More on the aspectual /wa-/

Colonial Valley Zapotec has two aspectual prefixes, /na-/  and ­/wa-/ (usually spelled ) which introduce verbs denoting states, as in the following passages:

       

‎‎Notice that in these examples, /wa-/ is the only prefix on the root.  It's used in place of another aspectual prefix, so I call this 'aspectual /wa-/'.  More examples in the following:

Contrast the aspectual /wa-/ with the form seen in (3) where /wa-/ precedes another aspect prefix:

I wrote the following in a recent abstract:

As can be seen in these examples, /wa-/ may be the only aspect marker on a predicate (which I label 'aspectual /wa-/') or it may precede another aspectual marker (as in example 3).  The second type of /wa-/ I label 'pre-aspectual /wa-/'. These examples illustrate three generalizations about the distribution of /na-/ and aspectual /wa-/ a.)    /wa-/ asserts an extended state; b.) /na-/ is the neutral form of the affix; it is used when an extended state is not asserted; c.) /na-/ is always found when topical or focal phrases appear in preverbal position.

In example (1), the dirtiness and stickness of tallow are inherent, extended states, and thus these predicates use the /wa-/ prefix.  Similarly in (2), God's existence is an extended state, and the predicate 'exist' uses the /wa-/ prefix. According to the text in (2), the wick is clean and white, but the wick may be polluted by contact with the tallow.  Cleanliness and whiteness are not necessarily extended states (since the clean may become dirty) and the predicates 'white' and 'clean' are marked with /na-/. 

Thus these examples illustrate generalizations (a) and (b).  Generalization (c) is illustrated in example (1) in passages like  'it is dirty'. /wa-/ is used on the first predicate to indicate an extended state, but /na-/ appears on the verb  /-aca/ 'be' because of the focussed position of oa-chaba.  The focussed/non-focussed contrast can also be seen in the non-focussed (2) oa-tij Dios  'God exists' vs focussed (3) tobi-ci D(ios) na-tij  'only one God exists'.

            Pre-aspectual /wa-/ is considerably less frequent, but the following generalizations about its use are possible:

a.)    /wa-/ may appear before the /t-/ 'imperfective', and /na-/ 'stative' aspects, b.) /wa-/ before the imperfective is limited to verbs of speech and cognition such as 'believe', 'want', and 'confess' and appears to indicate an extended cognitive state or a speech act preceded by an extended cognitive state, c.) /wa-/ before stative /na-/ is the least frequent combination, limited to the verbs /-aca/ 'be' and /-aan/ 'know', where it seems to show extended states.         



An interesting addition that I only recently noticed -- the distribution of aspectual and pre-aspectual /wa-/ seems to vary according to the date of the publication.   Levanto (1732) seems to show no clear examples of aspectual /wa-/  (outside the fixed word hualiica 'truly'), but it has about 80 instances of pre-aspectual /wa-/.

Of these cases of pre-aspectual, about 20 are with the verb 'believe',   where hua-ri-ieliilachi-a ' I believe'  is a standard way to express religious belief.
          

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[1] Some statives (of positional verbs) also appear with no prefix (Lillehaugen and Foreman 2013).