Lakota wa- 'variety object'

Kathleen Shea kdshea at ku.edu
Mon Dec 15 05:02:07 UTC 2003 

I hadn't checked my e-mail for a few days, and, when I did, I found about 40 messages on the Siouan list involving a very interesting discussion of wa-.  However, the original message on this topic, from Regina, came out unreadable on my computer, as seen below.  Did anyone else have this problem?  I would very much like to read her comments, which started off the whole discussion.  I haven't found her comments preserved in full in any of the subsequent messages, but I've only as yet skimmed through them.  Perhaps someone wouldn't mind forwarding them to me.  Thanks.

Kathy Shea
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: REGINA PUSTET 
  To: SIOUAN at lists.colorado.edu 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 1:43 PM
  Subject: Lakota wa- 'variety object'


<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dear Siouanists,</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>It all started with some innocent work on noun incorporation in Lakota. In this context, my Lakota speaker came up with forms such as</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(1)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>thi-w-í-wa-'uN </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>house-things.PAT-paint-1SG.AG-paint</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(both components of the verb i'úN 'to paint' (also pronounced iyúN) are glossed by 'paint')</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>'I paint the house'</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>This example contrasts with</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(2)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>thi-'í-wa-'uN </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>house-paint-1SG.AG-paint</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>'I paint the house'</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The structural difference between (1) and (2) is that (1) contains the non-specific patient marker *w-*, whose full form is *wa-*. But there is also a subtle semantic difference between the two examples: according to my Lakota speaker, (1) actually means 'I paint the house in many areas', while (2) simply means 'I paint the house'. Syntactically, the remarkable thing about (1) is that this example admits two affixal objects: *thi-* 'house' and *w-* 'non-specific object'. But what puzzled me the most was the translation of *w-* by 'in many areas'. We get more of this in (3) and (4):</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">(3)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>waks^í-w-i'uN<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>plate-WA-paint</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'to paint different kinds of plates'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(4)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>waks^í-'i'uN </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>plate-paint</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'to paint plates', *'to paint different kinds of plates'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Moreover, *wa-* can, obviously, appear more than once per finite verb:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(5)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>itówapi ki<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">   </SPAN>hé<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>wa-w-í-wa-'uN</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>picture<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">   </SPAN>the that<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>WA-WA-paint-1SG.AG-paint</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'I am painting that picture with different colors'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The extra *wa-*, according to my speaker, refers to 'different colors' here. This analysis is substantiated by the following examples:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(6)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>sápa w-í-wa-'uN</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>black<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>WA-paint-1SG.AG-paint</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'I paint it black'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>ungrammatical:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(7)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>sápa wa-w-í-wa-'uN</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>black<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">   </SPAN>WA-WA-paint-1SG.AG-paint</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'I paint it black'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The ungrammaticality of (7) can be blamed on the fact that in (7), *wa-* and the color term *sápa* 'black' fill the same syntactic slot.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Unfortunately, so far, I was unable to identify the exact extra-linguistic referent of *w-* in (5) and (6).</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Still, all this seems to imply that in the case of examples (1), (3) and (5), *wa-* has a semantic connotation that could be rendered by the gloss 'variety object', rather than simply by 'things, stuff, etc.' as is usually done for *wa-* (which is of course appropriate in most other cases). The following examples should bring this out even more clearly:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(8)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>wa-yúha</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>WA-have</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'he has all kinds of things'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(9)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">        </SPAN>wó-ha </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>WA+YU-have</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'he has things/everything (like a rich person)'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The form *wó-* in (6) results from contraction of *wa-* with the instrumental prefix *yu-*. *wó-* conveys the meaning of "regular" non-specific patient, while *wayú-* seems to indicate a variety object. Not every verb that starts with *yu-*, however, admits the two contrasting expression formats for *wa-* that we see in (8) and (9): For *yu'échetu* 'to make it right', there is only *wayú'echetu*, but not *wó'echetu*. So far, all tested yu-verbs that do not have alternating *wa-*- forms have a *wayú-*-form but not a *wó-*-form, with one exception: *yúta* 'to eat'. *wóta* is fine but *wayúta* is not grammatical. Plus, not in every case in which there are alternating *wa-*-forms, corresponding meaning distinctions could be elicited.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>A further argument for keeping *wó-* and *wayú-* forms apart, not only semantically, can be derived from the fact that for 1<SUP>st</SUP> and 2<SUP>nd</SUP> person, *wó-* and *wayú-* forms inflect differently:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(10)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">      </SPAN>wa-blús^taN </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>WA-1SG.AG.finish</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'I finish a lot of things'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">(11)<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">      </SPAN>wó-wa-s^taN<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>WA+YU-1SG.AG-finish</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">            </SPAN>'I am done'</FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The two main questions which are implicit in these data are:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(a) Does a distinction between a marker for "plain" non-specific object vs. a similar or identical marker for variety object surface in other Siouan languages as well? What are the exact semantic functions of the equivalent of *wa-* in other Siouan languages? Are there Siouan languages in which the etymological equivalent of Lakota *wa-* functions to code the notion of variety object only?</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>(b) On the assumption that the two meanings of Lakota *wa-* ("plain" non-specific object vs. 'variety object') are historically connected, which meaning is older? Grammaticalization theory, via the concept of semantic bleaching, would predict that the meaning 'variety object' is older than the meaning 'non-specific object' since it can be argued that the former meaning is less abstract than the latter. But generally, I don't care much for deductive reasoning of this sort, I'd rather draw my conclusions on the basis of data from related languages. That's why I'd like to see some "cross-Siouan" data on this.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Best,</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Regina</FONT></P></DIV><p><hr SIZE=1>
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