Andative and venitive

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In linguistics, andative and venitive are a type of verbal deixis, verb forms which indicate 'going' or 'coming' motion in reference to a particular location or person. Other terms sometimes seen are itive and ventive, or translocative and cislocative. They generally derive historically from the verbs go and come being reduced to auxiliary verbs or verbal affixes, and may in turn grammaticalized to aspectual morphemes. Many languages of California and West Africa, such as Akan, are well known for having such forms.

A language with andative and venitive forms may use them with a verb to carry, for example, to create the meanings of "bring" (venitive) and "take" (andative). In the Turkic Tofa language, the verb kılaşta- means to go on foot. Kılaştap bar means to go on foot, and kılaştap kel to come on foot.

Proto-Polynesian is reconstructed as having four directional particles used for verbs, venitive *mai, andative *atu, upwards (uphill, inland) *hake, and downwards (downhill, seawards) *hifo.

In the Tokelau language, the particles mai and atu have evidential uses, and are used in aspectual constructions, mai for continuative aspect ("going on") and atu for inceptive aspect ("coming to be").