Lakota wa- 'variety object'

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, Koontz John E wrote:

In thinking about the 'variety wa', I've come up with some questions.

> On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, REGINA PUSTET wrote:
> > (1) thi-w-í-wa-'uN
> >     house-things.PAT-paint-1SG.AG-paint
> >     'I paint the house in many places'
> >
> > (2) thi-'í-wa-'uN
> >     house-paint-1SG.AG-paint
> >     'I paint the house'

Can one add a color to either of these sentences?  If the w(a)- before i
does refer to the color painted with or the place painted, in short to the
paint application, then one would assume that only (2) can take a color
argument.

> > Moreover, *wa-* can, obviously, appear more than once per finite verb:
> >
> > (5) itówapi ki   hé  wa-w-í-wa-'uN
> >     picture   the that  WA-WA-paint-1SG.AG-paint
> >     'I am painting that picture with different colors'
> >
> > The extra *wa-*, according to my speaker, refers to 'different colors'
> > here.

I'd still make this two extra wa's, albeit one of them is the 'variety
wa-' and so now accounted for.  But if 'color' is separate from the issue
of 'variety wa-' then perhaps the additiona wa- is the color argument or
the indication of the omission of it.

> > This analysis is substantiated by the following examples:
> >
> > (6) sápa w-í-wa-'uN
> >     black  WA-paint-1SG.AG-paint
> >     'I paint it black'
> >
> > (7) *sápa wa-w-í-wa-'uN
> >     black   WA-WA-paint-1SG.AG-paint
> >     'I paint it black'
> >
> > The ungrammaticality of (7) can be blamed on the fact that in (7), *wa-*
> > and the color term *sápa* 'black' fill the same syntactic slot.

These last two examples show that it doesn't matter which wa- refers to
the color, i.e., in (1) it is the inner wa- that refers to multiple colors
and/or places, but in (6) that seems to refer to the thing painted on.

By contrast, in the Omaha-Ponca examples cited, the first or inner wa-
seems to refer to the indefinite object, e.g., an unspecified question in
we'maNghe' 'to ask an unspecified question; to questin', vs. i'maNghe
where the question is specific, while the second or outer wa- seems to
indicate multiplicity of the questions, e.g., in wawe'maNghe 'to ask
(different, several, various) questions' or, perhaps, 'to interrogate'.

Looking, Buechel lists forms like iyuN'gha 'to inquire of one, ask one a
question', wai'yuNgha 'to inquire', wi'yuNgha 'to ask questions or
inquire', wawi'yuNgha 'to inquire, ask questions', so I expect this
pattern can be investigated in Dakotan, too.

I can point to a possible additional 'variety (or multiplicity) wa-' in
Dakota.  Bruce Ingham's new Lakota grammar has a section on circumstantial
stems.  For example, for the circumstantial stem -khetu ~ -khel
'occurrence', he gives lists a non-specific verbal form tokhetu 'happen
somehow' (with a T-demonstrative), specific verbal form hec^hetu 'happen
thus' (with some other demonstrative), and a relational verb form
iyetc^hetu 'happen like ...' (with i + the e-demonstrative).  This
particular stem lacks adverbial or subordinate forms in khel, or perhaps
they are indistinguishable from those of the circumstantial stem -khec^a ~
-khel 'quality, occurrence of problem'.

There are a fairly large number of these circumstantial stems in Dakotan
(and other Siouan languages), and the prefixation of demonstratives and i
+ the e-demonstrative (relational circumstantial stem) does not exhaust
their morphology.  In particular, (p. 68) it is possible to prefix a wa-,
"an indefinite specific prefix which with verbs has the function of
increasing the valence [i.e, of recognizing it?  JEK] (see 4.5 above) and
with some circumstantial stems gives a more general or undefined meaning
as in wa-iyehaNl 'at about the time of' and wa-tohaNyaN 'for some time'."

===

I've just now also stumbled on this remark, p. 54, in Boas & Deloria:

"Transitive verbs may employ a double wa, one being direct, the other
indirect object:  waho'kuNk?iya 'he advises him', wawa'hokuNk?iya 'he
adsvises people about things', ignu' 'he mentions it to him', wi'gnu 'he
mentions (unkind) things to him', wawi'gnu 'he mentions (unkind) things to
people', ...

"It appears from these examples that the double wa ins the most
generalized term.  It is not always possible to trace the exact meaning of
the two objects. ..."

JEK