An Analytical Study of the Burmese Aspectual System of

Dialects Spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar

Tayzaw Thara (Ashin Tejosara) 1 and
Received: November 22, 2023
Revised: December 06, 2023 Veetakarn Kanokkamalage 2
Accepted: December 06, 2023
([email protected])

Abstract
This research is part of my dissertation ‘An Analytical Study of the
Burmese Aspectual System of Dialects Spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar’ for
MCU and Thailand Research Fund. It aims to explain the syntactic and semantic
structures of pre-VN operator aspect and post-VN operator aspect. aspects of
(Inthar) Dialects spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar. The Burmese aspectual
system generally can be divided into two major categories: pre-VN and post-
VN. According to Nicoletta, R. (2008: 19), the Burmese aspect is shown using
markers bound to the main verb, whose combination constitutes the verbal
complex, where most of the semantic and functional information is stored.
Burmese being a verb-final language, most of the markers that pertain to the
main verb follow it, linked to it and to each other by segmental and, possibly,
tonal sandhi, morpho-phonological modifications known collectively as close
juncture. To add an interesting view to this study, the Inthar dialect spoken in
Danubyu of Myanmar has been compared with the Danubyu dialect to point
out real characteristics of the Burmese aspectual system. The comparison with
the Inthar dialect spoken in Danubyu demonstrates how the three bounded
aspects of the two Danubyu dialects are expressed. The language contact with
Inthar in Danuvyu is probably pointed out as one factor by which the bounded
aspects in Inthar Danubyu are distinguished from those in the Inthar dialect.
Keywords : Aspect, Burmese, Operator, Verbal, Semantics, Syntax, Pragmatics
1
Ph.D. candidate, Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities,
Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Thailand.
2
Faculty of Humanities, Mahachulalongkornraja-vidyalaya University, Thailand.
304 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

Introduction
Aspect is a verbal category that describes how a situation is viewed
in terms of its internal temporal constitution, while time relates to the
temporal location of an event. The aspect indicates the temporal structure
of an event, whereas time relates it to another time, often the time of
speech. Additionally, this chapter mentions modality, which is another
category used by speakers to describe events and is distinguished based on
three parameters.
In Burmese language’s system of expressing aspect and modality
through various forms in the sentence. It mentions the lack of a clear
grammaticalized expression for time in Burmese, though there is a related form,
−ခဲ့ [khé], which indicates displacement in time and is used by native speakers
to indicate past tense (Okell and Allott, 2001: 24-25). However, its status as a
time marker is uncertain due to its origin and non-binding nature. The present
study focuses only on describing the aspectual system of Burmese and
suggests further research to determine whether the language exhibits signs of
a temporal category since it is traditionally considered tenseless.
In Burmese, aspect, modality, and other pragmatic details are
expressed through markers attached to the main verb, forming the verbal
complex where significant semantic and functional information is contained.
As Burmese is a verb-final language, most markers related to the main verb
appear after it and are connected to each other through segmental and
tonal changes known as close juncture. Some aspectual markers may be
prefixed to the main verb, and in such instances, they assimilate with the
consonant at the beginning of the main verb without being affected by
juncture (Comrie, 1985).
The other factor that contributes to the analysis of aspectual
markers in Burmese, focuses on their position relative to the main verb and
other grammatical markers in the verbal complex. To gain insights, the text
suggests comparing Burmese with Lahu, a Tibeto-Burman language from the
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Loloish branch, which shares significant similarities with Burmese. Lahu

demonstrates ease in combining verbs and function forms derived from
verbs to form a coherent verbal complex. As Matisoff says:
Lahu verb concatenation is of considerable interest
for its own sake, but this phenomenon also raises some
very general questions concerning the interrelationships
of semantics and syntax. Specifically, there is a well-defined
class of cases where the evidence indicates that it is the
inherent semantic features of individual verbs that actually
determine the structural descriptions of con-catenations.
(Matisoff, 1973)
An illustration showcasing the structural flexibility of the verbal
complex in Burmese is presented below:
(1) (a) တစ်ရေရာအခါ ံ ့ စံကင်း−ရွ ာ=မှာ
təyã yɔ́ əkʰà sã kí̃-ywà= m̥à
once upon a time Sankin-village=AT
လူငယ်ေလး−တစ်=ေယာက် �ှိ−တယ်
lù ŋè léi− tiʔ= yaʊʔ ʃḭ=
tɛ́
Boy-1=CLASS be=REAL
‘Once upon a time, in the village of Sankin, there was a boy
(called Min That Naung)’
(b) ေမာင်မျိုး=က မိဘ=များ=ရဲ ့ လယ်−အလုပ်−မှာ
maʊ̀̃ myó=ká mḭ ba̰= myá= yḛ lè-əloʊʔ- m̥à
Maung Myo= SUBJ parent = PL = POSS field-work (N)= AT
ဝိုငး် = ကူ−လုပ်ကိုင် = ေပး = ေလ့ = �ှိ = တယ်၊
wáĩ = kù− loʊʔ kàĩ = péi = lḛi = ʃḭ = tè
GATHER=help-do for a living=BE=HAB=BE=REAL
Maung Myo used to help his parents with farm work (after going
to school)
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In (1a), the minimal composition of the verbal complex comprises

the primary verb –�ှိ [ʃḭ] ‘be’, followed by the clausal marker –တယ် [tɛ́] indicating
‘REALIS’, This marker both concludes the sentence and designates it for
assertion. In (1b), the principal verbs –ကူ [kù] ‘help’ and –လုပက ို ် [loʊʔ kàĩ] ‘do for a
် င

living’ is marked by the bound forms –ဝိုငး် [wáĩ] signifying ‘GATHER’, –ေပး [péi]
representing ‘BENEFACTIVE’, –ေလ့ [lḛi] denoting ‘HABITUAL’, and –�ှိ [ʃḭ] signifying
‘BE’, These forms are derived from the main verbs –ဝိုငး် [wáĩ] ‘gather around’, –
ေပး [péi] meaning ‘give’, –ေလ့ [lḛi] ‘acquire a habit’, and –�ှိ [ʃḭ] ‘be’, respectively.

