Verbs can be categorized into a basic four-way distinction : a. Situations, b. Events, c. Processes and d. Actions. This tradition that can be traced back to Aristotle. Vendler (1967) was the first one to identify four classes of verbs according to
‘Aktionsarf (German for ‘form of action’) : Activities, States, Achievements and
Accomplishments. He identified these verb classes on the basis o f the restriction on their co-occurrence with adverbials and aspects. Dowty (1979) refined Vendler’s grammatical tests and later they were further refined by VanValin and his co-workers in the context of RRG. It was then that Causatives and Semelfactives were included.
The four-way distinction is marked by the three features [+/—static], [+ /- punctual] and [+/—telic]. These notions are primitives for defining the concepts of
Aktionsart.
a. State [+static],[-telic], [-punctual] b. Activity [-static], [—telic], [-punctual] c. Accomplishment [-static],[+telic], [-punctual] d. Achievement [-static], [+telic],[+punctual]
The feature [h-/—static] markes the distinction between something ‘happening’ and the state of ‘non-happening’. It makes a differentiation between predicates that can be used to answer the question ‘what happened?’ and those that cannot be used in this way. The feature [+/-telic] has to do with whether an event procedes to a terminal point or not. The final feature [+/-punctual] distinguishes between events that happen instantaneously and those that take place over a certain period of time.
In order to indentify the Aktionsart class o f a verb, various grammatical test have been suggested and these tests necessarily have to be different for different languages. I will only explain the tests which are useful and useable in Daai.
The following examples show clauses which are typical for the specific
Aktionsart classes in Daai.
Activity
(8 8) Thang sun khuui:-khoo:m-kti. Thang DEM work=NON.FUT ‘Thang works/worked.’
State - unchangable
(8 9 ) Ui:=a hleei: sun ngshing-ngte=kti.
dog=GEN lie DEM be.evident=NON.FUT T h e lie of the dog is evid en t.’
State - changeable (9 0 ) Ling sun dam=kti
Ling DEM lazy=NON.FUT ‘Ling is lazy.’
Accomplishment (9 1 ) Tui:-long kadi:=kti.
w ater-stream dry.up=NON.FUT T h e stream dried up.’
Active Accomplishment
(9 2 ) Yok sun thi:ng-pa:m-a kaai-kti.
Yok DEM tree-top=LOC climb=NON.FUT ‘Yok climbed to the top of the tree.’
Causative Accomplishment
(9 3 ) Be-be=noh meh ah mkeih.
older.brother=ERG m eat S.a r:3s CAUS.dry T h e older brother dried the m e a t.’
Achievement (94) She-yiii bat=kti.
c o w -r o p e break=NON.FUT
T h e co w rope (i.e or tying the cow ) broke.’
Causative Achievement
(95) Ling=noh she-yiii ah kbat.
Ling=ERG co w -r o p e S.AGR:3s CAUS.break ‘Ling broke th e cow rope.'
Semelfactive
(96) Naai=noh kshoh kkhok=kti.
mother=ERG d oor knock=NON.FUT ‘Mother knocked at the door.
4.2.4.1 Tests to identify verb classes according to Aktionsart
Manner adverbs
Verbs have been tested for co-occurrence with different manner adverbs and the manner adverb ‘quickly’ has been found most useful as it can occur with a wide range of verbs. The example below shows akjaa:ng with the activity verb ei ‘eat’.
(97) Paai=noh akjaa:ng=a buh ei=kti.
father=ERG quickly=CF rice eat—NON.FUT ‘F ather ate q u ic k ly .’
akjaam g cannot occur with states as shown in (98).
(98) Mnaai (*akjaa:ng=a) nghmoong=kti.
Mnaai quickly=CF fo o lis h ^NON.FUT ‘Mnaai w a s (quickly) foolish.’
Activities and subtypes of accomplishments oc-occur with akjaa:ng, whereas subtypes of states and achievements cannot co-occur with manner adverbs.
Temporal duration
Not all expressions for temporal duration are useable in Daai. The expression naji mat ‘one hour’ is generally usable, although naji ‘hour’ is a loanword from Burmese. The example (99) shows naji mat with a changeable state verb.
(99) Thang ah lu=noh naji mat mshou:-ei=kti
T h an g p o s s:3s head=ERG hour o n e hurt—n o n .fu t
‘His head hurt Thang for an hour.’ (i.e Thang had h e a d a c h e for an hour)
Temporal durations like naji m at do not co-occur with achievements as shown in (100).
(1 0 0) Yo-puum (*naji mat) ngbou=kti bamboo-pole hour one split=kti. T h e bam b oo pole split (for an hour).’
The temporal duration naji mat can co-occur with activities, changeable states and all subtypes of accomplishments. It cannot occur with unchangeable states. It can also not occur with achievements that express one single event. However, it can occur with achievements if the achievement is viewed as an iterative event. The example (100) above can be interpreted with the meaning that many different bamboo poles kept on splitting for an hour.
Progressive aspect
The final progressive aspect ha:m ‘still’ occurs with a wide variety of verbs and has been found useful for the identification of Aktionsart types. In (101) is an example with an active accomplishment mei: shi ‘bum the swidden’.
(101) Mei: ah-nih shi ha:m=kti=e.
fire S.AGR:3d u/pl b u m ASP:prog=NON.FUT T h e are still burning the sw id d en .’
The aspectual ha:m cannot occur with unchangeable state verbs as in (102).
(102) Phyat-thi.ng sun hlting (*ha:m)=kti.
phyat tree DEM h igh ASP:prog=NON.FUT T h e Phyat tree is (still) high'
The progressive aspect co-occurs with activities, changeable states and all types of accomplishments. It cannot occur with unchangeable states and any types of achievements.
The inceptive aspectual lo
The tests with lo are the most interesting ones since they are language specific for Daai. Apart from its function as an inceptive aspectual with the meaning ‘to start V-ing’ lo has still other functions and all verb types can occur with a specific function of lo. Example (103) shows lo with an activity.
(103) Je sun do.ng lo-kti.
hare DEM run ASP:inc=NON.FUT T h e hare started to run.’
In (104) we see lo with a state verb. In this context lo is not an inceptive aspectual but an auxiliary with the meaning ‘become’ and indicates a change of state. It has also changed the state verb into an accomplishment.
(104) Saang-phung sun dam lo=kti.
paddy-plant DEM b ig AUX:become=NON.FUT T h e paddy plant had b e c o m e big.'
When lo combines with achievements, it indicates that an event is finished, just now, in the very recent past.
(105) Kah tui:=oo:k ak lo=kti.
POSS:Is water-container break A UX:completed=NON.FUT ‘My w ater bottle broke just now! (i.e while I w a s looking on ).’
Summary
The Figure 4.1 below gives an overview of the result of the tests that have been described in this section.
Figure 4.1: T ests for the Identification of Verb C lasse s > re £ re re re £ O) re c re re o> £O c re c £ 3 V 3 3 3m 3 w a E o o o re akjaa:ng-a ("quickly") y e s no no y e s no no
naji m at ("one hour") y e s no y e s y e s no no
naji m at ("one hour")-
iterative y e s no no y e s y e s y e s
ha:m ("still", PROG) y e s no y e s y e s no no
lo ("start") y e s no no y e s no no
lo ("become") no y e s y e s no no no
lo ("completed") no no no no y e s y e s