syntactic problem with Siouan applicatives

ROOD DAVID S rood at spot.Colorado.EDU
Wed Dec 5 16:56:34 UTC 2001


John remarks that the so-called locatives in Siouan don't raise an oblique
object to direct object status, but I think they do -- in a very peculiar
way, at least in Lakhota.
	Take the word chaga 'ice; for ice to form, freeze'.  There is also
achaga 'to become ice upon', to use Buechel's definition.  My recollection
(I can't find my notes at the moment) is that if you use this with a
personal pronoun, that pronoun is the object of the locative: amachaga
'ice formed on me (e.g. my eyebrows)', but if you use a third person form,
you need the postposition, too (phezi kiN akaN achaga 'ice formed on the
grass').  Formally the pronouns are direct objects, making the prefix a
prototypical applicative, but the prefix seems to be purely derivational
with the nouns.  I don't know what would happen with a third person
animate or human object, but I suspect it would be like the 'grass'
example.
	Does this make the argument structure of the derived verb
different for nouns and pronouns?  Is there any precedent for something
like that in the formal syntax literature?

	David



David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
Campus Box 295
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu



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