These verbs are employed to express concepts that other languages convey
using various grammatical methods, such as adpositional phrases for
benefactive, aspectual markers for habitual and continuous, and tense/modal
markers for past time reference/realis. In contrast to Lahu, Burmese
distinguishes bound forms, which researchers refer to as operators, from their
former main verb counterparts through the presence of close juncture.
Furthermore, these verbs manifest themselves within the verbal
complex in a distinctly non-random sequence. For instance:
(2) (a) ကွနပ
် ျူတာ သင် = ချင် = ေန = တယ်၊

kù̃ pyù tà θì̃ = ʧʰì̃ = nèi = tɛ́

computer learn = WANT = CONT = REAL
‘[He] continued to want to learn computer’
(b) ကွနပ
် ျူတာ သင် = ေန = ချင် = တယ်၊

kù̃ pyù tà θì̃= nèi = ʧʰì̃ = tɛ́

computer learn = CONT = WANT = REAL
‘[He] wanted to continue to learn computer’
The order of the operators, namely –ချင် [ʧʰì̃] ‘WANT’ and –ေန [nèi]
‘CONTINUOUS’, which are derived from the main verbs –ချင် [ʧʰì̃] ‘want’ and
–ေန [nèi] ‘stay; live’, plays a crucial role in determining their function and
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meaning in relation to the event structure they describe. In example (2a),

the operator –ချင် [ʧʰì̃] ‘WANT’ has scope over the main verb –သင် [θì̃]
‘learn’, whereas –ေန [nèi] ‘CONTINUOUS’ modifies the sequence [learn-
WANT], resulting in the meaning ‘continue to learn’. Conversely, in (2b), it
is –ေန [nèi] ‘CONTINUOUS’ that takes scope over –သင် [θì̃] ‘learn’, while –
ချင် [ʧʰì̃] ‘WANT’ modifies the sequence [learn-CONTINUOUS], yielding the

meaning ‘want to continue to learn’. The semantics of these operators,

which are derived from the semantics of their source verbs, generally
determine both their order relative to the main verb and their order relative
to other operators within the verbal complex. This observation aligns with
Matisoff’s findings regarding Lahu, where he acknowledges the existence of
what he terms ‘plural verbs’ that occur in conjunction with the main verbs
of a sentence (Matisoff, 1973).
This study aims to describe the Burmese aspectual system of a
dialect spoken in Danubyu Township, Myanmar. Burmese has its distinct
aspectual system with interesting features. It contains many aspect markers
coding different temporal meanings. It might be questionable whether the
aspectual system of Burmese is one of the unique characteristics that
separate operators of Burmese from other Myanmar dialect groups. To
answer this question, the analysis of Burmese is compared to that of
Danubyu township parts. In addition, Intha dialects spoken in Dhanubyu
township, Myanmar are less studied when compared with other dialect
spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar, and most of the studies of Burmese in
Myanmar re those on phonology, though there are many interesting
grammatical features such as analysis operator’s markers that are left out.

Objectives of Research
The objectives of the study are as follows:
1. To study the aspectual system of Burmese in terms of the
syntactic and semantic functions of aspect in Burmese.
308 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

2. To analyze if the dialects spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar have

any influence on Burmese’s aspectual system.
3. To illustrate the aspectual characteristics shared by Burmese
that represent the areal typologies of languages Burmese in Myanmar.

Research Methodology
The study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Quantitative data were collected from 60 respondents through the use of
questionnaires, while qualitative data were gathered from 11 lecturers
through open interviews. The questionnaire focused on analyzing the
syntactic and semantic functions of aspects, with particular attention to
common aspectual operator characteristics shared by Burmese representing
language typologies in the Burmese areal context. Qualitative data analysis
was conducted using content analysis techniques.

Results of Research
This finding analyzed explored the common aspectual characteristics
found among dialects spoken in Danubyu Township representing the areal
typologies of languages in Burmese, Myanmar. The subsequent sections focus
on the order and function of the verbal operators, which are frequently
encountered in Burmese. The study thoroughly discusses the meanings,
functions, and structures of these operators, forming the core based on data
collected from face-to-face interviews in Danubyu Township, Myanmar.
1. Results of the Pre-VN Operators
In the forthcoming sections, the researcher shall provide a concise
description of several typical grammatical forms that take up the pre-VN slot
in the verbal complex, i.e. the operators –မ [mə] ‘NEGATIVE1’, –ြပန် [pyà̃]
‘RETURN’, –လှမ်း [l̥á]̃ ‘REACH OUT’, –ဝိုငး် [wáĩ] ‘TOGETHER’ and –ေပး [péi]
‘LET’.
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1.1 Pre-VN Operators –မ [mə] ‘NEGATIVE1’(NEG1)

