<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>In his paper "A diachronic perspective on active/stative alignment in Siouan, Bob Rankin wrote:<BR>
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"Dakotan has innovated a great many statively-marked verbs with the <I>ka-</I> '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 <I>*Ra</I> '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)<BR>
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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.)<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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Randy</FONT></HTML>