syntactic problem with Siouan applicatives

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, ROOD DAVID S wrote:
> John remarks that the so-called locatives in Siouan don't raise an oblique
> object to direct object status, but I think they do -- in a very peculiar
> way, at least in Lakhota.

I remembered hearing something like this from David before, which is one
reason I hestitated to make the assertion general.

> 	Take the word chaga 'ice; for ice to form, freeze'.  There is also
> achaga 'to become ice upon', to use Buechel's definition.  My recollection
> (I can't find my notes at the moment) is that if you use this with a
> personal pronoun, that pronoun is the object of the locative: amachaga
> 'ice formed on me (e.g. my eyebrows)', but if you use a third person form,
> you need the postposition, too (phezi kiN akaN achaga 'ice formed on the
> grass').  Formally the pronouns are direct objects, making the prefix a
> prototypical applicative, but the prefix seems to be purely derivational
> with the nouns.  I don't know what would happen with a third person
> animate or human object, but I suspect it would be like the 'grass'
> example.

If the verb agreed with the noun, the incorporated or inflectional
pronominal would be zero, right?  That makes me wonder what would happen
if there were an emphatic first person, etc., pronominal outside the verb.
Would it, too, require a postposition?  An example might be something like
'It was me who had ice forming on me, so why were you complaining?' If it
doesn't, we still have exactly the conundrum David points out, and if it
does we have a verb agreeing with a postpositional phrase, which would be
just as interesting.

> 	Does this make the argument structure of the derived verb
> different for nouns and pronouns?  Is there any precedent for something
> like that in the formal syntax literature?

It seems to me that the first would depend on the treatment of independent
pronominal arguments, if those are possible.  Can akaN stand alone, too,
without the noun, or perhaps with an e demonstrative?