Knowledge base · Part IX — The Verb: Structure, Transitivity, and Verbal Number · this topic as a network
59. Light Verbs, Pro-Verbs, and the Auxiliary-Verb Construction
How are light verbs, pro-verbs, and auxiliary verbs used to build complex predicates?
The support-verb inventory
Which verbs have bleached meanings in certain constructions while keeping regular verbal morphology?
Transitive verbs functioning as auxiliary verbs are significantly more numerous than intransitive verbs. (Nakagawa 2024: 122, 313) The auxiliary use of okere directly following a verb has virtually the same meaning as the auxiliary verb construction wa okere. (Nakagawa 2024: 318, 453) Attested examples of the auxiliary construction wa arpa are rare. (Satō 2008: 87) The auxiliary verb construction wa inkar expresses attempting an action ('to try doing'). (Nakagawa 2024: 451, Satō 2008: 88) The auxiliary construction wa inkar is restricted to cases where the outcome of the attempt can be visually verified. (Nakagawa 2024: 454) The choice between the singular and plural form of an auxiliary verb is determined by the number of the subject of the predicate. (Bugaeva 2012: 492–493) Auxiliary verbs in Ainu, which follow main verbs and are unmarked for person, can cliticize directly to the main verb. (Bugaeva 2022: 1.4) Certain intransitive verbs, such as moyre 'late/slow', tunas 'fast/early', and hayta 'insufficient', can be placed directly after another verb to function as auxiliary verbs. (Nakagawa 2024: 121) As an auxiliary verb, kuni forms a verb phrase like other auxiliaries, so it can modify a following noun or be followed by a sentence-final particle or a conjunctive auxiliary. (Nakagawa 2024: 309) The auxiliary manu forms euphemistic expressions meaning 'called ...', and is very frequently used in the pattern ~ ne manu p 'that which is called ...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 309) The auxiliary manu is often used when a speaker deliberately softens the expression of something they know well, rather than expressing hearsay. (Nakagawa 2024: 309) In the Horobetsu dialect, the pattern a=ye manu + noun is frequently used with the meaning 'the much-rumored ..., what people call ...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 310) The auxiliary unin expresses that the degree of an action or state is slight, though actual attested examples are quite limited. (Nakagawa 2024: 312) Some intransitive verbs can be placed after another verb to function as auxiliaries; in that position, they lose their verbal character and do not take person affixes. (Nakagawa 2024: 313) When an intransitive verb functioning as an auxiliary incorporates with the preceding verb into a single verb, the person marking may appear on the auxiliary itself. (Nakagawa 2024: 313) The intransitive verb moyre can be used as an auxiliary meaning 'to be late in doing ...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 313) The intransitive verb tunas can be used as an auxiliary meaning 'to be quick in doing ...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 313) Transitive-derived auxiliaries can occur directly after the preceding verb, but they frequently appear with the adverbial particle ka inserted between them (e.g., ~ ka eaykap) without any notable difference in meaning, a pattern not found with inherent auxiliaries. (Nakagawa 2024: 314) The transitive verb amkir 'know, recognize' functions as an experiential auxiliary meaning 'have had the experience of doing ...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 314) The transitive verb eramiskari 'not know' functions as an auxiliary meaning 'have never done ...', and takes various dialectal shapes such as eramuskari and eramuskare. (Nakagawa 2024: 314) The transitive verb erampewtek 'not understand' functions as an auxiliary meaning 'do not know how to do ...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 315) The auxiliary verb etoranne expresses that although one has the ability to do something, one cannot do it because one lacks the will or motivation. (Nakagawa 2024: 316) The auxiliary verb koyaykus expresses that one cannot do something due to the situation in which one is placed at the time. (Nakagawa 2024: 316) The auxiliary verb niwkes expresses that one lacks sufficient ability to carry something through to the end. (Nakagawa 2024: 316) The auxiliary verb nukuri expresses that one cannot do something because it is painful or hard, such as having no physical strength or energy. (Nakagawa 2024: 316) The auxiliary verb etokus expresses that an event is about to occur ('is on the verge of doing'). (Nakagawa 2024: 316) As an auxiliary verb, oasi does not mean 'begin to do'. (Nakagawa 2024: 317) The