MIRATIVITY QUESTION

Thu May 7 15:17:22 UTC 1998

Regarding mirativity, I recall that one of the affixes listed by Harper
(1979:55) for Baffin Inuktitut is -pasaaq 'unexpected surprise':

quviasukpasaarama
quviasuk -pasaaq -gama
be.happy -MIRA   -PERF.1sS
'Surprisingly, I'm quite happy', 'I'm pleasantly surprised'

tuqappasaaqtuq
tuqat       -pasaaq -juq
be.startled -MIRA   -PART.3sS
'He is pleasantly startled'

Harper, Kenn. 1979. _Suffixes of the Eskimo dialects of Cumberland
Peninsula and North Baffin Island_. National Museum of Man Mercury Series
Paper no. 54. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.

David Parkinson