In spoken Burmese, in independent clauses used to express a
negative statement, the two markers within the verbal complex usually co-
occur, as in the pre-VN operator –မ [mə] ‘NEGATIVE1’ (NEG1) immediately
precedes the main verb and the post-VN operator –ဘူး [bú] ‘NEGATIVE2’ (NEG2)
is located at the end of the clause, showing complementary distribution with
other operators that identify clausal categories, such as status and illocutionary
force. Okell and Allott argue that “... –ဘူး [bú] in itself carries no negative
meaning: it only marks the conclusion of a negative statement” (Okell & Allott,
2001). Thus, –မ [mə] ‘NEG1’ carries the heaviest semantic load, identifying the
type of negation as external, encompassing the entire proposition under its
scope. It is worth noting that in RRG, external negation belongs to the category
of status operators, alongside epistemic modality and categories like
realis/irrealis. Burmese is interesting because while status operators (as well as
all clausal operators) usually follow the main verb and have scope over all the
forms to their left, including the entire clause, –မ [mə] ‘NEG1’ precedes the
main verb and yet retains scope over the entire clause.
The two markers usually co-occur within the verbal complex in
spoken Burmese when used to express a negative statement in independent
clauses, as in (U Thein Soe, 2023):
(3) ေနာက် = ရက် မ = ရ = �ိင
ု ် = ဘူး၊

naʊʔ = yeʔ mə = ra̰ = nàĩ = bú

next = day NEG1 = get = CAN = NEG2
‘[They] will not be able to do [it] next day’
In literary Burmese and in specific structural environments, the
clausal post-VN operator –ဘူး [bú] ‘NEG2’ is not used (U Myo Thant, 2023):
(4) ေနာက် = ရက် မ = လုပ် = �ိင
ု ်
naʊʔ = yeʔ mə = loʊʔ = nàĩ
next = day NEG1 = do = CAN
‘[They] will not be able to do [it] next day.
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In disyllabic verbal compounds of the type [VV]V and [N = V]V, if

the verbal root is monosyllabic, –မ [mə] ‘NEG1’ will immediately precede it.
However, its position may vary according to the structural type of the verb it
attaches to. The preferred option is to have –မ [mə] ‘NEG1’ directly mark
the verbal form, since it is precisely the latter that is being negated.
(5) Disyllabic compound [V = V]v (Daw Hnin Ye, 2023):
မ = [V – V]v (also မ = V - မ = V)
(a) မ = ြပုကျင့် (< ြပု [pyṵ] ‘practice’ + ကျင့် [ʧḭ̃] ‘carry on
commit’)
mə = pyṵ ʧḭ̃
‘not carry out’
(b) မ = ြပု - မ = ကျင့် (မ = V - မ = V)
mə = pyṵ − mə = ʧḭ̃
NEG1 = practice – NEG1 = carry no the commit
‘not carry out’
(6) [N = V]V
N-မ=V (exceptionally မ − N = V)
(a) ��တ် − မ = ဆက်
n̥oʊʔ − mə = sʰeʔ
mouth – NEG1 = join
‘not greet’
(b) မ = ��တ် = ဆက်
mə = n̥oʊʔ = sʰeʔ
NEG1 = mouth - join
‘Not greet’
Between the two verbs in series, the placement of –မ [mə]
‘NEG1’ in serial verb constructions is typical, while only on rare occasions
can it be found prefixed to the verbs in question (Daw Hin Ye, 2023).
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(7) [V1 – V2]

V1 = မ - V2 (exceptionally မ = V1 – V2)
(a) ဆင်း = မ − ေသာက်

sʰí̃ = mə − θaʊʔ
descend = NEG1 - drink
‘not go down and drink’
(b) မ = ဆင်း − ေသာက် (မ = V1 – V2)
mə = sʰí̃ − θaʊʔ
NEG1 = descend – drink’
‘not ho down and drink’
In Burmese, serialised verb constructions follow strict nuclear
patterns, representing singular, indivisible complex events. Even though the
particle –မ [mə] ‘NEG1’ can be inserted between the consecutive verbs in
the serialisation, its negation applies to both verbs and consequently to the
entire event, not just the predicate it is attached to. When verbs are
accompanied by operators, the negation typically targets the operators,
though less frequently it affects the verbs themselves (U Thein Soe, 2023):
(8) [V = Post-VN]
မ = V = Post-VN (less common V = မ = Post-VN)
(a) မ = ယူ = သွား
mə = ju = θwá
NEG1 = take = GO
‘not take away’
(b) ယူ = မ = သွား
ju = mə = θwá
take = NEG1 = GO
‘not take away’
The presence of the negative marker in the latter example
obstructs the close juncture onto the post-VN operator –သွား [θwá] ‘GO’.
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1.2 The Pre-VN Operator –ြပန် [pyà̃] ‘RETURN’

The full verb –ြပန် [pyà̃] can convey aspectual meanings, which
display subtle yet distinct differences when used pre- or post-verbally. When
employed before the main verb, it primarily expresses the resumption of an
activity or state, for instance:
(9) ထိုင် = ရာ = ကေန ြပန် = ထ = လိုက် = တယ်

tʰàĩ = yà = ganèi pyà̃ = tʰa̰ = laiʔ = tɛ

sit = place = FROM RETURN = get up = FOLLOW = REAL
‘He gets up again from his seated position’ (U Thein Soe, 2023)
1.3 The Pre-VN Operator –လှမ်း [l̥á̃] ‘REACH OUT’
The grammaticalised form of the main verb –လှမ်း [l̥á̃] ‘reach out;
hand something to somebody; be far’ is the pre-VN operator –လှမ်း [l̥á̃]
‘REACH OUT’.
(10) ေရဘူး = ကို က�န်ေတာ် = ဆီ လှမ်း = လိုက် = ပါ၊

jɛi buː = ko ʧù̃ dɔ̀ = sʰì l̥á̃ = laiʔ = pà

water bottle = OBJ I = PLACE reach.out = FOLLOW = POL
‘Please, hand the water bottle over to me’ (Aung Kyaw Paing, 2023)
When grammaticalised, the core pre-VN operator –လှ မ် း [ l̥á]̃
‘REACH OUT’ indicates activities directed towards entities that are somehow
displaced from the Actor. For example:
(11) ြပည့်စံု = က ေကျာင်း = ထဲ = မှ ေန = �ပီး၊

pjísòʊ̃ = ka̰ ʧáʊ̃ = tʰé = m̥a̰ nèi = pyí

Pay Sone = SUBJ school = INSIDE = FROM stay = PFV
ေကျာင်းသား = တို =
့ ကို လှမ်း = �ကည့် = ေန = ေလ = တယ်

