Lakota wa- 'variety object'

[R. Rankin]

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

My Dakotan muse has deserted me, but I'm reminded
of a sort of construction found in Slavic.
Russian doesn't have the same sorts of pronominal
arguments and/or valence markers, but it does have
special ways of distinguishing "I painted the
house" from "I painted here and there on the
house", and it does this with case selection.

"I painted the house" will have 'house' in the
accusative case.

"I painted about the house" or the like can have
'house' in the instrumental case if memory serves.

Or, "I threw the stone" -- 'stone' is accusative.

But "I tossed stones around" -- 'stones' is
instrumental.

Languages seem to have interesting special ways of
doing what we're calling "various ways" in
Dakotan.

Bob