stress shift

[David D. Robertson]

LhaXayam, George:

Good point:  There are also contrasts in Jargon between
stressless, "function" words and stressed "content" words.

Function word:  Grand Ronde /hayu/ (no stress), which gives a verb a
continuative tinge like English "-ing".  For example, /ikta ya hayu
wawa?/ "What is she saying?"

Content word:  G.R. /hAyu/ or /hayU/ (either initial or final stress,
depending on factors we won't go into), with meaning like "lots, much,
many".  For example, /wik na kEmtEks hayU/ "I don't know much".

Note--not all contrasts between unstressed & stressed versions of a word
amount to "function" vs. "content" distinctions.  You can stress the
pronouns for contrastive emphasis if you want, for example /mayka/
becoming /mAyka/ "you", but they remain pronouns without particular
semantic content.

(For non-linguists who wish to know, "without particular semantic content"
here is intended as saying pronouns and other function words' meaning
always shifts according to context.  For example, a pronoun like "I"
or "you" or "she" obviously refers to different persons when used by
different people in different situations.  By contrast, a content word
like "many" or "run" or "Chinook Jargon" doesn't shift its reference based
solely on who's talking to whom.)

A case can be made that Grand Ronde Jargon contains other examples of
stressless function words derived from stressed content words.  I
suggest /kEmtEks/, for example, which when stressed means "know" and when
unstressed can be seen as a marker of habituality on the verb.

Cheers,

--Dave


On Fri, 8 Nov 2002 12:34:35 -0500, George Lang <george.lang at UALBERTA.CA>
wrote:

>I'm on the road and don't have my dictionary to hand, but it seems to me
>that in GR CJ, there is yet another of these stress differentiated words.
>
>_hayu_ with stress on first syllable is "lots".  _snass ha'yu_: lots of
>rain.
>
>_hayu_ with stress on the second syllable is a kind of progressive -ing
>form: _snass hayu'_: it IS raining.
>
>George