The Language of the Modhupur Mandi (Garo), Volume 1

Incipient and Continuing Action

(C)

Many Mandi verbs have close English equivalents: kat-a 'run', mal-a 'crawl', nik-a 'see', and ni-a 'look' are all very close in meaning to their English translations. In some cases, however, one of the languages makes finer distinctions than the other. English, for example, more often distinguishes incipient actions from continuing states than does Garo. English distinguishes wake up , an incipient action, from be awake , a continuing state, but Garo uses the same verb for both: mik-rak-a . Nor does Garo distinguish get dressed (incipient) from wear (continuing), both of which can be named by the same Garo verbs.

Other distinctions are drawn more finely in Garo. No single Garo verb corresponds to English 'get dressed or wear', but the speaker must choose between several verbs according to the article of clothing that is being put on or worn, or according to the part of the body where it belongs. Sit-ik-a means 'put on or wear a hat'; chin-a is 'put on or wear a shirt or other garment for the upper body', especially when the garments are wrapped rather than put on by inserting a limb; gan-a is 'put on or wear a garment for the lower part of the body'; skrok-a 'put on or wear of bracelets, rings, shoes, socks', all of which require a body part to be inserted into the garment; ga'-a is 'wear or put on shoes', and so on. 'Lift', 'hold' and 'carry' are distinct in English, but the same Garo verbs can be used for all of them. However, the Garo verbs differ in the manner in which something is 'lifted, held' or 'carried'. Thus ol-a means 'hold from a tump line' (a strap across the forehead that supports a basket on the back) or 'carry by means of a tump line', or even 'lift it up to the position for carrying by a tump line'; rip-e-a means 'lift, hold or carry on the shoulder, as one carries a log'; ba'a means 'lift, hold or carry in a cloth, especially a child'; ke-a means 'lift, hold or carry something from a strap'.

Just as English has ways of distinguishing 'carry on the shoulder' from 'carry by a strap' when this is necessary (as I have just done in this very sentence), so Garo has ways of distinguishing incipient and continuing actions. Generally this is done by means of verbal affixes rather than by entirely separate verbs, however. (See -ba- and -ang- under "Adverbial Affixes" in Chapter 7). When the meaning is clear, as it often is, it is not necessary to make the distinction explicit.