ʧáʊ̃ðá = to̰ = ko l̥á̃ = ʧḭ = nèi = lèi = tɛ

student = PL = OBJ REACH.OUT = see = CONT = EU = REAL
‘Pay Sone looked at the students from the school’ (Daw Hnin
Ye, 2023)
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1.4 The Pre-VN Operator –ဝိုငး် [wáĩ] ‘TOGETHER’

The main verb –ဝို င် း [ wáĩ] which means ‘gather around’ gives
rise to the core operator –ဝိုငး် [wáĩ] ‘TOGETHER’, as in:
(12) ရွ ာ = ကို စစ်သား = များ = က ဝိုငး် = ထား = တယ်

jwa = ko siʔ θá = mja: = ka̰ wáĩ = tʰá = tɛ

village = OBJ soldier = PL = SUBJ grather.around = RES = REAL
‘The soldiers gathered around the village’ (U Myo Thant, 2023)
The event is marked as performed collectively by some of the
entities participating in the speech act by the operator –ဝို င် း [ wáĩ] which
means ‘TOGETHER’, as in the following:
(13) ြပည့်စံု = က စာသင် = ရ = ြခင်း−အြပင်

pjísòʊ̃ = ka̰ sà θì̃ = já = ʧʰí̃− əpyì̃

Pay Sone = SUBJ learn = GET = DEV = outside
မိဘ = များ = ရဲ ့ လယ်−အလုပ် = မှာ

mḭ ba̰ = mja: = jé lɛ− əloʊʔ = m̥à

parent = PL = POSS field-work(N) = AT
ဝိုငး် = ကူ−လုပ်ကိုင် = ေပး = ေလ့ = �ှိ = ေလ = တယ်၊

wáĩ = ku− loʊʔkàĩ = péi = lḛi = ʃḭ = lèi = tɛ

TOGETHER = help-do.for.a.livng = BEN = HAB = BE = EU = REAL
‘Pay Sone used to help his parents in farm work after going
to school’ (Daw Hnin Ye, 2023)
The reading ‘gather around and help’ gets ruled out in this
example due to the presence of a close juncture between the operator
and the main verb, along with its context of occurrence.
1.5 The Pre-VN Operator −ေပး [péi] ‘LET’
Derived from the main verb −ေပး [péi] ‘give,’ the clausal pre-
VN operator −ေပး [péi] ‘LET’ marks permission. For example:
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(14) တစ် = လ = ထက် ေပး = မ = လုပ် = ေတာ့ = ဘူး၊

tiʔ = la̰ = tʰeʔ péi = mə = loʊʔ = tɔ̰ = bú
1 = month = OVER LET = NEG1 = work = FINAL = NEG2
‘[They] don’t allow [the Mon girls] to work for more than a
month’ (Maung Khant Nyi, 2023)
In addition, it may mark causation, as in:
(15) ေြခအိတ် ေပး = မ = ခ�တ် = ပါ = နဲ၊ ့

ʧʰèieiʔ péi = mə = ʧʰuʔ = pà = nɛ́

socks LET = NEG1 = take.off = POL = NEG.IMP
‘Let him not take his socks off’ (Daw Phyu Phyu Thant, 2023)
The clausal post-VN operator –ေ စ [ sèi] ‘CAUSE’ conveys a
stronger request compared to the one represented by the alternative,
which indicates a less firm demand in:
(16) ေြခအိတ် မ = ခ�တ် = ပါ = ေစ = နဲ၊ ့

ʧʰèieiʔ mə = ʧʰuʔ = pà = sèi = nɛ́

socks NEG1 = take.off = POL = CAUSE = NEG.IMP
‘Don’t make him take his socks off’
Although native speakers perceive the two sentences (13) and
(14) as conveying the same meaning, they differ in their illocutionary force.
In fact, the two operators may co-occur to convey an even stronger request,
as in:
(17) ေြခအိတ် ေပး = မ = ခ�တ် = ပါ = ေစ = နဲ၊ ့

ʧʰèieiʔ péi = mə = ʧʰuʔ = pà = sèi = nɛ́

socks LET = NEG1 = = POL = CAUSE = NEG.IMP
‘Don’t make him take his socks off (very strong request)’
2. Results of the Post-VN Operators
Within this section, the reading public found a comprehensive
outline detailing the significance and role of the most frequently used post-
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verb nucleus (VN) operators. These grammatical operators come after the
primary verb in the verbal complex. They are categorized into three distinct
groups based on their scope (nuclear, core, and clausal) and meaning. It’s
important to note that a handful of operators might extend their influence
over various levels of the clause, contingent upon their functions.
The main focus of this study was to analyze the post-VN
operators: −ေန [nèi] ‘CONTINUOUS’, −လာ [là] ‘COME’, −သွာ း [θwá] ‘GO’, −ထား
[ tʰá] ‘RESULTATIVE’, –�ပီ း [ pyí] ‘PERFECTIVE’, and –�ပီ [ pyì] ‘CURRENTLY
RELEVANT STATE’. To offer readers an overall understanding, albeit not
exhaustive, of the intricate Burmese operator system, I have included a concise
explanation of their functions and meanings in this overview.
2.1 The Full Verb –ေန [nèi] ‘Stay; Live’
Several examples of the relatively frequent use of the intransitive
verb of location –ေန [nèi] which means “stay; live” are provided.
(18) အေဖ ြပန် = လာ = �ပီး က�န်ေတာ် = တို =့ နဲ ့ ေန = တယ်၊

