andative

[Eric]

----- Original Message -----
From: <voorhis at westman.wave.ca>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: andative


>
> Floyd Lounsbury once said to me, "Why do they call it the obviative?
> There's nothing obvious about it."
>
> Paul
>

The Oxford English Dictionary points to Cuoq as the source of the term
"obviative" as used in Algonquian linguistics, though in French it appeared
as "obviatif".  Cuoq seems to think of the phenomenon as a kind of
"objective" case, but somehow not quite. The closest thing to a reason for
the usage I've ever seen is in one of the documents Early Canadiana Online
has posted.
It's an 1875 publication of a lecture given by Archdeacon Hunter for the
Institute of Rupert's Land in 1862, so it predates the earliest Cuoq
reference cited in the OED. Hunter uses the term "Accessory, Relative or
Possesive Case" for what has become known as the "Obviative".

    On page 10 he says 'In Cree there is no occasion for this repetition and
all ambiguity is removed as to which third person is meant by the use of
this Accessory Case. "And John looking upon Jesus as he walked" (John i.
36), is an ambiguous sentence in English, for it may mean either John
walking or Jesus walking. To make it quite clear of ambiguity, we should
have to put it thus: "And John looking upon Jesus as he (Jesus) walked,"
repeating, you observe, the third person. In Cree this difficulty is
OBVIATED by using the accessory case.'

(Emphasis is mine.) Here is the URL to the page:

<http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?id=96723973b6&display=30295+0016>