Auxiliaries 271
(87) Ita mare a-sassa klambi-na.
Ita finish AV-wash clothes-DEF
‘Ita has finished washing the clothes.’
(88) Dheng mare a-massa’ pas e-kakan, nyang-kennyang.
when finish AV-cook then OV-eat RED-full
‘When they were done cooking, they ate until they were full.’
Frequently, la and mare occur together, as in (89).
(89) Aher-ra seddheng la mare a-bajang, Nyae Nuriyam mukka’
end-DEF while already finish AV-pray nyae Nuriyam AV.open
labang.
door
‘When she was finally done praying, Nyae Nuriyam opened the door.’
Although both mare and la can denote perfectivity, there is a subtle dif-
ference in their denotation. The following illustrate.
(90) Listrik-ka la mate.
electicity-DEF already die
‘The power has been off.’ (and likely still is)
(91) Listrik-ka mare mate.
electicity-DEF finish die
‘The power was off.’ (but it’s on now)
As noted in the parenthetical statements in the examples, use of la in the case of
a stative predicate indicates that the state of affairs still obtains: (88) asserts that
the state of the power being off has happened and likely it still the case. On the
other hand, when mare is used in the same environment, the implication is dif-
ferent. Here the implication is that the state of the power being off has obtained,
but that state has already finished; therefore, the power is back on, no longer
off. This has interesting ramifications for the use of these morphemes with re-
spect to the death of animate objects. As mare implies the completion of that
state, and la admits for the continuation of the state, only la is compatible with
mate when the subject is animate. Thus, (92) is grammatical with no special
interpretation.
(92) Paman la mate.
uncle already die
‘Uncle has died.’