əpʰèi pyà̃ = là = pyí ʧù̃ dɔ̀ = to̰ = nɛ́ nèi = tɛ́

father RETURN = come = PFV I [male] = PL = WITH live = REAL
‘Father came back and lived with us’ (Min That Naung, 27 July
2023)
The semantics of the verb –ေ န [nèi] ‘stay; live’ and its counterparts
in other languages, including English, imply the presence of an animate entity
(the Actor) at a particular location and its continuation there for a specific
duration.
Upon initial examination, there is no difficulty in categorizing the
Aktion-start type of the Burmese word –ေ န [nèi] ‘stay; live’ as a state verb,
representing a condition with minimal or no change over time (static), lacking
an inherent end-point (atelic), and occurring throughout an unspecified period
(non-punctual/durative).
316 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

2.2 The Use of –တတ် [ta ʔ] ‘HABITUAL’ and –ေလ့ [lḛi ]

‘HABITUAL’ (HAB)
The habitual markers, –တတ် [taʔ] and –ေလ့ [lḛi], are derived from
the base verbs –တတ် [taʔ] ‘know’ and –ေလ့ [lḛi] ‘practice; acquire a habit;
become accustomed to’ respectively. These markers appear to be utilized
interchangeably for indicating habitually, as in:
(19) သင်းသ��ာေဇာ် = က မိဘ = များ = ကို ကူညီ = တတ်= တယ်၊

θí̃θà̃dàzɔ̀ = ka̰ mḭba̰ = myá = ko kù ɲì = taʔ = tɛ́

Thin Thandar Zaw = SUBJ parent = PL = OBJ help = HAB = REAL
‘Thin Thandar Zaw usually helps her parents’ (Naing Shin Ko, 23
July 2023)
(20) လမ်း = က ကျဉ်း = ေတာ့ ကား = ကို လမ်း = ထိပ် = မှာ

lá̃ = ka̰ kjin: = tɔ̰ ká = ko lá̃ = tʰeiʔ = m̥à

road = SUBJ be.narrow = BECAUSE car = OBJ road = top = AT
ရပ် = ထား = ခဲ့ = ေလ့ = �ှိ = တယ်၊

jaʔ = tʰá = kʰḛ = lḛI = ʃḭ = tɛ́

stop = RES = BACK.THERE = HAB = BE = REAL
‘As it was a narrow road, we used to leave the car at the top
of the road’ (Naing Shin Ko, 23 July 2023)
Furthermore, the usage of –တတ် [taʔ] in the ‘HABITUAL’ form
and –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] in the ‘CAN’ form alternates to express dynamic modality, a
concept identified by Palmer as being ‘subject-oriented’, focusing on the
subject’s ability or volition rather than the speaker’s opinions (epistemic)
or attitudes (deontic) (Palmer, 1990).
2.3 The Use of –�ပီး [pyí] ‘PERFECTIVE’ (PFV)
The infrequent utilization of the verb –�ပီး [pyí] ‘finish’ in its
complete lexical meaning is paralleled by the unusual employment, within
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independent clauses, of its grammaticalized form - the nuclear post-VN

operator –�ပီး [pyí] ‘PERFECTIVE’. This operator denotes events as temporally
bounded. Within this context, its occurrence is nearly exclusive with the post-
VN operator –�ပီ [pyì] ‘CURRENT RELEVANT STATE’ (CRS).

(21) မနက်ြဖန် ကျ = မှ ြပင် = �ပီး = မယ်

maneʔpʰyà̃ ʧa̰ = m̥à pyì̃ = pyí = mɛ̀

tomorrow arrive = NOT.UNTIL repair = PFV = IRR
‘I won’t finish repairing [it] until tomorrow’ (Min That
Naung, 12 July 2023)
(22) ငါ ့ = ကား ြပင် = �ပီး = �ပီ = လား

ŋa̰
= ká pyì̃ = pyí = pyì = lá
my = car repair = PFV = CRS = INT
‘Have you repaired/Have you finished repairing my car’ (U
Myo Thant, 21 July 2023)
While originally serving as a ‘pure’ perfective marker in
independent clauses, its infrequent usage has evolved into a specialized
role indicating sequentiality in discourse and maintaining subject
continuity within the same context. In non-final/dependent clauses, it
predominantly appears after the main verb, functioning as both a
perfective marker and a co-subordination indicator. For example:
(23) နာရီ သံပတ်ေပး = �ပီး စားပွဲ = ေပါ် တင် = ထား = တယ်၊

nari θà̃paʔpéi = pyí zəbwé = pɔ̀ tì̃ = tʰá = tɛ́

clock wind = PFV table = No put = RES = REAL
‘After winding up the clock, [he] put [it] on the table’ (U Thein
Soe, July 13 2023)
318 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

2.4 The Use of –ထား [tʰá] ‘RESULTATIVE’ (RES)

The core operator –ထား [tʰá] ‘RESULTATIVE’ serves to indicate
the enduring and lasting state of the Undergoer caused by the action
denoted by the main verb. Simultaneously, it denotes the impact on the
Undergoer, thereby redirecting attention from the initiator of the change to
the entity that is affected. For example:
(24) မယ်ေတာ်�ကီး = က ဦး�င်း = တို ့ �ကလာ = မယ် = ကို

mèdɔ̀ʧí = ka̰ ú bəzí̃ = to̰ ʧwa̰ là = mɛ̀ = ko

royal.mother = SUBJ I.monk = PL iome = IRR = OBJ
သိ = �ပီး ဆွမ်း ချက် = ထား = တယ်၊