basic meaning of oasi as an auxiliary verb is that an event is certain to happen in the future ('is destined/scheduled to do'). (Nakagawa 2024: 317) When accompanied by a temporal specification of proximity such as tane 'now', auxiliary oasi takes on the meaning of 'on the verge of doing' or 'just about to do'. (Nakagawa 2024: 317) When okere is used as an auxiliary verb after action verbs, it means 'finish doing'. (Nakagawa 2024: 318) When okere is attached to verbs expressing a state or property, it conveys the meaning 'extremely, very'. (Nakagawa 2024: 318) Transitive verbs such as ruska ('to be angry about'), sitoma ('to fear'), kopan ('to refuse/dislike'), and eykasuy ('to help') can be used as auxiliary verbs after verbs. (Nakagawa 2024: 318) The auxiliary verb construction wa isam expresses that something disappears or is depleted as a result of carrying out an action. (Nakagawa 2024: 452) The auxiliary verb construction wa isam can also be used when something ends up in an unfavorable state, even if nothing is actually lost. (Nakagawa 2024: 452) The auxiliary verb construction wa okere expresses finishing an action completely to the end. (Nakagawa 2024: 452) In the Saru and Horobetsu dialects, the construction stative verb + wa okere can express the meaning of being 'extremely / very [state]'. (Nakagawa 2024: 453) The auxiliary verb construction wa anu expresses leaving the result of an action as it is, but it is not used for abstract matters. (Nakagawa 2024: 453) Excess of an action, state, or event can be expressed by the auxiliary kaspa. (Refsing 1986) The defective mode of action, indicating that a process has not been carried through as expected or hoped for, is expressed by the auxiliaries niwkes and orakse. (Refsing 1986) The auxiliary niwkes simply indicates that part of a process has been left undone although it should have been done, whereas orakse adds a nuance of dissatisfaction or discomfort for the subject regarding the lacking part. (Refsing 1986) The auxiliaries moyre and tunas characterize a process as slow and quick, respectively. (Refsing 1986) Shizunai Ainu possesses a set of negative auxiliary verbs expressing modal nuances of inability, ignorance, distaste, or fear. (Refsing 1986: 211) Half of the negative auxiliaries may also function as independent verbs, and these can occasionally have the restrictive postposition ka interpolated between the main verb and the auxiliary. (Refsing 1986: 211) Negative auxiliaries that occur only as auxiliaries (koyaykus, maka, nukuri) never appear with the interpolated postposition ka. (Refsing 1986: 211) The form anki 'about to' is currently attested only once in oral literature texts, and because it is followed by a verb, it may need to be classified as a conjunctive particle. (proposed in Satō 2008: 80) The auxiliary kaspa 'do too much' rarely appears in the variant form kasu. (Satō 2008: 82) kopan 'disagree, dislike doing' is originally a lexical verb, but it can also be used as an auxiliary verb. (Satō 2008: 83) The auxiliary niwkes expresses giving up or not succeeding. (Satō 2008: 85) niwkes is considered to have originally been a verb. (proposed in Satō 2008: 85) The auxiliary nukuri expresses reluctance, unwillingness, or feeling that an action is tiresome. (Satō 2008: 85) okere is also used as an independent verb. (Satō 2008: 85) The auxiliary phrase wa anu means 'to do in advance / to do and leave in place'. (Satō 2008: 87) The auxiliary phrase wa ek means 'to come to / to do and come', but examples of this expression are rare. (Satō 2008: 88) The auxiliary phrase wa inu expresses 'to try doing', but attested examples are few. (Satō 2008: 88) The auxiliary phrase wa túnas expresses that doing something is fast. (Satō 2008: 89) Verbs with negative meanings, such as emonasap 'busy, having no time', eramuskari 'have never done', and kopan 'disagree', can be used as auxiliary verbs. (Satō 2008: 90) The construction wa inu is an auxiliary-verb-like construction expressing the meaning 'to try doing'. (Satō 2008: 306) Verbs like oman 'go' and okere 'end' can be used like auxiliary verbs without preceding conjunctions. (Takahashi 2022: 18.2)
Ki as the formal verb of somo negation
In the negative construction, what role does the verb 'ki' play?
Asserted or emphasized negative predicates almost always involve the restrictive postposition ka, and the pronominal affix invariably attaches to the main verb in these expressions. (Refsing 1986: 211) The morpheme ranke in somo ranke is likely an auxiliary verb meaning 'to repeat intermittently'. (proposed in Satō 2008: 339)
Ki as event support and pro-verb
How does the verb 'ki' verbalize event-denoting complements to form predicates?
