Experiential structures

Koa has a series of verbs representing sensory, perceptual or otherwise subjective scenarios, for which the "experiencer" theta role is encoded as the subject. Experiencer marking is all over the place cross-linguistically, obviously, but this is the default syntactic strategy for experiencers in Koa on the grounds that most or all other statives share that structure.

In making this decision there was an initial challenge around how to encode the feature of volition: "see" versus "look," "hear" versus "listen," etc. I sorted much of this out in 2016 with the realization that nae as "see" could be rephrased almost synonymously as tenae "can see," whereas the progressive form manae would be understood as "looking":

ni-na-ma-nae ala ni-si-náe-ta i meno
1SG-NEG-PROG-see but 1SG-ANT-see-3SG FIN regardless
"I wasn't looking, but I saw it anyway!"

Another common usage is the passive with mo as in panae mo "look like," literally "be seen as." There are many other parallel structures among these experience verbs, some of which correspond to lexical differences in English where others are harder to translate directly. Since I've never spelled this out fully, here are the roots I've identified so far as belonging to this class and their meanings in all of these structures (omitting those usages which seem anomalous or meaningless):

nae "see"
manae "look at, watch"
vinae! "look!"
konae "vision"
náete "a glance, a look"
panae "appearance, one's 'look'"
panae mo "look like"

kulu "hear"
makulu "listen to"
vikulu! "listen!"
kokulu "hearing"
kúlute "a 'listen'"
pakulu "a sound, a noise"
pakulu mo "sound like"

olo "smell"
maolo "sniff, smell (intentionally)"
violo! "smell!"
koolo "smell, smelling"
ólote "a sniff, a smell of something"
paolo "scent, fragrance"
paolo mo "smell like"

kihe "feel (physical, tactile)"
makihe "touch, feel"
vikike! "touch! feel!"
kokihe "touch, sensation"
kíhete "a feel, a touch"
pakihe "feeling, sensation, texture"
pakihe mo "feel like (physically)"

maku "taste"
mamaku "taste, try"
vimaku! "taste! try!"
komaku "(sense of) taste"
mákute "a taste"
pamaku "flavor, taste"
pamaku mo "taste like"

tune "perceive"
matune "focus on"
vitune! "focus! pay attention!"
kotune "perception"
túnete "an occasion of focusing attention/perception on something"
patune "a perception"
patune mo "seem like"

kue "experience"
makue "invite/seek out an experience"
vikue! "(intentionally) experience!"
kokue "experience"
kúete "an experience (the act of experiencing)"
pakue "a feeling, an experience (the thing experienced)"
pakue mo "feel like (experientially)"

huo "notice"
mahuo "take note of, observe, pay attention to"
vihuo! "take note! observe, pay attention!"
kohuo "notice, attention"
húote "an observation (the act of taking note)"
pahuo "a note, an observation (the thing noticed)"

kuvi "imagine"
makuvi "imagine, picture (intentionally)"
vikuvi! "imagine! picture!"
kokuvi "imagination"
kúvite "(an occasion of) imagining, a daydream"
pakuvi "an imagining, fancy, daydream, idea (the thing imagined)"

mai "feel (emotionally, subjectively)"
mamai "hold onto, seek a feeling"
vimai! "try to feel X!"
komai "feeling emotionally"
máite "(an occasion of) feeling something"
pamai "a feeling, an emotion"
pamai mo "feel like (emotionally)"

...and to some extent, though the +volition set of meanings is kind of marginal (I guess maybe specific to lucid dreaming?):

moe "dream"
komoe "dreaming"
móete "an occasion of dreaming"
komoe "a dream (the thing dreamed)"

There is almost certainly some unavoidable ambiguity around volition in certain syntactic contexts, though I'm pretty sure that semantic or narrative context, TAM marking, and/or definitiness of arguments would resolve it in most cases...and maybe in other cases the distinction isn't really that important.