θḭ
= pyí sʰú̃ ʧʰeʔ = tʰá = tɛ́
Know = PFV rice/food cook = RES = REAL
‘Royal Mother cooked a meal ready because she knew that
we were coming’ (U Zaw Oo, 26 July 2023)
2.5 The Use of –ခဲ့ [kʰḛ] ‘BACK THERE’ and –လိုက် [laiʔ] ‘FOLLOW’
The elusive nature of post-VN operators –ခဲ့ [kʰḛ] ‘BACK THERE’
and –လိုက် [laiʔ] ‘FOLLOW’ in Burmese is apparent despite their frequent
appearance in written and spoken texts, as their definitive function remains
to be assessed. Regarding –လိုက် [laiʔ] ‘FOLLOW’, Bernot proposes that it
serves to indicate the attainment of the activity expressed by the main verb
(Bernot Denise, 1980). Okell and Allott describe its effect as minimizing the
time and effort involved in the action, a definition that may not encompass
its other meanings (Okell & Allott, 2001). I briefly identify –လိုက် [laiʔ]
‘FOLLOW’ as a transitivity/volition marker in transitive clauses, a usage not
noted by the aforementioned authors. Its analysis is presented in the
context of the directional verbs –လာ [là] ‘COME’ and –သွား [θwá] ‘GO’, as –
လိုက် [laiʔ] ‘FOLLOW’ alternates intriguingly with –သွား [θwá] ‘GO’.
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Regarding –ခဲ့ [kʰḛ] ‘BACK THERE’, initially functioning as a spatial

displacement marker, native speakers have adapted it to indicate temporal
displacement, making it the sole bound operator signifying a tense-like
category in a language otherwise devoid of tense (Bernot Denise, 1980: 225-
228) and Okell and Allott seem to concur on this interpretation,
acknowledging the necessity for a more precise description of these
operators (Okell & Allott, 2001).
A comprehensive analysis of these operators will not be
included in this study and will form part of future research.
2.6 The Use of –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’
The operator –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’, derived from the main verb ‘win;
conquer; prevail’, functions as a post-VN modifier, conveying the meanings
of ability, possibility, and permission.
Regarding ability, –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’ signifies dynamic modality
according to Palmer. An illustration of dynamic modality in English is
provided by the sentence:
(25) They can speak English
where the meaning expressed by ‘can’ is not modal. It doesn’t
describe the possibility of the situation described by the sentence, but
instead, it represents the potential of the subject of the sentence, as noted by
Steele (Steele, 1975), and quoted by Palmer (Palmer, 1990). The following is
an example in Burmese:
(26) ေတာင်ပံ−တစ် = ဖတ် ကျိုး = ေန = လို ့ သူ

taʊ̀̃ bà̃ = tiʔ = pʰaʔ ʧó = nèi = lo̰ θù

wing−1 = of.pair break = CONT = BECAUSE he
ေကာင်းေကာင်း မ = ပျံ = �ိင
ု ် = ဘူး၊

káʊ̃káʊ̃ ma̰ = pyà̃ = nàĩ

well NEG1 = fly = CAN = NEG2
‘[Bird] He can’t fly very well because he has a broken wing’ (Aung
Myint Kyaw, 23 July 2023)
320 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

In its role as a dynamic modal marker, –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’ is

frequently used interchangeably with the post-VN operator –တတ် [taʔ]
‘CAN’ which also serves as a marker for habitual actions. For example:
(27) ကရင် = စကား ေြပာ = တတ်/�ိင ု ် = သ = လား၊

kəyì̃ = zəgá pjɔ́ = taʔ/ nàĩ = θa̰ = lá

Kayin = Language speak = CAN = REAL = INT
‘Can you speak Kayin?’
When discussing dynamic modality, it's best to view –�ိငု ် [nàĩ]
‘CAN’, along with –တတ် [taʔ] ‘CAN’, as operators of the nucleus. These
operators do not describe specific features of the relationship between the
speaker and the addressee, who are regarded as the core arguments within
the modal clause. Instead, they describe the event itself.
Furthermore, –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’ is employed to mark ‘epistemic’
possibility, as exemplified in:
(28) ေရ မ = ဖိတ် = �ိင ု ် = ေအာင် ပိတ် = ထား = တယ်၊

jè ma̰ = pʰeiʔ = aʊ̀̃ peiʔ = tʰá = tɛ́

water NEG1 = spill = CAN = so.THAT cut.off = RES = REAL
‘They cut off it so that it couldn’t spill’ (Aung Kyaw Paing, 18
July 2023)
The expression of epistemic possibility by –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’ might
explain its usage to indicate permission. According to Palmer, stating what
is possible often implies that the speaker won’t object, essentially granting
permission (Palmer, 1990). In this context, –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’ conveys a relatively
mild form of permission, where the entity allowed to engage in a specific
activity has the freedom to choose whether to do so or not. Consequently,
it lacks the same strong deontic significance as –ရ [já] ‘GET’. For instance:
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(29) ဒီ �ိင
ု င
် ံ=က အလို�ှိ = ရာ = ဝယ် သွား = �ိင
ု ် = ပါ = တယ်၊

dì nàĩ ŋà̃ = ka̰ əlò ʃḭ = jà = wè θwá = nàĩ = pà = tɛ́

this country = AT want = THING = buy go = CAN = POL = REAL
‘You may buy wherever you like in this country’ (U Zaw Oo, 26
July 2023)
(30) အသက် ၁၈ = �ှစ် ြပည့် = သူ = တိုငး် မဲဆ��

əθeʔ 18 = n̥iʔ pyḛI = θù = táĩ mé sʰà̃ da̰

age 18 = year reach = he = EACH vote (N)
ေပး = �ိင
ု ် = တယ်၊

péi = nàĩ = tɛ́

give = CAN = REAL
Every citizen of 18 years of age can vote’ (U Ye Aung, 7 July 2023)
In its epistemic usage, –�ိငု ် [nàĩ] ‘CAN’ may be viewed as a
status operator. This operator holds scope over the entire clause.

