syntactic problem with Siouan applicatives

[bi1 at soas.ac.uk]

For  "I turned to ice on it." you could try achah mici'ichage or
amakichaga using ic'ichaga 'make oneself into, turn into' or kichaga
'turn to ice', but I'm only guessing.

Bruce


>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)',

Fascinating.  And to think I used to believe that Siouan languages were
"real" languages. My immediate reaction, then, is to wonder how one would
say "I turned to ice on it."  If not amachaga, then what?

Bob
Dr. Bruce Ingham
Reader in Arabic Linguistic Studies
SOAS