instrumental *daka-

[Randolph Graczyk]

In his paper "A diachronic perspective on active/stative alignment in Siouan,
Bob Rankin wrote:

"Dakotan has innovated a great many statively-marked verbs with the ka- 'by
striking' instrumental prefix (Xmelnitsky, Siouan e-list), but comparative
evidence makes it highly unlikely that stative verbs in Proto-Siouan could
take any instrumental prefix except *Ra 'by heat' (which is typically
stative).  Other instrumentals always seem to have the effect of raising the
"activity" level of the verb, i.e., they make the verb active or transitive."
(p. 13)

Crow has a fairly extensive set of stative verbs with the dak- prefix, which
is cognate with Dakotan ka-.  The following is a sampling: dakka'hpi 'blown
away by the wind', dakku'c^i 'swing, wave', daksaks^i' 'fit into', daks^i'pi
'slow (animate)', daku'xs^i 'quick, frisky, energetic' (Hi nako'xti 'light in
weight'), dappi'axi 'light in weight', dappi'c^i' soaked', dappu's^i
'swollen', das^s^ipi' 'cave in, sink in, collapse', das^s^ua' 'bent, dented'
(Hi naks^ua 'dent'), dac^c^eepi' 'penetrate, go inside the body', dac^c^ic^i'
'winded, exhausted', daxc^i' 'choke, gag' (Hi na'ks^i 'choke').  (Note that
in Crow the k of the dak- prefix often assimilates to the following
obstruent.)

Boas and Deloria (p. 46-48) give lists of stative verbs with the ka- prefix,
both those that occur only as statives, and another set that may be used as
both actives and statives.  B and D note that verbs with the ka- prefix often
express action 'by the wind, current, or other natural forces'.  Several of
the Crow verbs have this type of meaning.  Also, there is at least one Crow
form that can occur both actively and statively: daxc^i' 'tie, tie up,
imprison' (active); 'choke, gag' (stative).  A derived form of this stem is
a'ap-daxc^i 'hang (execute)' (active); 'hang by the neck' (stative).  I
suspect that there may be a few more that can be used both actively and
statively, but I need to check.

It seems unlikely to me that both Dakotan and Missouri River Siouan would
have independently innovated in such similar ways.  I would suggest that the
stative usage of *daka- may go back to Proto-Siouan.  It would be nice to
have some corroboration from other branches of the family, but I don't know
if there is any.

Randy
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