Lakota wa- 'variety object'

[ROOD DAVID S]

>
>
> > >
> > > (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.

This one bothers me -- I'll have to think about it.

> > 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.
>
> I agree. So we're left with a [-1] valence for PAT in
> this case.



No, we're left with a zero valence.  The first wa deletes the 'my name'
slot from 'ask me my name'; the second wa deletes the 'me' slot from the
same verb; the third wa- deletes the 'about him' which is contributed by
the i- prefix.  As with Bob's theory, I think the result in Lakhota is
very hard to express in English, so the speaker has to add in objects that
are not actually referenced by the Lak. grammar.

But the 'paint the picture with many colors' example needs musing.

David