Present progressive tense-aspect Ex. 6 –9

64 Positional Words Examples 1. An mas kunchi. ‗I am sitting eating.‘

2. An madun kobzhi.

‗I am sitting drinking.‘

3. An mas tuji.

‗I am sitting cooking.‘ 6.4.2.2 Activepassive involvement in present progressive tense A Kuna speaker often makes a distinction between a person actively engaging in an action, versus someone who is passively involved in an action. If the speaker is focusing on the idea that the person is actively or passively involved in an action, rather than on the action itself, the positional verbs nai and chi are used as present progressive suffixes. The suffix -nai ‗hangingsuspended‘ is used to indicate that a person is actively involved in an action. The actor may be standing, sitting or lying, but he is actively involved. Examples 1. An mol maknai. ‗I am actively sitting sewing a blouse.‘ 2. Machi karro nudanai. ‗The boy is actively lying down underneath fixing a car.‘ The present progressive tense suffix -chi is used if an actor is passively involved in an action, regardless of a standing, sitting, or lying position. If, for example, a woman is standing passively watching food cook, but is not stirring it, or doing anything to the fire, a Kuna speaker would use the present progressive suffix -chi-zhi-ji. Or, if a man is lying under a car, passively looking at it, but he is not actively involved in doing anything, the present progressive suffix -chi-zhi-ji could be used. Examples 1. Ome mas tuji. ‗The woman is passively possibly standing cooking food.‘ 2. Tule karro takchi. ‗The man is passively possibly lying underneath looking at a car.‘ 3. An aros takchi. ‗I am passively possibly standing looking at the rice.‘ 6.4.2.3 Temporary action sense of -gwis-kwis The temporary nature of an action in progress can be indicated by using -gwis-kwis in a secondary sense. In this case the suffix -gwis-kwis 26 is added to the short form of the verb stem. Examples 1. An nuskan takkwis. ‗I am looking after the children for the moment.‘ 2. An itigin meggwis. ‗I am living here temporarily.‘ Exercise 6 . Present progressive aspect frame drill The teacher says Sentence 1 and the student repeats it; the teacher says Sentence 2 and the student repeats it, etc. This exercise should be repeated several times. Example Teacher: An ua kunnai. Student: An ua kunnai. 1. An ua kunnai. ‗I‘m eating fish.‘ 2. An ua maknai. ‗I‘m spearing fish.‘ 3. An ua chwanai. ‗I‘m catching fish.‘ 4. An karta takchi. ‗I‘m just sitting looking atreading a letter.‘ 5. An karta nermaji. ‗I‘m just sitting writing a letter.‘ 6. Machi kammai. ‗The boy lies sleeping.‘ 7. Machi atamai. ‗The boy lies awake.‘ 8. Machi ullukumai. ‗The boy lies resting.‘ 26 purkwis ‗died‘ and nakwis ‗to ascendgo up‘ are not derived in this way.