yolic huan yolic

[jonathan.amith at yale.edu]

Hi John,

The question came through as an attachment. I would consider that words like
chipa:wak, yo:li:k, we:i, ista:k, etc. are all potentially modifiers and
predicates. I don't think yo:li:k is an agentive. The first two are deverbal,
the third is underived (one of the few such "adjectives") and the last is
denominal. Other terms, such as yema:nki seem to fall into a denominal pattern
(I believe Launey considers them so) although the stem is no longer present as
a noun.

Anyway, modification in Nahuatl can be of a noun (like chipa:wak motlake:n) or
of a verbal predicate (like yo:li:k nehnemi). I'm not sure if I would separate
the two as parts of speech, though maybe. For example, chika:wak is both
"adjectival" (noun modification, chika:wak moma:) and "adverbial" (chika:wak
tsahtsi). Most modifiers can be used predicatively, nichipa:wak, niyo:lik,
niwe:i, niista:k. In some variants, for example, miak is only a quantifier
whereas in norther Veracruz it is an adjective: miak tlasohka:mati. Etc.

Attributives are often incorporated and many speakers have trouble translating
phrases such as 'I am a lazy man' Some simply give nitlatsiw or nitlatski
(depending on variant), or will have two predications, nitlatsiw nitla:katl.
Others will compound nitlatsiwka:tla:katl, etc.

So, I would say, just one entry, yo:li:k that is a modifier/predicate modifier
that can be used predicatively. There is a book by Kees Hengeveld, Non-verbal
predication, that might have something on this. I seem to remember a typology
of his on modification and predication. I can't find it quickly in this book,
so it might be in an article of his on parts of speech in a book by Michael
Fortescue and others called Layered structure and reference in a functional
perspective.

Best,jda


Quoting "John Sullivan, Ph.D." <idiez at mac.com>:

> Listeros,
> Esperando que reciban este coreo, porque me han sacado de la lista  
> cuatro veces en los últimos seis meses.... Here is my question from  
> Modern Huastecan Nahuatl:
> 1. "yolic", "somebody or something slow",  is a conjugatable agentive 
>  noun which comes from the class 2 verb "yoli", "to be engendered, to 
>  live, to be revived". I can say, "niyolic", "I am (a) slow 
> (person)",  or "tiyoliqueh", "We are slow (people)".
> 2. However, "yolic" can also be used as an adverb, "slowly", in which 
>  case it is not conjugated. "Nitequiti yolic", "I work slowly", and  
> "Titequitih yolic", "We work slowly".
> 3. So for purposes of grammatical classification (I know you don't  
> like that, Joe), could we say that there are two "yolic's": one a 
> noun  and one a particle (because it is frozen)?
> John
>
> John Sullivan, Ph.D.
> Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
> Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
> Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
> Tacuba 152, int. 47
> Centro Histórico
> Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
> México
> Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415
> Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416
> Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048
> Celular: +52 (492) 118-0854
> idiez at mac.com
> www.idiez.org.mx
> www.macehualli.org
>
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
Jonathan D. Amith
Director: Mexico-North Program on Indigenous Languages
Research Affiliate: Gettysburg College; Yale University; University of Chicago
(O) 717-337-6795
(H) 717-338-1255
Mail to:
Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
Gettysburg College
Campus Box 412
300 N. Washington Street
Gettysburg, PA  17325

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