The verb ki functions as an assertive auxiliary verb to emphasize or assert a predicate. (Refsing 1986: 24, 208) Attaching the verb kii 'do' to a verbal noun expresses the performance of various actions. (Murasaki 2025: 30) The formal verb ki has an arity of 0. (Nakagawa 2024: 366) A verb phrase extended by adverbial particles such as ka or hene cannot stand as a complete verb phrase by itself, and must be followed by an auxiliary transitive verb or the formal verb ki. (Nakagawa 2024: 371) When a verb phrase extended by an adverbial particle requires no additional lexical meaning, the formal verb ki is often placed after it, and ki in this construction does not take personal affixes. (Nakagawa 2024: 372) The two-argument verb ki 'to do' can function without lexical meaning to extend a verb phrase in five ways: as a main verb bearing person marking, as a formal verb, as an expletive adjusting syllable count in verse, forming transitive verbs before intransitive verbs, and as a pro-verb avoiding repetition. (Nakagawa 2024: 372) In the main verb usage of ki, personal affixes are attached to ki rather than the preceding verb, treating the preceding intransitive verb syntactically as a nominal object of ki. (Nakagawa 2024: 372) In Saru Ainu, an intransitive verb cannot directly take a personal affix when followed by the adverbial particle ka to form a verb phrase, requiring personal marking to appear on ki instead. (Nakagawa 2024: 373) When the verb preceding ki in the main-verb construction is transitive, its object noun phrase is normally expressed, resulting in an arity of +1 (intransitive equivalent) that can be nominalized. (Nakagawa 2024: 373) In the formal verb usage of ki, personal affixes occur on the main verb rather than on ki, and ki is inserted to restore a well-formed verb phrase when particles or other elements intervene. (Nakagawa 2024: 373) The main verb usage (1) and formal verb usage (2) of ki have little semantic difference, and in third-person clauses without personal affixes they cannot be distinguished from each other. (Nakagawa 2024: 374) In the pro-verb use of ki, ki is used to avoid repeating a verb that appeared in a preceding clause or sentence. (Nakagawa 2024: 377) In the formal-verb use of ki (following ka), ki cannot be replaced by a repetition of the preceding verb stem. (Nakagawa 2024: 378) Especially in verse, expressions that are grammatically well-formed as 'intransitive verb + person affix' are frequently split into two lines by detaching the verb from the person marker and transferring the person affix onto the light verb ki. (Nakagawa 2024: 599) In the separation of verb and person affix with ki, not only a single verb or verb phrase but also verbs forming a parallel couplet can be received collectively by ki. (Nakagawa 2024: 600) While the periphrastic construction with ci- and ekarkar is restricted to transitive verbs following ci-, the separation of verb and person marker with ki basically applies to one-place (intransitive) verbs. (Nakagawa 2024: 600) A transitive verb can also precede ki when its object is overtly specified, making the whole phrase equivalent to a one-place verb that can be treated as a nominal object of ki. (Nakagawa 2024: 600) The restrictive postposition ka is often interpolated between the main verb and ki to strengthen emphasis. (Refsing 1986: 208) In the assertive auxiliary construction with ki, the pronominal affix can attach to ki instead of the main verb, or both the main verb and ki can bear the affix. (Refsing 1986: 211) When the restrictive postposition ka is interpolated between the main verb and the assertive auxiliary ki, the pronominal affix always attaches to the main verb. (Refsing 1986: 211) The assertive auxiliary ki primarily affects the verb expression of which it forms a part, whereas assertive sentence-final forms evaluate the entire sentence as a unit. (Refsing 1986: 211) Although ki 'do' is fundamentally a lexical verb, it is used as an auxiliary verb when an adverbial auxiliary particle is placed after a person-inflected verb form. (Satō 2008: 83) The verb ki 'do' can be used like an auxiliary verb without substantive meaning to adjust meter and ease singing. (proposed in Satō 2008: 287) The verb ki 'to do' is used to mean 'to do so', referring back to preceding content. (Satō 2008: 297) Because ki is an auxiliary verb converted from a verb, it has higher independence than ordinary auxiliaries and can take a verb in a preceding sentence as its antecedent even if not immediately adjacent. (proposed in Satō 2008: 297) The auxiliary verb ki 'to do' is used to adjust the rhythm/meter. (Satō 2008: 301)
Ki, somo ki, and clause linkage
Which connective follows stative and negated action predicates in clause linkage?
Verbs of directed movement can function as directional auxiliaries to action verbs via the interpolation of the coordinator wa. (Refsing 1986) The directional auxiliary pair wa ek / wa arki expresses motion towards the speaker, whereas wa oman / wa paye expresses motion away from the speaker. (Refsing 1986) Other directed motion verbs such as san 'descend' and yan 'land' can also be used as directional auxiliaries. (Refsing 1986) The combination wa inu functions as an auxiliary construction expressing tentative meaning ('to try doing'). (Satō 2008: 326, 368) The pair verb construction wa kor-e expresses benefactive meaning. (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) The pair verb construction wa anu/ari expresses preparatory aspect ('do in advance'). (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) The pair verb construction wa inkar/inu expresses tentative meaning ('try doing'). (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) The pair verb constructions wa ek/arki and wa arki/paye express motion events corresponding to Japanese -te kuru ('come doing') and -te iku ('go doing'). (Bugaeva 2012: 494–495) The auxiliary construction wa ek can also express the onset of an action or event with inchoative meaning. (Refsing 1986)
Ne as copular support
How does the copula 'ne' behave as a transitive verb, and which arguments does it index?
