) A bare verb alone can express the continuation of a state or action without kor an or wa an. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) When verbs are accompanied by kor an, wa an, kane an, or hine an, continuity based on the time of utterance is basically manifested, expressed by the existential verb an. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.5) The aspectual correspondence between a (perfective) and aan (perfect) is parallel to the correspondence between unmarked verbs (perfective) and verb + wa an (continuation of the result of change / state perfect). (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.5)
The suppletive existential as auxiliary
How does the existential auxiliary show suppletive singular/plural number agreement?
The existential verb an in the periphrastic forms kor an and wa an requires a personal affix agreeing with the subject. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2)
kor an: progressive, habitual, and inceptive
How does the V kor an construction mark progressive, habitual, and inceptive meanings?
In Sakhalin Ainu, the auxiliary construction kusu 'an encodes progressive or durative aspect. (Murasaki 2025: 69, 94) The pair verb construction ... kor an/oka ('exist.SG/PL') expresses progressive aspect. (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) The progressive pair verb construction with kor an/oka also functions as a habitual and an inceptive. (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) The particles kor, kor-an, and kor-okai express progressive aspect. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) kor an indicates that an action is in progress with action verbs, and that an event is in the process of change with change-of-state verbs. (Nakagawa 2024: 440) Theoretically, when kor an attaches to a stative verb, it indicates that it is in the process of changing into that state, but in practice such expressions are rarely used. (Nakagawa 2024: 441) With motion verbs such as ek 'come', ek kor an expresses 'is coming (on the way)', while ek wa an expresses 'has already arrived'. (Nakagawa 2024: 441) kor an can also express habitual repeated actions, rather than an action being in progress at the present moment. (Nakagawa 2024: 441) Yoshikawa (2021a) states that co-occurrence of stative verbs with kor an expresses 'living in the state of ...', which can be interpreted as a simple state or as a type of habitual situation. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 442) The auxiliary phrase kor an indicates that an action or change is not yet finished and is in progress. (Satō 2008: 86) To express that an action is currently taking place, the progressive auxiliary construction 'kor an' is used. (Satō 2008: 196) 'kor an' can express habitual actions in addition to the continuation of an ongoing action. (Satō 2008: 197) 'kor an' can express the ongoing process leading up to a change in state. (Satō 2008: 197) In the Saru dialect, kor an expresses the progressive aspect of an action. (reported in Takahashi 2022: 18.3) With non-stative action verbs, kor an expresses continuation of action, habituality, and repetition, whereas wa an is basically not used. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) With verbs that express both action and change of state, kor an highlights the action component (expressing continuation of action, habituality, or repetition), whereas wa an highlights the change component (expressing continuation of the result of change). (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) With change-of-state verbs, kor an expresses the progression of change, habituality, or repetition, whereas wa an expresses the continuation of the result of change. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) The function of kor an to express habituality and repetition is widely observed across verbs regardless of their lexical semantic class. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) When co-occurring with unbounded stative verbs, kor an denotes habituality, repetition, or a simple state, while wa an denotes a simple state. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3) When co-occurring with bounded stative verbs, kor an denotes the progressive process of change, while wa an denotes the continuation of the result of change. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3)
Person agreement in kor an
How does person agreement work in the kor an construction?
In the kor an construction, the subject of the verb and the subject of an co-refer as a rule, taking identical nominative personal affixes. (Nakagawa 2024: 442) In the 'kor an' construction, the auxiliary verb of existence ('an' singular, 'oka' plural) inflects to agree in person and number with the subject of the main verb. (Satō 2008: 196)
The Tokachi first-person restriction
What restriction applies to first-person subjects in the kor an construction in Tokachi?
In the Tokachi dialect, the progressive aspect form kor an cannot co-occur with first-person subjects. (Takahashi 2022: 18.4) In the Tokachi dialect, the form kan an is used instead of kor an for an action in progress with a first-person subject. (Takahashi 2022: 18.4) In contrast to kor an, which has a person restriction, kan an is an unmarked progressive form that lacks such a restriction. (Takahashi 2022: 18.4) The person restriction on kor an in the Tokachi dialect is hypothesized to arise because the form expresses the meaning of the event being observed by the speaker. (proposed in Takahashi 2022: 18.4) The person restriction on the progressive aspect form kor an is unknown in dialects outside Tokachi. (Takahashi 2022: 18.4)
wa an: the resultative
How does the V wa an construction express resultative meaning?
