Chapter 15: States, Results, and Ongoing Actions

Starting point#

Ana comes in from the market late in the afternoon. It has started to rain.

Count the predicates that are not verbs in the ordinary sense: at ch'eqël, in kosinäq, kotz'öl, warinäq, e b'enäq. Each describes a state, and each takes a Set B pronoun in front of it, the way adjectives did in Chapter 3.

How it works#

Events and states#

A verb with an aspect prefix reports an event: xwär "he slept / fell asleep", xb'e "she went", xikos "I got tired". Very often, though, what you want to say is the state that results from an event: "he is asleep", "she is gone", "I am tired". English mixes these up with the verb "to be" and a participle. Kaqchikel keeps them apart. Events get a verb with aspect; states get a non-verbal predicate, a word that acts as the sentence's predicate without aspect prefixes and takes its subject as a free-standing Set B pronoun (in, at, Ø, öj, ïx, e). You met this pattern with nouns and adjectives in Chapter 3 (in tijonel "I am a teacher", at nim "you are big"). This chapter adds three new families of non-verbal predicate: perfects of intransitive verbs, perfects of transitive verbs, and positional statives.

The source's grammar summary notes that, besides its aspect prefixes, Kaqchikel has two suffixes that signal the status of an action: one marks a completed action whose result persists, the other a continuing condition. The perfect suffixes below are the first of those; the positional stative is the second.

The intransitive perfect: -inäq / -näq#

Take an intransitive stem and add -inäq (after a consonant) or -näq (after a vowel). The result is a word meaning "having X-ed", "in the state of having X-ed". Grammarians call this a perfect or resultative; it is close to an English past participle used as an adjective ("gone", "asleep", "tired", "lost"). Here is one fully worked example:

in  kos-inäq
1sB tire-PERF
"I am tired"

No aspect prefix, no verbal Set B prefix: the subject is the free pronoun in, and the stem carries the suffix. The rule for building the suffix is short: a linking i after a consonant, none after a vowel, and the lax root vowel tenses because it is no longer in the last syllable.

Here is the full set of forms you will meet in this chapter:

Three observations explain the shapes you see.

1. The suffix is really -näq; the i before it is a linking vowel that appears after a consonant (kos-i-näq) and is absent after a vowel (b'e-näq). Many speakers drop the linking vowel in fast speech, which gives the doublets the glossary lists: kosnäq, kamnaq, sachnäq, nojnäq. Either form is correct; this book writes the fuller -inäq.
2. The root vowel tenses because it is no longer in the last syllable (-käm gives kam-inäq, -säch gives sach-inäq, -wär gives war-inäq): the lax-vowel rule from Chapter 1 again.
3. A stem ending in a vowel may pick up a consonant before the suffix: ik'o becomes ik'ow-inäq, wär shows up as wart-inäq beside war-inäq. Learn such forms from the glossary as you meet them.

One small aside: sachinäq "lost" is built on sach, a special stem of -säch "lose" that means "get lost" rather than "lose". That stem is a passive, and you will meet passives properly in Chapter 17; for now, simply learn sachinäq as the word for "lost".

A perfect is a non-verbal predicate, so it takes the free Set B pronouns and the plural marker e:

Negation uses the man ... ta frame around the predicate and its pronoun, exactly as with adjectives: Man in kosinäq ta "I'm not tired"; Man e b'enäq ta "They haven't gone". A perfect can also be possessed like a noun: the glossary gives rukaminaq "his dead (relative)", where ru- is Set A in its possessive role.

The contrast between event and state is sharp:

The transitive perfect: Set A + stem + -on#

For a transitive verb, "I have done it, I have seen it" is formed with the stem plus -on (root transitives) or -Vn (derived transitives in -Vj, which swap their final j for n), and the subject is marked with Set A. There is no aspect prefix. One fully worked example:

nu-tz'et-on
1sA-see-PERF
"I have seen it"

The rule is the same throughout: root transitive takes the stem plus -on with the root vowel tensed; a derived transitive turns its final -j into -n.

