Mikp'aatba had no tenses: only aspects.
There are five aspects.
(1, ) The first aspect is an imperfective aspect used when the verb is in progress and has not clear end point. Examples include:
- I am walking on the path.
- I am exploring myself.
- I am ill.
- I hope so.
(2, ) The second aspect is also imperfective, but is used when the verb is in progress and has a clear end point. Consider the example "I am walking to work." Here, "walking" would be in (2) because it has a clear end point: reaching work. Other examples include:
- I am building a bridge.
- I am eating breakfast.
- I am filling my bottle.
The sentence "I study chemistry." could be taken in either aspect. If it takes on (2), the speaker is implying that they are working towards a goal: perhaps graduation with a degree in chemistry, or the completion of a lesson in chemistry. If it takes on (1), the speaker is implying that they have no specific, measurable goal: they could be repeatedly investigating the intricacies of chemistry over several years in order to better grasp the complex concepts, or they could be in this moment reading an article about the atomic structure of iridium. Both cases would translate into English as "I study chemistry." but have nuances of difference.
(3, ) The third aspect is perfective and closely completes aspect (2). It describes an action as a process that has completed. The action took place over a period of time and now has been finished. For instance:
- I built a bridge.
- I have eaten breakfast.
- I filled my bottle.
(4, t) The fourth aspect is also perfective but describes the action as completed in a single point in time. With no process, and no over-time delivery of the completion, examples include:
- I realized the truth.
- I tripped.
- The lights turned on.
- I bought a dog.
- The dog barfed on me.
(5, ) The fifth aspect describes the relationship between two verbs. It is called the Resultive. Verbs in the resultive are always semantically attached to another verb. Their main verb has caused the verb in the Resultive. It has three different nuances of meaning, depending on if the main verb is in a perfective, imperfective, or is also in the Resultive.
The resultive used with a verb in an imperfective is a sort of habitual: This first verb is happening, and the verb in the resultive is the usual response. For instance "It is raining outside: I (wear/am wearing) a coat." "is raining" is some form of imperfective, and "wear" in the resultive would indicate that i always wear a coat when it rains. It's customary. It's a predictable, consistent result. It's a habit, or habitual.
Because it takes on a habitual meaning, the main verb can also be habitual. The sentence above could also be translated as "when it rains outside i wear a coat". It is ambiguous. Speakers simply rely on context to know if it is happening now or not. Habitual simply means that the action occurs repeatedly over a period of time. It does not indicate if the action is occurring in this moment or not.
The second is used with a verb in any perfective, and is also perfective. In the previous example, if the verb had been "it rained", the second part would have been "so i wore a coat." It's not necessarily habitual: it simply describes the verb in the resultive as a completed action that happened because of the first verb. In this sense, the Resultive implies words such as "so" or "therefore".
The Resultive can also be paired with another verb in the Resultive. In this set up, neither of the two verbs are necessarily happening now, have happened, or will happen. The speaker simply wishes to imply that they are dependent on each other. If both "rains" and "wears" were in the Resultive, the sentence would mean, "when it rains, I wear a coat." or "If it rains, I wear a coat." or "if it were to rain, I would wear a coat." The speaker can also swap the order of the verbs and imply "when I wear a coat, it rains." In English, this makes it sound like the speaker wearing the coat causes it to rain. However, if both are in the Resultive, listeners will understand that they are mutually dependent. It must rain for the speaker to wear a coat: the speaker must wear a coat if it rains.
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