In Sakhalin Ainu, the auxiliary collocation teh 'an expresses the continuation of the result of completion or an ongoing resultant state. (Murasaki 2025: 34, 58, 69, 94) The pair verb construction ... wa an/oka ('exist.SG/PL') expresses stative perfect (perfect resultative). (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) Sato (2007) proposes that when wa an is used with verbs like an that inherently express a permanent state, it may express a temporary state. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 440) Yoshikawa (2021a) analyzes examples of wa an in the Saru and Chitose dialects and summarizes the meaning of stative verb + wa an as 'the resulting state of a change, or a simple state'. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 440) As a rule, wa an cannot be attached to action verbs (e.g., *tapkar wa an, *uenewsar wa an). (Nakagawa 2024: 441) While tere 'wait' is conceived as a change-of-state verb ('entering a waiting state') and takes wa an, ekanunara 'wait eagerly' is conceived as an action verb and takes kor an. (Nakagawa 2024: 445) The resultative construction wa an can only express the direct result state of an action, so ray wa an 'be dead' is permitted while *ipe wa an '(already) eating' is normally rejected. (Satō 2008: 4) The auxiliary phrase wa an expresses the continuation of a result, but it appears to be used only with verbs of relatively limited semantics, mostly implying existence, staying in a place, or possessing an object bearing the direct result of the action. (Satō 2008: 87) The construction 'wa an' is used to express the continuation of a resulting state. (Satō 2008: 197) With verbs of positional or state change (such as 'eus' 'be caught' or 'ray' 'die'), 'wa an' expresses that the state resulting from the change continues. (Satō 2008: 197) Verbs expressing 'possession' in a broad sense (such as 'kor' 'have/hold' or 'mi' 'wear') take 'wa an' to express a continuing resulting state. (Satō 2008: 198) The verb 'tére' ('wait') takes 'wa an' because commencing to wait inherently results in being in that place. (Satō 2008: 198) Action verbs like 'ipe' ('eat') do not normally combine with 'wa an'. (Satō 2008: 198) The existential verb 'an' can occasionally combine with 'wa an' ('an wa an' / 'an ma an'), tentatively analyzed as expressing an accidental or temporary state of 'happening to be there'. (proposed in Satō 2008: 199) When attached to an existential verb, wa an expresses a temporary state of existence rather than a permanent one. (Satō 2008: 200) Stative verbs such as iwanke 'be well', tótek 'be safe', and siknu 'live' are almost never used alone as predicates and are usually accompanied by wa an. (Satō 2008: 200) Action verbs normally do not combine with wa an; to express a completive meaning with action verbs, the auxiliary particle a is used instead for indirect results. (Satō 2008: 201) Because hosipi ('to return') denotes a change of location, it takes wa an, which expresses the continuation of a resulting state. (Satō 2008: 312) The auxiliary or verbal construction wa an basically expresses a resulting state. (Satō 2008: 330) When attached to a stative verb, wa an basically indicates a temporary state, but depending on context this temporary meaning can give rise to an interpretation of fortuity or contingency ('it so happened that'). (proposed in Satō 2008: 333) The construction an ma an literally means 'being and being' and has a usage indicating temporariness. (Satō 2008: 347) In the Saru dialect, wa an expresses the continuation of a result (perfect). (reported in Takahashi 2022: 18.3) The perfect aspect marker wa an cannot cooccur with an action verb and has no action-perfect use. (reported in Takahashi 2022: 18.3) The clearest opposition in Ainu aspectual forms is found between wa an and wa isam. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) The construction wa an cannot be used to express indirect results where the resulting state is not physically manifest at speech time. (reported in Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) In Saru and Chitose texts, all 30 examined tokens of ray wa an (including ray wa oka(y)) occurred in situations where a corpse existed at the time of speech. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) In Saru and Chitose texts, few of the 30 examined tokens of ray wa isam were used in the presence of a corpse. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) The sequence ray-an wa isam-an 'I have died' occurs only in conditional (irrealis) clauses with conjunctive particles such as yakun 'if'. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) The construction wa isam can only express the completion of a situation that presupposes the disappearance or nonexistence of the subject or object of the action. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) The construction wa isam does not actively express modal meanings of regret or misfortune like Japanese -te shimatta. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.2) When wa an co-occurs with stative verbs, the appearance of temporariness is graded and may express a permanent nature. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.3)
mokor wa an: sleep as a result-state
How does the language treat 'sleep' as a result-state using wa an?
