Lakota wa- 'variety object'

[ROOD DAVID S]

> Hi Bob:
>
> You brought up something that I haven't thought of yet
> -- explaining the structures I have via the
> detransitivizing function of *wa-*. But let's see how
> this works in detail in my examples. In
>
> (1)	thi-w-í-wa-'uN
>         house-things.PAT-paint-1SG.AG-paint
>
> the starting point is the transitive verb *i'u`N* 'to
> paint', which has valence slots for AG and PAT. *wa-*
> as a detransitivizer functions to eliminate the PAT.
> So *i'u`N* plus *wa-* yields 'to paint' minus PAT,
> i.e. detransitivized 'to paint' (or, with incorporated
> *thi-*, detransitivized 'house-paint'). But in (1)
> there are two *wa-*affixes. Where is the additional
> PAT slot that is eliminated by the second *wa-*? In
> your equation, we'd get detransitivized 'to paint'
> minus PAT, i.e. a verb with a valence of [-1] for PAT.


Sorry -- I only see one WA- prefix here; the other one is the first person
agent.




>
> But we can take it even further. My speaker also gave
> me
>
> (2)	w-í-wa-w-iyuNg^a-pi
> 	WA-LOC-WA-WA-ask-PL
>         'they ask around about him'
>
> and this structure contains three *wa-*s. The base
> verb *iyúNg^a* 'to ask' is transitive, so that, after
> three detransitivizations or PAT-eliminations, we'd
> get a valence of [-2] for PAT. So I conclude that
> rather than taking away valence slots, *wa-* functions
> to add slots, at least in some cases.
>
Yes, but one of these wa's goes with the i- prefix this time.  iyunga is
di-transitive, and you can get both wiunga and wawiunga.  I don't know a
verb i'iyunga, but that has to be the base for wiwawiyungapi.  The thing
that's adding the slot is the instrumental prefix.

David




> Regina
>
>
>
>
>
>
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