Conclusion and Discussion

The study aimed to provide an overview of the aspectual system
of Burmese, specifically in a dialect spoken in Danubyu, Myanmar. It focused
on analyzing the syntactic and semantic functions of aspects, with particular
attention to common aspectual operator characteristics shared by Burmese
representing language typologies in the Burmese areal context.
According to the open interview, the analysis has brought
attention to several important aspects of this system. Firstly, Burmese marks
aspect with markers that typically follow the main verb, although some
operators may precede it. Secondly, many of these aspect markers are
derived from full lexical verbs, which still have active usage. This is a critical
aspect of the discussion because these operators’ functions are explained
by the combination of the inherent semantic features of their lexical
sources with the inherent semantic features of the verbs they modify,
ultimately influencing the structure of the verbal complex and the clause.
322 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

Thirdly, valuable insights have been gained by examining the

position of aspectual operators about the main verb and other grammatical
markers within the verbal complex. In most cases, the semantics of the
operators determine their order concerning the main verb and other
operators within the verbal complex.
The interplay between semantics, syntax, and pragmatics emerges
as the most intriguing and enlightening aspect of this study. This interplay
has been facilitated by adopting the descriptive approach provided by Role
and Reference Grammar (RRG) (Valin & LaPoola, 1997).
However, there is much more work to be done in the future.
Subsequent research should encompass a comprehensive description of
the aspectual operator characteristics shared by Burmese, San Kin, Yae
Pauk, and Pa Kun dialects spoken in Danubyu, Myanmar, as representative
of the Burmese language typology in the region. Additionally, an analysis of
the modal system and temporal reference expression should be
undertaken. Furthermore, further investigation into verbal semantics is
necessary to delineate the interface between lexical semantics and syntax
and, consequently, the structure of events.
The full verb –�ပီး [pyí], which means ‘finish; come to an end’, not
only functions as the post-VN operator –�ပီး [pyí] ‘PERFECTIVE’ but also
appears to have served as the semantic origin for another grammatical form
known as the sentential post-VN marker –�ပီး [pyí] ‘CURRENTLY RELEVANT
STATE’ (CRS). This particular form was the main subject of discussion in the
present section.
The Combination −�ပီး−�ပီ [pyí−pyì] ‘PFV-CRS’
The researcher noted that the infrequent presence of the post-VN
operator −�ပီး [pyí] ‘PERFECTIVE’ in independent clause verbal complexes
paralleled the scarcity of occurrences of its lexical source, the full verb −�ပီး
[pyí] ‘finish; come to an end,’ in the same syntactic context. However, the
researcher also anticipated that in independent clauses, it could be
encountered alongside the post-VN operator −�ပီ [pyì] ‘CRS’, as exemplified by:
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(31) [Q: Has your brother done what his teacher told him to do
today? A: Yes,]
ဒီ ဂျာနယ် သူ ဖတ် = �ပီး = �ပီ၊

dì ʤà nè θù pʰaʔ = pyí = pyì

this journal he read = PFV = CRS
‘He’s read this book [as he was told]’
(32) ဦးေလး = ရဲ ့ လယ်−ကွငး် = ထဲ = မှာ ဒီ ေရကန် = က

ú léi = jḛ́ lè−kwí̃ = tʰé = m̥à dì jè gà̃ = ka̰

uncle = POSS field-area = INSIDE = AT this pond = FROM
ပါ−ဝင် = ေန = တာ = မို ့ ဦးေလး = ကို

pà− wì̃ = nèi = tà = mo̰ ú léi = ko

be.in-enter = CONT = REAL = BECAUSE uncle = TO
ဝိုငး် ဝန်း ခွငေ
့် တာင်း = �ပီး ြပုြပင် = ဖို ့

wáĩ wú̃ kw̥ḭ̃ táʊ̃ = pyí pyṵ byì̃ = pʰo̰

together ask.permission = PFV repair = TO
က�န်ေတာ် = တို ့ ဆံုးြဖတ် = �ပီး = �ပီ၊

ʧənɔ̀= to̰ sʰóʊ̃ pʰyaʔ = pyí = pyì

I = PL decide = PFV = CRS
‘We have decided to ask Uncle’s permission and repair [the
pond] together because this pond lies in Uncle’s fleld’ (U Thein Soe, 23
July 2023)
(33) က�န်ေတာ် = က နံနက် = တစ်ချိနလ ် းံု ေကသီ = �ှင့်

ʧənɔ̀ = ka̰ nà̃ neʔ = tiʔ ʧʰèĩ lóʊ̃ kè θì = n̥ḭ̃

I = SUBJ mrning = all.the.time Kay Thi = WITH
ဆက်သွယ် = ရန် �ကိုးစား = �ပီး = �ပီ၊

sʰeʔ θwè = jà̃ ʧó zá = pyí = pyì

repeatedly say = PFV = CRS
‘I have told him the [same] word over and over again’
324 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

(34) က�န်ေတာ် = က သူ =
့ ကို ေြပာ = �ပီး = တဲ့ စကား = ကို

n = ka̰
ʧə ɔ̀ θṵ = ko pyɔ́ = pyí = tɛ̰ zəgá = ko
I = SUBJ he = OBJ say = PFV = RELREAL
ထပ်တလဲလဲ ေြပာ = �ပီး = �ပီ၊

tʰaʔ təlé lé pyɔ́ = pyí = pyì

reeatedly say = PFV = CRS
‘I have told him the [same] word over and over again’
(35) မ�ှငး် = နဲ ့ အေမ = တို ့ လာ = �က = ပါ၊

ma̰n̥í̃ = nɛ̰́ əmèi= to̰ là = ʧa̰ = pà

Ma.Hnin = AND Mother = PL come = PL = POL
မုန် ့ ဝယ် = �ပီး = �ပီ၊

mo̰ʊ̃ wè = pyí = pyì

food Buy = PFV = ERS
‘Ma Hnin, Mother, please come. I’ve bought the food’
(36) စာမျက်�ာှ ဘယ်�စ
ှ ် ရွ က် ေရး = �ပီး = �ပီ = လဲ၊

sàmyeʔn̥à bè n̥iʔ jweʔ jé = pyí = pyì = lé

page how.many sheet write = PFV = CRS = INTWH
‘How many pages have you written so far?’
(37) အရွ က် �ှစရ် ာ−ငါး = ဆယ် ေရး = �ပီး = �ပီ၊

