Siouan positional verbs

[Dan Folkus]

This boundedness flucuates in the case of the river, so the river lies
across a land that sits there. The riverbed is temporary, I think. But a
river lying on a bed that sits, well that seems normal, even if the river
recedes.

On 12/11/09, David Kaufman <dvklinguist2003 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone:
>
> I'm writing my third Field Statement (Anthro precursors to a dissertation)
> on positional verbs in Biloxi and Siouan, and I'd thought I'd see if any of
> you had comments on a couple of things. (I realize Siouan languages vary
> considerably in how they use positional verb classifiers.)  (BTW--yes, I'll
> be doing my diss on Biloxi - I've switched my focus from Algonquian back to
> Siouan.)
>
> In Biloxi, positional verb classifiers are used, apparently as in other
> Siouan languages, to denote shape or position along vertical 'stand',
> horizontal 'lie-recline', or neutral 'sit' axes.  Some of these are obvious
> while others are not.  What I'm really curious about is their use in natural
> landscape objects, such as lake, river, land, field, etc.  I find it
> interesting that, in Omaha-Ponca, land (in general) 'sits'
> (neutral/unmarked) (maNzhaN dhaN) while a field 'lies/reclines' (u'e
> dhe-khe).  Streams, rivers, bayous seem to 'lie/recline' (both Biloxi & OP),
> although a lake 'sits' in BI but 'lies' in OP.  In BI a forest also 'sits'.
> I'm wondering then if the difference between this 'sit' and 'lie' might be
> one of boundedness - unbounded/non-delimited/invisible boundaries 'sit'
> (land [general]/forest/lake?) vs. visible boundaries/delimited 'lie/recline'
> (river/field/lake?).  While it seems intuitive to think of a river as
> flat/horizontal (which it is!), we can also see it as being bounded (you can
> usually see both banks of a river) and a field is usually partitioned off or
> small enough to see its limits.  (Koasati Muskogean also has towns, fields,
> rivers, as 'lying/reclining' - bounded?).  As for the lake 'sitting' in BI
> vs. 'lying' in OP, this may well be something that is language- or
> culture-specific depending on the size of particular lakes in a
> cultural/linguistic area.  Perhaps the Biloxis saw a large lake (the Gulf?)
> of which they could not see its edges or boundaries, while Omahas saw a
> smaller lake with well-defined boundaries.
>
> The other curiosity is the use of positional verbs with body parts.  In BI,
> an aching body part 'stands' (e.g., my head stands = I have a headache).  A
> hand in OP always seems to 'stand' regardless of its actual position at any
> given time, but I don't know about other body parts and in what context
> these are used.
>
> I hope this makes sense!  Any thoughts, examples, counter-examples anyone?
>
> Dave
>
>
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