Knowledge base · Part XIV — Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Modality · this topic as a network

108. Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Modality: Overview

How do tense, aspect, mood, and modality combine in the verbal system, and which categories are expressed optionally?

18 sentences from 19 sources · every sentence names the pages it rests on

Tenselessness and the periphrastic architecture

What grammatical categories does the finite verb express, and are they obligatory or optional?

Grammatical tense does not exist as a grammatical category in Ainu, which lacks morphological markers for past, present, or future tense. (Nakagawa 2024: 434, Refsing 1986: 191, Shibatani 1990: 18, Bugaeva 2008) Ainu possesses auxiliary verb collocations formed by attaching a conjunctive particle to a verb followed by an auxiliary verb such as 'an or kara to express aspectual meanings like continuation or completion. (Murasaki 2025: 33) Auxiliary verbs and auxiliary verb collocations integrate with a verb without changing its function as a verb clause, functioning to add subjective meanings such as aspect and mood (potentiality, conjecture, desire, assertion, degree, completion). (Murasaki 2025: 36) Aspect and evidentiality are not obligatory grammatical categories in Ainu. (Takahashi 2022: 18.1)

Time reference without tense

What resources, apart from tense, does the language use to locate events in time?

The plain verbal form of an action or process verb is typically translated as a simple past tense expression. (Shibatani 1990: 18)

sine ancikar ne wa ek=an kusu ne na

one night COP CONJ come=4.S PURP COP FIN

‘After one night, I will come.’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

Lexical aspect and the existential-aspect core

How does lexical aspect condition the aspectual frames a verb enters, and what Aktionsart suffixes exist?

Ainu possesses well-developed aspectual expressions, marking how an action unfolds in time rather than its relative temporal location with respect to the speech time. (Nakagawa 2024: 437) The imperfective aspect describes a process coextensive with or exceeding the speaker's temporal frame, continuing before and beyond that temporal area. (Refsing 1986: 192) The uncompleted aspect indicates simultaneity between a process and the temporal frame maintained by the speaker. (Refsing 1986: 195) In Ainu, aspect is basically expressed by complex predicates made up of combinations of the conjunctive particles kor and wa and the existential verb an/oka(y). (Takahashi 2022: 18.2) In most dialects of Ainu, there is a contrast between progressive aspect and resultative aspect. (Takahashi 2022: 18.2) In Ainu, the opposition between perfective and imperfective aspects is unclear. (Yoshikawa 2022: 19.5)

kesto kesto iki=an kor an=an

every.day every.day do=4.S while exist=4.S

‘I went on living, doing this day after day.’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

yuk as wa an na

deer stand CONJ exist FIN

‘A deer is standing.’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

Completion, anteriority, and the admirative

How is completion or anteriority expressed, and what functions does the auxiliary derived from 'sit' carry?

The auxiliary aan (plural rokoka) indicates that at a certain point, the speaker realized what had occurred prior to that point ('it turned out that...'). (Nakagawa 2024: 307) The auxiliary aan varies across dialects, appearing as anan in Chitose, awan in Horobetsu and Tokachi, and hawan in Tokachi; the plural rokoka appears as rokokay in Horobetsu and Chitose, as well as before pe in Saru. (Nakagawa 2024: 307) In dialects such as Chitose, anan and its plural form rokoka(y) can be combined together as rokoka anan without any difference in meaning from anan alone. (Nakagawa 2024: 307) The auxiliary nisa indicates in Tamura (1960) that an action was completed in the immediate past, but this morpheme or any corresponding form does not appear to exist in the Shizunai dialect. (Refsing 1986: 192)

tane pakno a=e=tumam wa hotke=an a korka

now until 4.A=2SG.O=embrace CONJ lie.down=4.S PFV although

‘Until now I had held you in my arms and lain down, but —’

Nakagawa 2024: 305 · SAR

mokor=an aan ru-we ne akusu

sleep=4.S PRF.MIR track-POSS COP when

‘when it turned out that I had fallen asleep,’

Biratori Ainu oral literature 1969 · SAR

The modal field

How are epistemic, deontic, and ability modal meanings distributed across different clause positions?

The auxiliary construction ~ hV ne'an expresses that something is properly or securely done ('is properly doing'). (Murasaki 2025: 94) The auxiliary construction ka 'esinka expresses difficulty in doing something ('hard to ~'). (Murasaki 2025: 94)

nani pirka nankor

soon be.good probably

‘It will probably get better soon.’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

aoka ka sikunu=an easkay pe ne na

we even survive=4.S be.able NMLZ COP FIN

‘We too can survive.’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

soyne=an ka eaykap kusu

go.out=4.S even be.unable because

‘because I cannot go outside,’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

e=e yakka pirka

2SG.A=eat even.if be.good

‘You may eat it.’

Ijäs 2023 · constructed

Directive and hortative mood

How are commands and requests formed for singular versus plural or polite addressees?

hetak pusu wa inkar

come.on dig CONJ look

‘Come on, dig it up and look!’

Nakagawa 2024: 422 · CHI

iteki ape sam ta ek

PROH fire side LOC come

‘Do not come near the fire!’

Nakagawa 2024: 424 · SAR

ney ta ka kuruma ani mosir epitta payoka=an wa inkar=an ro

when LOC even car INS land throughout go.around=4.S CONJ look=4.S HORT

‘Someday let us travel around the whole country by car and see it.’

Nakagawa 2024: 333 · SAR

Boundaries with evidentiality, negation, and clause linkage

How do aspect forms interact with evidentiality, negation, and clause linkage?

The grammatical dependency relation in Ainu negative subordinate clauses can be analyzed as aspect being dependent on negation. (proposed in Takahashi 2022: 18.5)