The full set:

Here is the piece of grammar that makes this form feel different from every verb you have learned. Because the perfect has no aspect prefix, the Set A markers appear in the shapes they have on nouns, not the shapes they have after an aspect prefix: 1st singular is nu- before a consonant and w- before a vowel (as in nupo't "my blouse", wochoch "my house"), and 3rd singular keeps its r: ru-, r-. Compare:

The reason is historical and sensible: the perfect is a noun-like form, a possessed participle ("my having-seen-it"), so it is possessed the way nouns are. That is the answer to the Try it first box: wetaman uses the noun shapes, which is why the first person is w- and not inw-. Here is the paradigm of "know" with two gaps and the paradigm of "do" with three; fill them in (answers under Answers Partial table), then check against the full tables that follow.

The whole paradigm of wetaman "I know", which the source gives in its third lesson, shows the possessive set in full:

Wetaman is the most frequent perfect in the language, and it is worth pausing on it. Literally it is "I have found out", the perfect of -etamaj "learn, find out"; since having learned something is knowing it, the perfect is how Kaqchikel says "know". Its object follows as usual: Wetaman ruwäch ri achin "I know the man" (literally "I know his face"), Man wetaman ta "I don't know", ¿La awetaman akuchi' k'o wi? "Do you know where it is?".

The same set appears with -b'än:

The greeting ¿La ütz ab'anon? is "Have you done well?", used as "How are you? / How have you been?"; ¿Achike ab'anon? "What have you done?" is used the same way. Their cousin ¿Achike rub'anon ri q'ij? "What has the day done?" is the standard way to ask about the weather (see below).

Here are typical uses of the transitive perfect with objects and negation:

Two cautions. First, -on is also the antipassive suffix of Chapter 17, and -Vn likewise: yitz'eton "I see (things)" and xojtz'eton "we saw" are antipassives with Set B. The difference is the pronoun set. Set A + stem + -on is the perfect ("I have seen it", with an object); Set B + stem + -on is the antipassive ("I see", no object). Second, the negative of "never" does not need ta: Majun b'ey nutz'eton is the attested pattern, with majun b'ey "never" (literally "no time") carrying the negation on its own.

Positional statives: being in a position or condition#

Chapter 5's reading used tz'uyül "seated" and kotz'öl "lying" in place of k'o to say where someone is. They belong to a large class of roots that the source calls positionals: CVC roots naming positions, shapes and conditions. From a positional root two things can be made that matter here.

The stative (the source's "non-verbal predicate") is root plus a lax copy of the root vowel plus l: tz'uy- gives tz'uyül "seated", pa'- gives pa'äl "standing", kotz'- gives kotz'öl "lying down", jot- gives jotöl "up, high", xuk- gives xukül "kneeling", jup- gives jupül "face down", jaq- gives jaqäl "open", tz'ap- gives tz'apäl "closed", yak- gives yakäl "put away", ch'eq- gives ch'eqël "wet", chup- gives chupül "extinguished", set- gives setël "round". Roots ending in l or r take -an instead: xulan "down, descending", b'olan "cylindrical". (So the answers to the box are jaqäl, pa'äl, chupül.) The stative takes the free Set B pronouns like any non-verbal predicate:

The intransitive verb from the same root adds -e' and means "to get into that position": -tz'uye' "sit down", -pa'e' "stand up", -kotz'e' "lie down", -jote' "go up", -xule' "go down", -xuke' "kneel", -jupe' "lie face down". The source states the division of labor clearly: while you are in the process of assuming the position you use the verb, and once you are in it you must use the stative.

Notice that the stative keeps a lax vowel in its suffix (tz'uyül, kotz'öl) because that syllable is final; the verb tenses the root vowel (tz'uye') because the root is no longer final.

Positionals are rich enough to get their own chapter (Chapter 18, which adds the transitive "seat someone" forms like tz'uyub'a' and the adjectives like tz'uyutz'ik). For now, treat the statives as one more family of non-verbal predicates alongside the perfects.

Ongoing actions: the incompletive, najin, loman#

Kaqchikel has no separate progressive tense. The incompletive (present) covers an action in progress as well as habits and general truths: Ninsik'ij ri wuj "I am reading the book / I read the book", Yesamäj pa juyu' "They are working in the fields". Context and time words do the rest: wakami "now, today" (Wakami yisamäj "Right now I'm working"), jantape' "always" (Jantape' nsamäj "He always works").

