[Lingtyp] "become"

[Lewis Lawyer]

Dear David,
Another example for you---not a historical source so much as a synchronic
derivation:
In Patwin (Wintuan family, Penutian "superfamily", of California) the verb
*lelu* 'make' can be reflexivized to express the meaning 'become'.  Similar
to Dr. Dryer's Walman example, but with 'make' rather than 'do' (*lelu*
never means 'do' in Patwin).  Also perhaps more agentive than prototypical
'become', though sometimes translated that way.

(1)  ču   pi        depi   no:p    lelu-nana-t'i.
      I     DECL  also   deer    make-REFL-FUT
     'I'm going to turn into a deer too.'  (Whistler 1977:169)

(2)  k'učiʔa-ro         p'o:rma-ro    bo:     win
lelu-nan-mu            [...]
      small-PTCP     bad-PTCP   be      person     make-REFL-SBJV
     (He) made himself a small and ugly person.  (Radin MS:103)


Whistler, Kenneth W.  1977.  Deer and Bear Children.  Speakers: Nora Lowell
and Harry Lorenzo.  In Northern California Texts, edited by Victor Golla
and Shirley Silver, 158-179. International Journal of American Linguistics
Native American Texts Series 2(2).  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Radin, Paul.  MS.  Patwin Texts.  Collected 1932, from speaker Anderson
Lowell.  In the American Council of Learned Societies Committee on Native
American Languages, American Philosophical Society.  Call number: 497.3
B63c P4b6-7.

Cheers,
-Lewis



-- 

Lewis C. Lawyer
PhD Candidate in Linguistics
University of California, Davis
lclawyer at ucdavis.edu
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