A Metaphorical Suggestion and meeting times.

[Eric]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 12:53 PM
Subject: RE: A Metaphorical Suggestion and meeting times.


> On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
> > I guess that, to me, that's what proximate/obviative IS basically.  It's
> > also been described as "central/peripheral" by Heather Hardy for
Muskogean,
> > where more than one reference is also possible in both categories, but I
> > suspect she may just not have been familiar with the established
> > "proximate/obviative" categories.
>
> I don't really have any problem with continuing to use the terms
> proximate/obviative, but I thought the staging metaphor was helpful in
> explaining the usual multiplicity of proximate references and the sorts of
> explanations of obviative references that Dorsey's sources offered.  It
> probably makes the Algonquianists feel more at ease, because I think they
> feel strongly that one proximate reference should be the maximum at a
> time.  This reminds me a bit of Classical theater's limits on the number
> of actors...........

A metaphor I've heard used in discussions of Algonquian obviation is that of
cinematic "point of view". The local (first and second person) participants
view the situation  from a "camera angle" that keeps the proximate referant
in the foreground. So in Algonquian you get proximate shifts of perspective
that reflect changes in the attitude of the speaker toward the relative
importance of the referants, just as cutting from one camera angle to
another in a movie can draw the audience's attention to what the director
wants to focus on.  The stage metaphor for Siouan sounds a bit more
objective to me.

--Eric N.