[Lexicog] Citation forms in Prefixing Languages

[Wayne Leman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Costa" <pankihtamwa at earthlink.net>


>
> > I wondered if you had made some kind of a statement that abstracted
stems
> > might be the way to go in Algonquian contexts.  I know that's a sore
> > temptation there, and I have a vague perception that some very careful
choices
> > have to be made in selecting citation forms for Algonquian, from
noticing
> > Rhodes' practice in his Odawa dictionary.  I suspect some of the
subtleties
> > pass me by.
>
> For most Algonquian languages, problems of choosing lexical entries are
> nowhere near as troubling as they are in heavily prefixing languages like
> Iroquois. This is primarily due to the fact that except for inalienably-
> possessed nouns (mostly just a closed set of kin terms, body part terms,
and
> such) it's not difficult at all in most Algonquian languages to produce
> well-formed, stand-alone words with no prefixes.

David, this is true of Cheyenne. Even though Cheyenne has grammaticalized a
third person prefix (é < **wi:, I think), unlike some of the other Alg. lgs,
if we strip off the pronominal prefix we are left with exactly the 2nd
person plural addressee imperative form. I have really hoped that Cheyennes
find a dictionary with verb roots and stems indexed alphabetically to be
user-friendly. I will continue fieldtesting. Stripping off Cheyenne prefixes
results in derivationally related nominalizations and verbs all clustering
together in the alphabetized index, e.g.

-ame'há 'fly' (vai)
ame'hahtôtse 'airplane' (ni: flying-NOM)
Ame'ha'e 'Flying Woman' (na)
ame'have'ho'e 'pilot' (na)

-mâheónané 'house-build' (bai
mâheo'o 'house' (ni)

-mane 'drink' (vai)
manehe 'pelican' (lit., drinker; na: drink-NOM)
mané'héó'o 'drunkard' (na)
manémâhéó'o 'saloon' (ni; lit., drink-house)
manestôtse 'drink' (ni: drink-NOM)

etc.

> 99% of the morphological
> 'action' with Algonquian languages is suffixal, and this of course raises
> the issue of which inflected form to use for citations. But I won't
address
> that here.
>
> The main prefixes you find in any Algonquian language are one of the 3
> person marking prefixes, and with verbs it's always easy to create forms
> lacking any of these prefixes. In addition, Algonquian languages also have
> what are called 'preverbs', which loosely attach to the front of verbs and
> which are halfway between being preverbs and clitics.

Preverbal "glue" for Cheyenne is much more viscous ("tacky"?) than that
found in a number of other Alg. languages, from what I can tell.

> However, the
> Algonquian languages vary enormously in how much they use these; in the
main
> Algonquian language that uses preverbs heavily with which I'm familiar,
> namely Shawnee, they're never obligatory. So you leave them off, and you
> have a form where the stem is word-initial. (I know that Cheyenne also
uses
> preverbs heavily, so perhaps Wayne can say something about how Cheyenne
fits
> into this.)

No preverbs are obligatory. Initials (many of which are homonymous with
preverbs or else lack only a /e/ preverb-final vowel), however, are required
for verbs which are composed of something plus a final.

<snip>

Wayne
-----
Wayne Leman
Busby, Montana, U.S.A.
Cheyenne dictionary project:
http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language/cddicy.htm




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/HKE4lB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
 lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
 http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/