There is one clearly attested progressive-like expression: najin jöb' (dialect najin jäb') "it is raining", which the glossary gives as a set phrase and which also appears in the grammar summary in sentences like "if it rains tomorrow" and "even though it is raining". In it najin is the predicate and jöb' "rain" is its subject; the phrase means roughly "rain is under way". The glossary also has a couple of examples in which najin stands before a conjugated verb ("he is suffering it right now") or before an adjective ("it is very cold right now"), so najin can mean "right now, in progress" with other predicates too. The reference grammar and modern texts confirm the pattern well beyond the glossary: najin (often in the shape ntajin, and conjugated: yintajin yinatin "I am bathing") stands before an incompletive verb to make an explicit progressive. The authors' sequel volume leans on it constantly (najin yetzijon "they are talking", najin nimusmüt "it is drizzling") and uses najin jöb' itself (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 53). Recognize it freely; this book still practices only najin jöb'. Intensified, with the regional intensifier tzay and the adverb kan "really", it becomes the source's Kan tzay jöb' najin "it is really pouring".

To say "while" two things go on at once, Kaqchikel uses loman (in some dialects ruloman) between the clauses: Loman yojsamäj, rije' ye'etz'an "While we work, they play" (built on the source's description of loman as the conjunction "while"; the same word is an adverb "so-so, sort of" in other uses). This is covered again in Chapter 22.

Already, still, not yet, no longer, again#

A small set of particles places a state on the timeline. They are frequent, and several appear in the dialogue.

Note that chik and yan can combine: Ch'o'n yan chik (literally "it has been spoken already again") is a leave-taking, "see you later". Note too that the k'a of k'a ... na is the same particle you met as "then, well" in Chapter 13; the meaning "still, until" emerges from its combination with na.

Putting these together with the perfects gives natural conversation:

Weather and conditions#

Weather in Kaqchikel is mostly a matter of existence (k'o "there is", Chapter 5) plus a noun, or a stative, or the perfect question with -b'än:

The last expression is a fixed saying that the source records for sun while it rains; its form is an ordinary incompletive (n-atin "she bathes") with the subject qati't "our grandmother". Feeling cold or hot is expressed with the verb -na' "feel, sense", on the model of ütz ninna' "I like it, I feel it (to be) good": Tew ninna' "I feel cold". The pairing of -na' with tew is attested directly in the authors' sequel volume, which has nuna' tew "he feels cold" and xtiqana' ta tew "we would not feel cold" (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 53), alongside two more cold expressions worth recognizing: nsilïl tew chwe "I feel chilled" (p. 26) and Töq xub'än tew "when it was cold", with -b'än doing the same weather work as in ¿Achike rub'anon ri q'ij? (p. 103). Meq'en is "warm" of things you drink or touch: meq'en ya' "warm water", Meq'en ri kape "The coffee is warm".

Health and body conditions#

Most health talk uses the same building blocks: existence, statives, perfects, and a few intransitive verbs.

Two fever idioms are worth keeping apart: K'o k'atän chrij "there is heat on him, he has a fever" (the k'o of Chapter 5 plus chrij "on him"), which the source's own glossary uses, and Xpe k'atän chwij "a fever came upon me", with the verb -pe "come". Both are attested; use either.

Pattern to notice: nq'axon nujolom puts the body part as the grammatical subject, so "my head hurts" rather than "I have a headache". The verb is intransitive and takes 3sB zero: n-Ø-q'axon. With a plural subject: yeq'axon waqän "my legs hurt" (waqän "my leg(s)", from aqanaj). Chapter 24 expands the body and feelings vocabulary.

A short text: a rainy evening#

Here is Ana's note at the end of the day. Read it once for meaning.

