Tense, Aspect and Mood
Sentences in Kokanu in the basic form with just a subject and action can occur at any time (tense), can be completed or incomplete (aspect), and can be real or wished/requested (mood). Within the surrounding context of a sentence, these details are often understood implicitly. If the situation requires you to specify, you can use some clarifying words to reach different types of tense, aspect and mood. This article will dive into all three to give you the tools to express many of the different types in Kokanu.
Tense
A verb's tense tells you the position in time that the action occurred from the perspective of the speaker/writer. The main tenses are considered to be past, present and future. Some languages group present with either past or future. Kokanu sentences are considered tenseless and often times you can determine the tense through context, but you can clarify by using these modifiers in the verb clause.
Past
Use the word minuli in a verb clause to indicate that the action occurred "previously":
mi le tun minuli 'I did (it)' (lit. I do previously)
Present
Use the word iputu in a verb clause to indicate that the action occurred "currently":
mi le tun iputu 'I do (it)' (lit. I do currently)
Future
Use the word putuci in a verb clause to indicate that the action occurs "next":
mi le tun putuci 'I will do (it)' (lit. I do next(ly))
Aspect
A verb's aspect tells you the flow of time during which the action occurred from the perspective of the speaker/writer. The main categories of aspect are perfective and imperfective. A perfective aspect looks at an action or state as being completed or whole (without detail of the internal flow of the event). An imperfective aspect looks at an action or state as being in an unfinished or partial state (focusing on internal detail of the flow of the event instead of the event as a whole). This may seem confusing and in fact some languages group aspect and tense together. Kokanu sentences are fundamentally aspectless which means there is no special changes that you make to a verb to indicate the aspect. Instead, Kokanu encourages you to try to rely on context, often times it is all that is needed for your readers/listeners to understand your intended aspect. If that's not enough, Kokanu does offer some clarifying words that can be used adverbially in a way that informs the aspect of the sentence.
In Progress (Continuous)
This imperfective aspect expresses actions or states that are incomplete and still in progress. Some languages consider this aspect to mean current state whereas progressive aspect denotes current action. In other languages, these are part of the same aspect. Use the word conca in a verb clause to indicate that an action or state is "ongoing":
mi le makan conca "I am eating"
ja le lo picijo conca minuli je wiki niju "They were running fast"
Currently Happening (Progressive)
This imperfective aspect expresses actions or states that are incomplete and are in progress at the present moment. Use the words conca and iputu in a verb clause to indicate that the action or state is "currently ongoing":
mi le pata conca iputu "I am currently reading"
Starting (Inceptive/Ingressive)
This imperfective aspect expresses actions that are incomplete and just beginning. Use the word tepu in a verb clause to indicate that the action is "starting":
mi le lo wiki tepu "I started to run"
Becoming (Inchoative)
This imperfective aspect expresses states that are just starting to be. Use the verb pijen modified by tepu, and include your new state as the theme (direct object) of the verb to indicate that the state is "starting":
inpali le pijen tepu in kula "The flowers started to bloom"
Stopping (Cessative)
This imperfective aspect refers to the end of an action or a state. It is the inverse of the inchoative aspect. Use the modifier konje to indicate that the state or action is "stopping" or "finishing".
pawo le kota konje in tenkin "The dog stopped barking"
Limited (Delimitative/Durative)
This imperfective aspect is used to describe to a situation that lasts for a limited amount of time. Use the ke thematic relation as "until" and konje with a quantity of time to indicate that the action has a specific duration the goes until the ending. Alternatively, you could use the sun thematic relation as "starting from" and tepu with a quantity of time for the opposite effect.
mi le patun un le kota ke konje je jati ten "I stayed and talked for some time" (lit. I am still and talking until the end of some time)
niju mi le makan sun tepu je ha osa "We've been eating for two hours" (lit. Many of us are eating from the beginning of two hours)
Repetition (Iterative)
This imperfective aspect describes the repetition of an event observed from the perspective of a single occasion within the repetition. There's not a clear-cut way to formulate this aspect in Kokanu but you can use je wan cunpu "of one repetition" or a hon context clause to give sentences a similar meaning.
ja le pa hapijo je wan cunpu an kumon je niwa "He knocked one time on the door"
Distributive
This imperfective aspect describes an event that is being applied to a group of entities one after another. It can be an experiencer of a non-base verb or the object of a base verb (patient/theme/stimulus). In Kokanu, you would use a wija clause to describe the manner of the event which can include a description of a distributive action.
ja le kota ke non nin wija te ke wan nin an wan ten "He talks to the group, one person at a time"