Ijäs and the learner-grammar claims
In the learner grammar, how are negation and auxiliary-like meanings expressed with independent verbs, and where does the person marker appear?
Analytical boundaries
How is the support-verb system distinguished from the verb word, and where do valency derivations apply?
Auxiliary verbs do not take personal affixes. (Satō 2008: 89, 297) In auxiliary verb constructions, nominative personal affixes attach to the auxiliary verbs. (Nakagawa 2024: 450) Auxiliary verbs always follow notional verbs, generally originate from lexical verbs, and most form a single accented phonological unit with the preceding verb. (Bugaeva 2012: 492–493) In auxiliary verb constructions, only the notional verb takes pronominal affixes, while auxiliaries remain unmarked. (Bugaeva 2012: 492–493) Verbs expressing Aktionsart, ability, and knowledge, such as okere 'finish', tunas 'fast', and eramiskari 'not know', allow insertion of the emphatic particle ka and other elements when functioning as auxiliaries. (Bugaeva 2012: 492–493) In the construction where a nominalized verb is followed by the auxiliary verb ekarkar, Class I verbs take the prefix chi-. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) Auxiliary verbs (aux) attach after verbs and add meanings such as possibility, conjecture, desire, assertion, degree, tense, and aspect. (Murasaki 2025: 93) When an auxiliary verb follows a main-verb predicate, it is connected to the main verb with the conjunctive particle wa. (Nakagawa 2024: 339) In dialects such as Saru, tek is an auxiliary verb (rather than a conjunctive particle) used to express temporary or instantaneous actions such as doing something briefly or quickly. (Nakagawa 2024: 449) Auxiliary verbs in Ainu are placed after a verb phrase in the frame [VP wa + Verb], adding auxiliary meanings such as aspect or attempt. (Nakagawa 2024: 450) The main auxiliary verb constructions with wa include wa isam ('-te shimau, something disappears'), wa okere ('-te shimau, exhaust action to end'), wa anu ('-te oku, leave something'), wa inkar ('-te miru, attempt visually verifiable action'), wa inu ('-te miru, attempt visually non-verifiable action'), and wa kore ('-te kureru, do for another'). (Nakagawa 2024: 450) Auxiliary verbs in the wa construction differ from verbs in ordinary wa-connected independent clauses in that they express meanings distinct from when used independently. (Nakagawa 2024: 450) When used alone, isam means that the entity referred to by the subject does not exist or ceases to exist, but in wa isam it can also indicate entering completely into a state (such as sleep) without the entity disappearing. (Nakagawa 2024: 450) Auxiliary verb constructions do not form a single VP containing the preceding verb as main verb, but rather form a larger VP in which the auxiliary verb's VP is joined to the preceding VP via wa: [[[Main Verb] VP] wa [Auxiliary Verb] VP]. (Nakagawa 2024: 451) The auxiliary verb construction wa inu expresses trying an action when the outcome is not verified visually, such as in mental reflection, taste, or tactile sensation. (Nakagawa 2024: 454) The single three-place verb kore expresses all giving-and-receiving events in Ainu regardless of speaker perspective, and as an auxiliary verb it expresses performing an action for someone else's sake. (Nakagawa 2024: 455) When wa kore is used in requests ('please do...'), it takes an imperative form and takes only an object personal prefix such as en= or un=. (Nakagawa 2024: 455) Only forms that can be separated from the verb by the interpolation of verb suffixes and/or a pronominal suffix qualify as verb auxiliaries. (Refsing 1986: 79) Auxiliary verbs in Ainu, unlike full verbs, do not take person marking. (Satō 2025) The auxiliary verb rusuy 'to want' can morphologically incorporate an intransitive verb to form a single word. (Satō 2025) Auxiliary verb constructions in Ainu can be analyzed as a type of pseudo-incorporation. (proposed in Satō 2025) An auxiliary follows the verb in Ainu. (Shibatani 1990: 24) Auxiliary verbs are generally not marked by personal affixes, which attach to the main verbs instead. (Shibatani 1990) When easkay 'can (do)' and eaykap 'can't (do)' function as main verbs they take personal affixes, whereas in their auxiliary function they do not. (Shibatani 1990) In the Sakhalin dialect, an informant reported that it is better to attach personal affixes to both the main and auxiliary verbs with easkay and eaykap, while attaching personal affixes to only one is characterized as sloppy speech. (reported in Shibatani 1990) Auxiliaries that have completely grammaticalized from main verbs do not take personal affixes, whereas those in the process of becoming auxiliaries may or may not take them. (proposed in Shibatani 1990) When -hci attaches to an auxiliary verb following a main verb in Karafuto Ainu, it does not attach to the main verb. (Tangiku 2022: 9.6)