Wakami toq'a' najin jöb'. Yalan tew.
This evening it is raining. It's very cold.
Xiruchäp ri jöb' pa b'ey; roma ri' in ch'eqël.
The rain caught me on the road; that's why I'm wet.
In kosinäq, xa xe man in yawa' ta.
I'm tired, but I'm not sick.
Tz'uyül ri te Ixk'at chuwäch ri q'aq'; nukem jun po't.
Te Ixk'at is sitting in front of the fire; she is weaving a blouse.
Kotz'öl ri ma Kawoq pa ch'at. Warinäq chik, roma yalan xsamäj pa juyu'.
Ma Kawoq is lying on the bed. He's already asleep, because he worked hard in the fields.
E b'enäq ri a Tz'ikin chuqa' ri xta Ixchel Chiq'a'l. Majani yetzolin pe.
Tz'ikin and Ixchel have gone to Comalapa. They haven't come back yet.
K'a k'o na kape; meq'en. Xintij yan ka'i' wäy.
There's still coffee; it's warm. I've already eaten two tortillas.
Tz'apäl ri ruchi' jay roma ri tew.
The door is closed because of the cold.
Majun b'ey nutz'eton jun nimaläj jöb' pa nutinamit.
I have never seen such a big rain in my town.

The idiom xiruchäp ri jöb' "the rain caught me" (literally "the rain grabbed me") is the source's own way of saying you got caught in the rain; x-i-ru-chäp is COMPL-1sB-3sA-grab, with the rain as the grabber.

Patterns at a glance#

Three families of non-verbal predicate (all take in / at / Ø / öj / ïx / e)

Possessive Set A on the transitive perfect

Event vs state

Perfect vs antipassive

Time particles

Vocabulary#

Usage and dialect notes#

• ¿La ütz ab'anon? and ¿Achike ab'anon? are everyday "how are you?" questions alongside ¿La ütz awäch?; answer with Ütz, matyöx or Janila ütz. Do not translate them word for word in your head each time; but do notice that they are perfects, which is why they take a- (possessive Set A), not at-.
• Wetaman means "I know (a fact, a place, a person)". For knowing how to do something, Kaqchikel prefers the verb of ability (Chapter 16). Wetaman ruwäch "I know his/her face" is the idiom for knowing a person.
• Two shapes of the perfect. Both kosinäq and kosnäq, kaminäq and kamnaq, are heard; Tecpán and Comalapa speakers produce both. Write the fuller one until your ear settles.
• Perfects as adjectives. Perfects can stand before a noun like adjectives (kaminäq winäq "a dead person") and can be possessed (rukaminaq). This is another sign of their noun-like nature.
• Perfects are not tied to the present. A perfect names a state without fixing its time; context and time words do that. The authors' sequel volume glosses Man ïn warinäq ta as "I'm not asleep" or "I hadn't slept" as context demands, and lets a perfect describe a future state: he will climb the volcano tomorrow, and kosinäq he will come home (Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela', draft, p. 218). This chapter's English translations use the present because that is the commonest reading, not the only one.
• Statives are not verbs. Do not put n- or x- on tz'uyül; for "she sat down" use the verb xtz'uye', for "she is seated" use tz'uyül.
• najin. Treat najin jöb' as a chunk. You will hear najin before other predicates meaning "right now, in progress"; the source glossary shows only a few such examples, but the authors' sequel uses najin plus an incompletive verb freely, so trust the pattern when you meet it. This book still drills only najin jöb'.

Pitfalls#

1. "I'm tired" is in kosinäq, not a past tense: xikos means "I got tired".
2. "He's gone" is b'enäq, not xb'e (which is "he went").
3. "It's raining" is najin jöb' or k'o jöb', with no verb "to be" and no word for "it".
4. "I know" is wetaman, never an incompletive of -etamaj (ninwetamaj means "I am finding out / I learn it").
5. Do not use the verbal Set A on a perfect: "I have seen it" is nutz'eton, not a form in in-; "she has done it" keeps its r: rub'anon.
6. Do not confuse nutz'eton (Set A, "I have seen it") with yitz'eton (Set B, antipassive "I see"); the pronoun set decides.
7. "I'm sitting down" (the act) is yitz'uye'; "I'm seated" (the state) is in tz'uyül. Once you are in the position, the stative is required.

Looking back and ahead#

The perfects and statives of this chapter are non-verbal predicates of the kind you first met in Chapter 3, and they take Set B pronouns for the same reason nouns and adjectives do. The transitive perfect's possessive Set A (nu-, w-, ru-) is the Chapter 4 set, which is what makes wetaman look like a possessed noun. Chapter 16 builds on wetaman to talk about wanting, liking and being able; Chapter 17 returns to the -on suffix in its antipassive role; Chapter 18 develops positionals in full; and Chapter 22 takes up chik, yan, k'a ... na and loman as tools for linking sentences.