Hawaiian time aspect markers
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- Whereas in English, verbs undergoe change when indicating tense (ex. Go, going, went; break, breaking, broke; insert, inserting, inserted...etc.), in the Hawaiian language there is only one form for any given verb in all tenses, that is, verbs in Hawaiian do not undergoe change according to tense. Instead, tense is indicated in Hawaiian with the use of aspect markers and the present tense markers. Asspect markers and present tense markers have alternate forms for those used initially in the sentence, in negatives, and in relative clauses.
Aspect Markers and Present Tense Markers Used Initially
1. Aspect markers used intitially in the sentence. According to Hawaiian Grammar by Elbert and Pukui, aspect markers do not indicate tense, but they indicate whether or not the verb is perfective or imperfective (Refer to section 5.2 of Hawaiian Grammar). That is, aspect markers show whether the verb is completed or incomplete. Although aspect markers do not indicate tense outright, they are used to create equivalent structures to tenses.
1) Ua (verb) (subject) -- completed action, achieved state.
2) E (verb) ana (subject) -- incomplete action, state not achieved.
3) Ø (verb) (subject) -- Ø means no time aspect marker. It is commonly used for the simple present tense. Dr. Emily Hawkins covers this subject in her paper More Mäka Painu, stating that this type of sentence is "without tense and should be cosidered timeless or generic." She goes on to say that in Hawaiian literature, "these timeless sentences are often expressed with he preceding the verb and a possessive form subject" (Refer to
More Mäka Painu by Dr. Emily Hawkins).
4) I (verb) (subject) -- completed action, achieved state, indicates purpose or cause for an action or condition within the sentence.
2. The present tense markers used initially in the sentence.
1) Ke (verb) nei (subject) -- present progressive tense, close proximity to the speaker.
2) Ke (verb) ala (subject) -- present progressive tense, distant from the speaker.
3) Ke (verb) lā (subject) -- present progressive tense, distant from the speaker.
Aspect Markers and Present Tense Markers Used after the Negative
- Note: The word ‘a‘ole (no, not, none) is used to negate sentences. In negative constructions, the subject may shift its position to directly follow ‘a‘ole if the subject is a pronoun or proper noun. If the subject is a common noun, its position after the verb does not change. Also, proper noun subjects have the choice of either being moved to the position directly following ‘a‘ole, just as pronouns do, or keeping their position directly following the verb, just as common nouns do; both are acceptable.
1. Aspect markers used after the negative. When a sentence is negated,
the aspect marker will change only for ua; all other aspect markers remain the same. But, in order to provide you with a clearer idea of what the negative structures look like, I will provide the sentence patterns for negative constructions below.
1) ‘A‘ole i (verb) (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) i (verb) -- replaces "Ua (verb)(subject)" in negative constructions. Completed action, achieved state.
2)‘A‘ole e (verb) ana (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) e (verb) ana -- replaces "E (verb) ana (subject)" in negative constructions. Incomplete action, state not achieved.
3) ‘A‘ole e (verb) ala (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) e (verb) ala -- replaces "E (verb) ala (subject)" in negative constructions. Incomplete action, state not achieved, indicates further distance from the speaker in time and/or space. Note that this resembles the pattern in sentence number 2 of present tense markers used after the negative.
4) ‘A‘ole e (verb) lā (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) e (verb) lā -- replaces "E (verb) lā (subject)" in negative constructions. Incomplete action, state not achieved, indicates further distance from the speaker in time and/or space. Note that this resembles the pattern in sentence number 3 of present tense markers used after the negative.
5) ‘A‘ole (verb) (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) (verb) -- replaces "Ø (verb) (subject)" in negative constructions. Equivalent to the simple present tense.
2. Present tense markers used after the negative.
1) ‘A‘ole e (verb) nei (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) e (verb) nei -- replaces "Ke (verb) nei (subject)" in negative constructions. Present progressive tense, close proximity to the speaker.
2) ‘A‘ole e (verb) ala (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) e (verb) ala -- replaces "Ke (verb) ala (subject" in negative constructions. Present progressive tense, distant from the speaker.
3) ‘A‘ole e (verb) lā (common noun or proper noun subject)/ ‘A‘ole (pronoun or proper noun subject) e (verb) lā -- replaces "Ke (verb) lā (subject)" in negative constructions. Present progressive tense, distant from speaker.
Aspect Markers and Present Tense Markers Used in Relative Clauses
- First, I should explain two types of relative clauses in Hawaiian: A) Subjectless relative clauses, B) Subject relative clauses.
A. In a subjectless relative clause, a noun is modified by a following simple sentence whose subject is the noun being modified, and as a result, the subject is not repeated in the simple sentence. For example, in English, one could utter the phrase "The student that read the newspaper." In this sentence, the subject is the student, and "that read the newspaper" modifies the subject "student."
| Meanings of the verb markers | Verb markers used in subjectless relative clauses |
|---|---|
| Perfective | i (verb) |
| Imperfective | e (verb) ana |
| Incomplete/not started | e |
| Present tense | e (verb) nei |
| Present tense | e (verb) ala |
| Present tense | e (verb) lā |
B. In contrast with the subjectless relative clause, in a subject relative clause, a noun is modified by a following simple sentence whose subject is different from the noun being modified. For example, in the phrase “The day my dog disappeared,” the noun being modified is “day,” and the subject of the relative clause is “dog.”
| Meanings of the verb markers | Verb markers used in subject relative clauses |
|---|---|
| Perfective | i (verb) ai |
| Imperfective/ongoing | e (verb) ana/ ai |
| Imperfective/not started | e (verb) ai |
| Present tense | e (verb) nei |
| Present tense | e (verb) ala | present tense | e (verb) lā |
