Dakota zipA cognates (General comment)

[Koontz John E]

I didn't have a chance to comment on this yesterday.  By the time I got
back to the list from family activities there was just time to finish up
the Winnebago list I had started culling in the morning.

I've decided to divide my comments into two parts, one general and one
more specific.

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002, Linda A Cumberland wrote:

> I've been trying to compile a list of Assiniboine verb roots over the past
> few weeks

In a way the preceding is perhaps the most significant comment to come out
of this whole exchange, because it sounds like this means that Linda has
been compiling an Assiniboine root list which is sufficiently well
developed at this point that it can casually provide 12 entries, if I
didn't lose count, relevant to a single chance-mentioned root.  And I was
just in the proces of saying how useful things like this were!  I hope
this list will be published at some point!  The use in comparative and
etymological studies is fairly obvious, but I think that this sort of
study has direct applications in language learning and morphological
analysis as well.

In terms of language learning, I think that direct study of lists like
this is perhaps a better way to learn word formation and analysis than the
various morphosyntacic approaches used in descriptive grammar, which are,
essentially paradigmatic ("dehydrated") as opposed to contextual.  I think
we are not entirely sure to what extent a speaker of any Siouan language
consciously manipulates the various morphological elements (other than
pronominals and enclitics) in speaking, but I suspect a fluent speaker is
at least aware of the existence of instrumentals and roots in juggling the
meanings of words, even though it also seems likely that the pairings and
their further derivations are usually lexicalized.

Consistent with this, perhaps is the apparent instinct of Siouan speakers
in setting up course materials that the essential thing is to learn
vocabulary in organized ways.  Grammar - syntax and inflection - are
regarded as ephemera that can be learned from example in exposure to
speakers; the essence of the language is the lexicon that encodes the
world view.  In contrast the linguist tends to feel that the grammar is
the critical element and that the vocabulary can be plugged later as in as
needed.  The speaker says "Learn these words and by the way you'll notice
I use them with this grammar."  The linguist says "Learn these paradigms
and by the way here are a few words to use them on."

I recall that some of the moments of greatest pleasure for the Omaha
speakers I worked with involved producing lists of different instrumentals
with the same root, or applying sound symbolism to color terms, or, in one
case, simply "Oh, I haven't used that word in a long time!"

Linguists aren't oblivious to the interest of vocabulary, though they do
tend to put it in terms of dehydrated formulae for derivations.  ("Just
add roots to produce real words!")  Siouanists, however, have been
repeatedly drawn to an examination of the logic of the Siouan motion
verbs, Siouan kinship systems, or Siouan instrumental systems.