instrumental *daka-

[Rankin, Robert L]

Thanks for the helpful comments and data.  I'm still revising this paper and
will probably do a version of it for the SSILA meeting next Jan.

I must say I've always had a problem interpreting verb classes using the
available Dakotan materials.  The Buechel dictionary (1970) lists each verb
as being v.a. (active) or v.n. (neutral).  The problem is that I suspect B.
was using a semantic rather than a purely morphological definition of
"neutral", and not every entry has a first person example.  It seems clear
though that the *raka- verbs deserve more attention in this regard though.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Rgraczyk at aol.com [mailto:Rgraczyk at aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 3:21 PM
To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: instrumental *daka-


In his paper "A diachronic perspective on active/stative alignment in
Siouan, Bob Rankin wrote:

"Dakotan has innovated a great many statively-marked verbs with the ka- 'by
striking' instrumental prefix (Xmelnitsky, Siouan e-list), but comparative
evidence makes it highly unlikely that stative verbs in Proto-Siouan could
take any instrumental prefix except *Ra 'by heat' (which is typically
stative).  Other instrumentals always seem to have the effect of raising the
"activity" level of the verb, i.e., they make the verb active or
transitive." (p. 13)

Crow has a fairly extensive set of stative verbs with the dak- prefix, which
is cognate with Dakotan ka-.  The following is a sampling: dakka'hpi 'blown
away by the wind', dakku'c^i 'swing, wave', daksaks^i' 'fit into', daks^i'pi
'slow (animate)', daku'xs^i 'quick, frisky, energetic' (Hi nako'xti 'light
in weight'), dappi'axi 'light in weight', dappi'c^i' soaked', dappu's^i
'swollen', das^s^ipi' 'cave in, sink in, collapse', das^s^ua' 'bent, dented'
(Hi naks^ua 'dent'), dac^c^eepi' 'penetrate, go inside the body',
dac^c^ic^i' 'winded, exhausted', daxc^i' 'choke, gag' (Hi na'ks^i 'choke').
(Note that in Crow the k of the dak- prefix often assimilates to the
following obstruent.)

Boas and Deloria (p. 46-48) give lists of stative verbs with the ka- prefix,
both those that occur only as statives, and another set that may be used as
both actives and statives.  B and D note that verbs with the ka- prefix
often express action 'by the wind, current, or other natural forces'.
Several of the Crow verbs have this type of meaning.  Also, there is at
least one Crow form that can occur both actively and statively: daxc^i'
'tie, tie up, imprison' (active); 'choke, gag' (stative).  A derived form of
this stem is a'ap-daxc^i 'hang (execute)' (active); 'hang by the neck'
(stative).  I suspect that there may be a few more that can be used both
actively and statively, but I need to check.

It seems unlikely to me that both Dakotan and Missouri River Siouan would
have independently innovated in such similar ways.  I would suggest that the
stative usage of *daka- may go back to Proto-Siouan.  It would be nice to
have some corroboration from other branches of the family, but I don't know
if there is any.

Randy

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