Bruce Ingham's "Nominal and Verbal Status ..." (fwd)

Fri Jan 25 22:13:42 UTC 2002

Maybe a bit long ... :-).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 00:19:41 +0300
From: Constantine Chmielnicki <mosind at yahoo.com>
To: John E Koontz <John.Koontz at Colorado.EDU>
Subject: RE: Bruce Ingham's "Nominal and Verbal Status ..."

If you find this fit for the Siouan list, forward it there.
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I haven't yet got this number of IJAL Vol. 67, but some materials from the
article were published elsewhere (as in Ingham, Bruce. 1998. Nominal or
verbal status in Lakhota: A Lexographical Study. SOAS Working Papers in
Linguistics 8:125-140.
http://www.soas.ac.uk/Linguistics/papers/8ingham.pdf )

I have questions on the Class 3:

> 3. Mixed Active Verbal/Nominal, with active inflection, can be predicated
>    with inflection or with he..c^ha (stative), can be head of subject
>    phrase.
>
>    e.g., wauNspe=wakhiye 'I teach, am a teacher'
>          wauNspe=khiya hemac^ha 'I teach, am a teacher'
>          wauNspe=khiye kiN c^haNzeke 'the teacher got angry'
>

I tend to think that this class encompasses the group of active verbs that
have some forms "frozen" or moving to a distinct and separate "frozen"
nominal state, differing both semantically and grammatically.
Semantically verbs turn into nouns when a shift from "temporary occupation"
to "permanent state" in meaning occurs (in terms of Boas and Deloria, see
below)
Grammatically the zero-derived nouns stop to be conjugated as active verbs,
no ablaut alternation occurs, no continuative -hAN enclitic added, and
perhaps something else.

So I would say that perhaps
wauNspe-ya-khiyapi is "you teach him/her", and
wauNspekhiye he-ni-chapi is "you are teachers". (-e ending in Buechel), with
this "temp. occupation" vs. "perm. state" opposition being clearly salient.

wauNspekhiye (n.) seems to be derived from wauNspekhiyA (v.t.) by -A -> -e
ablaut change.

Perhaps some other pairs can be arranged into "temp. vs. perm." pairs:

(xtalehaN) yalowaN s?a - (yesterday) you sang regularly
lowaNs?a (kiN) henicha - you are a (professional) singer.

wama-ya-nuN s?a - you steal habitually
wamanuNs?a henicha - you are a (professional) thief.

For x?okxa, "to be a traditional drum singer; to sing traditional Indian
music", the separation of a nominal form from the verbal one has yielded
perhaps all possible paradigms:
wa-x?okxa (Buechel)
x?o-wa-kxa (Lakhota Project)
ma-x?okxa
x?okxa hemacha, and
x?okxa wimachas^a (p.s.)

I don't know whether these sentences are idiomatic or not, but just to
exemplify the differences I'd say:

waunspekhiye ki   henicha  shni eyash, waunspe-ya-khiye.
teacher            the you-such not   but       him-you-teach

waunspekhiye ki hemacha eyash, wowashi bluha shni cha        wana tuweni
waunspewakhiye shni.
teacher            the I-such     but,       job          I-have not  and.so
now  nobody I-teach                 not.

Best wishes,
Connie.

P.S. In addition I paste the stuff from Boas & Deloria's "Dakota Grammar"
that can be relevant:

§ 157. Nouns derived from verbs
Page 125

Nouns formed by the prefix wa- have been discussed on pages 52 et seq. Most
of these forms are still felt as verbs and function as nouns only with the
following article kiN. This is particularly true of the nomina actoris.

The following are felt as nouns and express permanent qualities:

waya'ka captive;
waphi'ya he makes people well, medicine man;
wakiN'yaN thunder;
wauN'chala the little one imitates (wauN'chala monkey, wauN'chapi mockery)

The following are verbs, nominalized by the article and express temporary
occupations:

wakhu'wa he hunts buffaloes (wakhu'wa kiN buffalo hunter);
wayu'thaN he serves at a ceremonial, lit. he touches things; (wayu'thaN kiN
server at a ceremonial);
wo'ha he carries things;
wao'ka he rather hits something, marksman

§ 97. Nouns
Page 85

The following nouns insert the pronoun:

?IhaN'kthuNwaN a Yankton, ?Ima'haNkthuNwaN (also idiomatic: ?IhaN'kthuNwaN
hema'cha, better still
?IhaN'kthuNwaN-wima`chas^a, -wiNma`yaN);
?ithaN'chaN chief, lord, leader, ?ima'thaNchaN;
?Ikto'mi, ?Ikto' the trickster, ?Ima'ktomi (also Ikto'mi-wiN`mayaN, etc.
(woman), both forms used);
was^i'cu guardian, medicine bundle, white man, wama's^icu (see was^i' to
order one to work for);
wakiN'yaN thunder, wama'kiNyaN (also wakiN'yaN-wicha`chas^a);
wakhaN'hez^a child, wama'khaNhez^a (also wama'khaNyez^a);
wicha's^a man, wima'chas^a;
wicha'h^cala old man, wima'chah^cala;
wichi'yela Dakotas not using l, wini'chiyela you are -;
winuN'h^cala old woman, wima'nuNh^cala;
wiN'yaN woman, wiNma'yaN;
wichiN'cala girl, wiNma'chiNcala;
ha'sapa Negro, black skin, ha'masapa (or ha'sapa-wiNma`yaN);
hoks^i'la boy, homa'ks^ila;
hoks^i'cala baby, homa'ks^icala;
matho' bear, mani'tho (You're a shark at it!) or (you are fiercely angry);
Lakho'ta a Dakota, lama'khota (also mala'khota);
khos^ka'laka young man, khoma's^kalaka;
wikho's^kalaka young woman, wima'khos^kalaka;
Thi'thuNwaN a Teton, does not insert the pronoun, mathi'thuNwaN (or
thi'thuNwaN-wima`chas^a)

The following are verbal forms:

?aki'chita camp police, ?ama'kichita (from ?a(wa')khita (I) look around
for);
?ouN'papila infant in cradle (little one wrapped tightly in it),
?oma'uNpapila

Children playing might also use such terms as:

?ima'gmu I am a cat

The feeling for such nouns may be understood from the following cases:

?ale'tka a twig, maa'letka I am a twig (a younger member) of a great family,
?ama'letka he is a twig on me (i. e., he is a young member of my famlly)
heh^a'ka branched antlers, elk mahe'h^aka I am a member of the elk society
(but better heh^a'ka ?o'wapha I joined the elks), hema'h^aka would be said
by the animal elk, I am with branched antlers

§ 55. Indefinite object wa-
Page 54

In a number of cases the noun requires the ending -ka. With neutral verb it
expresses an object, with active verbs an actor. Examples of neutral verbs
are:

wasku'yeca something sweet, i. e., fruit;
watho'keca something different, i. e., a delicacy;
wag^u'g^eca something scaly, i. e., dandruff

With active verbs words are formed which are still felt as verbs, but which
function very commonly as nouns when followed by the article.

wakte'ka one who kills animals easily;
wao'ka a marksman;
wao'kihika one who is efficient;
wi'yeyeca one who is good at finding things;
wi's^tes^tececa one who has fits of bashfulness;
wawi'h^ah^ayeca an amusing person

Without -ka we find:

wauN'chala little imitator, i. e., monkey;
wae'pazo the one who points thither, i. e., index finger;
waki'chuNza the one who decrees his own, a leader