Ákat actions: tackling the meal

Action moods place conditions on the action. For the Nakap philosophers this suggested the idea of how the guests might approach the feast. In Ramajal (and many other languages) action mood is considered to be part of the tense-aspect-mood continuum, but, in Ákat, mood is a specific constituent of the action phrase, separate from formal action tense and aspect.

Ákat action moods deal with possibilities: can something happen, should it happen, is it permitted to happen, what happens if it does happen, and so forth. In this view, they are all irrealis moods as opposed to realis moods, which tend to deal with facts and believed facts. Because of their uncertainty, they can often be used to indicate future actions.

The three moods

Ákat has three moods: imperative; jussive; and optative. Note that modality is not a mandatory part of the action phrase.

• The imperative mood deals with inevitability, and is used to indicate actions that must take place, or are likely to take place, whatever the views of the agentive parties may be about the action's outcome. It is often used to show simple future actions as well as orders and exhortations.
• The optative mood deals with wishes and desires, covering the acceptability, conditionality or permissability of an action taking place.
• The jussive mood deals with obligation, necessity and determination. It lies inbetween the imperative and the optative moods in that while the action may not occur, its occurance is more than a mere wish.

Degrees of outcome

Additionally, each mood is modulated by three likely degrees of outcome: low; medial; and high.

• A degree of high liklihood is used to indicate that the action is likely to take place, or likely took place, without much intervention or effort on the part of the people or objects undertaking the action.
• Conversely, a degree of low liklihood indicates that the action is unlikely to take place unless there was/is a high level of intervention or effort by the agentive parties.
• The degree of medial liklihood lies between the two extremes, in other words the expenditure of some effort is likely to be met with some degree of success.

The nine modality particles

C	g	M	G	v	V	a	D	p	E
tense+ conjunctions	agentive class	modality	agentive root	action class +aspect	action root	agent marker	agentive determiner	patient marker	evidentiality marker

Mood	High degree	Medial degree	Low degree
Imperative	-greqe-	-vaqa-	-puqu-
Jussive	-grexe-	-vaxa-	-puxu-
Optative	-grembe-	-vamba-	-pumbu-