əjweʔ n̥iʔja−ŋá = sʰè jé = pyí = pyì

page 200-5 = 10 write = PFV = CRS
‘I’ve written 150 pages’
In this context, the combination −�ပီး−�ပီ [pyí−pyì] ‘PFV-CRS’ is observed
in conjunction with causative accomplishments. These accomplishments are
characterized by specific features: they are [-static], [+telic], [-punctual],
[+causative], and are typically initiated by an Actor who affects an Undergoer
(according to Van Valin and La Polla, 1997). The feature [+telic] can be an
inherent aspect of the verb's core meaning (e.g., decide, try, buy), where
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the verb's arguments, representing the goal of the activity, are obligatory
components of its lexical entry. Alternatively, the same [+telic] feature can
be induced in the predicate based on its contextual usage. For instance,
phrases like ‘read the journal and’ ‘write Two hundred and fifty pages’
exemplify the activity verbs ‘read’ and 'write,' which, in this specific context,
take on core arguments like ‘the book’ and ‘Two hundred and fifty pages’,
signifying the endpoint or goal of the respective activities.
As mentioned elsewhere (see Chapter IV), the use of −�ပီး [pyí]
‘PFV’ transforms these processes into punctual events, labeling them as
(causative) achievements and simplifying them into single, unanalyzed
objects with distinct boundaries. This transformation is derived from the
Aktionsart of its source verb, the achievement verb −�ပီး [pyí] ‘finish; come
to an end’. Therefore, −�ပီး [pyí] ‘PFV’ can be described as an operator that
alters the nature of the state of affairs from [-punctual] to [+punctual],
focusing attention on the event’s completion, specifically its terminal
boundary (Van Valin and La Polla, 1997). The temporal relevance is then
indicated by −�ပီ [pyì] ‘CRS’, which links the existence of a well-defined
event to the reality perceived by the speakers and their linguistic context.
Nicoletta, R. (2008) investigated the post-VN operator−�ပီး [pyí] ‘PERFECTIVE’,
the main verb −�ပီး [pyí] ‘finish; come to an end’ has also provided the
semantic source for the post-VN Clausal operator −�ပီ [pyi] ‘CURRENTLY
RELEVANT STATE’. This operator marks events as having attained or as being
in the process of attaining their point of realisation, and it makes the result
of the change relevant to the dis- course frame of the participants in the
speech act at speech or reference time.

New Body of Knowledge

When I study was six groups of aspect markers are Perfective,
Imperfective, Habitual, Continuous, Non-progressive and Progressive.
Perfective markers consist of �ပီး [pyí] which means “finish, already”, - သွား
326 | Journal of MCU Humanities Review Vol.9 No.2 (July – December) 2023

[θwá] which means “go” and la which means “come”. Imperfective is

expressed by ေန [nèi] ‘stay; live’. Habitual markers contain “mlay” or
“mlan” ‘always, usualy’ and le ta ‘to be accustomed to’. Contiguous can
be illustrated be nei which mean “cont, stay and live”. Lastly, Non-
progressive and Progressive is indicated by twe y da “meeting you. In this
aspectual categorization, a clearer picture of the Burmese aspectual system
is revealed. Although the aspect markers of the used the people who live
in Danubyu of Myanmar. I hope you that this dissertation can help you
learning Burmese language.

Suggestions of Research
1) This preliminary research examines the study aimed to provide
an overview of the aspectual operator system of Burmese, specifically in an
Inthar dialect spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar. It focused on analyzing the
syntactic and semantic functions of operator aspects, with particular
attention to common aspectual operator characteristics shared by Burmese
representing language typologies in the Burmese areal context. However,
the primary focus is on the Inthar dialect due to the absence of a
grammatical study in the Danubyu-spoken Inthar dialect in Myanmar.
2) Future researchers should include a comprehensive description
of aspectual operator characteristics shared by various dialects spoken in
Danubyu of Myanmar, representing the Burmese language typology in the
region. It should also involve an analysis of the modal system, temporal
reference expression, and further exploration of verbal semantics to
elucidate the relationship between lexical semantics and syntax and the
structure of events.
3) Another crucial area for future study lies in investigating the
aspectual system of languages in Southeast Asia (SEA), including Hakka,
Kayain, Mon, Ka Chin, Kayar, Khmer, Vietnamese, Eisan, and Thai, to
compare and better understand the shared aspectual features across SEA
languages. Additionally, research on areal features of SEA languages and
linguistic borrowing in SEA languages should continue.
วารสาร มจร มนุษยศาสตรปริทรรศน ปที่ 9 ฉบับที่ 2 (กรกฎาคม – ธันวาคม) 2566 | 327

4) The researcher hopes that one can use this study as a reference
for studying the Burmese aspectual system especially to give more
understanding about the Burmese system of dialects spoken in Danubyu of
Myanmar.
5) The researcher suggests giving more attention to understanding
the syntactic and semantic structures of the pre-VN operator aspect and
post-VN operator aspect.

References
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Okell, John and Anna J. Allott. (2001). Burmese/ Myanmar dictionary of
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Palmer F. R. (1990). Modality and the English Modals. London: Longman.
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