In Ainu, the state of sleeping is consistently expressed as a resultant state using wa an (mokor wa an). (Nakagawa 2024: 444) The verb mokor expresses a change from being awake to being asleep, and mokor wa an expresses the resultant state of that change. (Nakagawa 2024: 444)
Person agreement in wa an
How does person agreement work in the wa an construction?
When wa an combines with a transitive verb that causes a change of state in its object, the auxiliary an agrees in person and number with the object rather than the subject. (Satō 2008: 198, 201) In the wa an construction with an intransitive verb, the verb and an take the same nominative personal affix. (Nakagawa 2024: 443) In the wa an construction with a transitive verb where the verb's subject is identical to the subject of an, the verb and an take the same nominative personal affix. (Nakagawa 2024: 443) In the wa an construction with a transitive verb where the verb's subject differs from that of an, the verb takes the person affix of the agent, while an takes the person affix of the patient affected by the action. (Nakagawa 2024: 443)
Perception and cognition verbs
How do perception verbs distinguish between the kor an and wa an constructions?
To express 'looking/watching', the intransitive verb inkar only takes wa an, whereas the transitive verb nukar can take nukar kor an. (Nakagawa 2024: 445) The transitive verb nukar can also be used in the form nukar wa an. (Nakagawa 2024: 445) Nakagawa (1981) explains the distinction between nukar kor an and nukar wa an based on whether looking is an active action (nukar kor an) or passively coming into sight (nukar wa an). (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 445) Verbs like 'eramuan' ('understand') can take either 'kor an' or 'wa an'; 'kor an' indicates the ongoing process of reaching understanding, while 'wa an' indicates the subject's resultant state of having acquired knowledge. (Satō 2008: 199) Perception verbs such as 'nukar' ('see') and 'nu' ('hear') can take 'kor an' for the process of perception acquisition and 'wa an' for the state following perception acquisition. (proposed in Satō 2008: 199)
Grammaticalization status and typological framing
What stage of grammaticalization do existential auxiliaries represent in the language?
Because aspect is generally expressed by inflectional change of a single verb form, Ainu kor an and wa an are not morphological aspects per se, but constructions expressing aspect-like meanings. (Nakagawa 2024: 442) While affirmative aspectual expressions distinguish wa an and kor an depending on verb type, the negative expression 'remain without doing' neutralizes this contrast using (ka) somo ki no an. (Satō 2008: 200) Complex predicates expressing aspect are considered to have originated syntactically from adverbial clauses. (Takahashi 2022: 18.2) Complex predicates expressing aspect retain biclausal properties, such that both verbs within the predicate inflect with personal affixes. (Takahashi 2022: 18.2) Existential aspectual forms in Ainu are forms that may express aspectual meanings, but they are not grammaticalized aspectual forms. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.5)
Dialect variation and the existential-aspect family
How do dialects vary in their use of existential aspectual forms?
In Sakhalin Ainu, an following a notional verb expresses imperfective aspect. (Bugaeva 2022: 20.6) In Sakhalin Ainu, the constructions kusu an and kusu okay encode progressive aspect. (Bugaeva 2022: 20.6) In Hokkaido Ainu, the aspectual forms wa an and kor an are used basically in the same way across roughly all dialects. (Nakagawa 2024: 446) Tokachi Ainu can express continuation of a state or action by directly juxtaposing a verb with okay 'exist (pl.)' without the conjunctional particle wa, corresponding to the wa oka=an aspect construction in Saru and Chitose. (Nakagawa 2024: 520) In the Abuta dialect, the continuative-of-result form wa okay can appear after the existential verb okay and after the continuative-of-action form kor okay. (reported in Nakagawa & Fukazawa 2022: 8.6) In Sakhalin Ainu, kusu an expresses durative aspect, functioning like Hokkaido Ainu kor an. (reported in Takahashi 2022: 18.3)