Do Japanese stative verbs have the inchoative aspect?


> [In English, a verb that expresses a state can also express the entrance
> into a state. This is called inchoative aspect. The simple past is sometimes
> inchoative. For example, the present-tense verb in the sentence "He
> understands his friend" is stative, while the past-tense verb in the
> sentence "Suddenly he understood what she said" is inchoative, because it
> means "He began to
> understand"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stative_verb#Difference_from_inchoative)

I'm not sure if a sentence similar to that in Japanese would work. For
example, 突然信じた sounds wrong, but I'm not sure. There are some other parts I'm
not too sure about.

> [Dowty gives some tests to decide whether an English verb is stative.[6]
> They are as
> follows:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stative_verb#Dowty.27s_analysis)
> They cannot be complements of "force":
[code]

    I forced John to run.
    *I forced John to know the answer.
    
[/code]

This one is tricky. 信じさせる is a valid word, but I'm not sure if that's because
there is an inchoative aspect to it or something like Japanese perceiving
stative verbs differently.

> They do not occur as imperatives, except when used in an inchoative manner.
[code]

    Run!
    *Know the answer!
    Know thyself! (inchoative, not stative; archaic)
    
[/code]

Since expressions like 信じて and そばに居て are valid, one would be inclined to think
Japanese stative verbs would also have an inchoative aspect, but I'm not so
sure if it can be used similarly in a way like 突然信じた. I'm also curious if
verbs like 信じられる and 信じがたい have the inchoative aspect like "can believe" and
"hard to believe" do.




  1. Does English have the [ inchoative aspect ] ?

--- The answer depends on the definition.

There is no inchoative prefix, infix, etc. as in Latin, Russian, ...

Russian -- prefix по-, e.g. бежать, побежать

Esperanto -- prefix ek-, e.g. danci, ekdanci

See: <https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/19513/does-english-have-
inchoative-aspect>

  2. Does Japanese have the [ inchoative aspect ] ?

--- I think it's exactly like English. If there's an interesting difference, i'd like to know it.

Later i thought that [見初める, 明け初める, 咲き初める] and [書きかける, 飲みかける] and maybe
[彼は走り出した。] are closer to the Latin inchoative infix than anything in English.

為出す ・ 取掛る ・ し掛ける ・ 仕懸かる ・ し掛る ・ . . . 手紙を書きかけたところへ客が来た。 薬を飲みかけたが苦くて吐いた。

> dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/165508/meaning/m0u/ なれそめる【馴れ初める】....
> ［動マ下一］［文］なれそ・む［マ下二］ 親しくなりはじめる。男女が恋する仲となる。.......

まだ上げ初めし前髪の 林檎のもとに見えしとき 前に挿したる花櫛の 花ある君と思ひけり・・・

  3. Do Japanese stative verbs have the inchoative aspect?

--- Again, I think it's exactly like English. If there's an interesting difference, I'd like to know it.

This great page <http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/24asupekuto.html> has
material on both 状態動詞 and 起動相.

