'to lack' and Subject

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Mon Sep 30 04:27:55 UTC 2002


I've noticed these constructions in OP, in all of which the aN Pat1
encoded first person of dhiNge' 'to lack' is paired with Agt1 agreement in
an auxiliary.  This at least demonstrates the Agt and Pat agreement can be
in concord, and also tends to suggest that the experiencer patient of
dhiNge' is the subject, since these auxililaries would concord with the
subject in other kinds of sentences, whether that subject was encoded as
agent (in transitive and active verbs) or (in stative verbs) as patient.
(It seems to me that subject is a primarily a syntactic notion, which is
not marked as such in Omaha-Ponca morphology.)

JOD 1890:261.13

mikka'he aNdhiN'ge     miNkhe dhaNs^ti
comb     I have lacked I PROG heretofore

I was without a comb.


JOD 1890:495.2

nie' aNdhiN'ge=xti  anaN'z^iN
pain I lack    very I stand

I have no pain at all.


JOD 1890:522.6

wadhi'ttaN ui'kkaN     aNdhiN'ge=xti= maN
work       t help him  I lack    very I AUX

I have no work to help him.



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