OP /the/ vs. /dhaN/ (Re: Dakota: verbs with 'hill' involved)

[are2 at buffalo.edu]

I can't resist putting in my 2 cents about articles.


>> OP /the/ is actually pretty complicated in its usage.  It can
> refer to a
> >> standing inanimate thing, like a post or a house, but it is
> perhaps most
> >> commonly used to refer to ordered sets of things, like (an armload
> of)
> >> rocks, or both members of a set of paired body parts.  Thus, one
> leg
> >> would be /khe/, "elongate", but both legs would be /the/, "the
> set". One
> >> eye would be /dhaN/, "globular", but both eyes would be /the/.  A
> single
> >> hand, however, is still /the/, I suppose because all the fingers
> >> composing it are regarded as a set.

Ok, I am not sure about how these were elicited but the pairs of body
parts associated with a given individual take the singular article in
most of the data I have seen produced naturally.
Ex. Zhibe kHe abita-a.

> > Or maybe hands are just upright things?
>
> Well, hands can come in various positions, and I suppose if
> the speaker wanted to emphasize a hand laid out flat they could
> use /khe/, or a fist might be /dhaN/.  I'll try to check with
> the speakers on that.  But the expected default for a hand in
> general without specifying anything about its position seems
> to be /the/.
>
> I don't think that the distinction of /the/ as 'vertical'
> and /khe/ as 'horizontal' really holds as such.  I'm pretty
> sure I've seen more than one instance in Dorsey referring to
> a rope or swing hanging down from a tree, i.e. vertical, and
> the positional used for it was /khe/, not /the/.  I think /khe/
> basically means 'elongate', or perhaps 'superficial'.  For a
> vertical thing to be /the/, I believe it has to be actually
> standing upright, not hanging.
>
> I don't know how it works in other Dhegihan languages, but in
> OP I think the essence of /the/ is 'ordered, founded thing',
> something set up like a post or house, something that
> obviously exists in defiance of entropy; or something that is
> right there, just so, at a specific spot; or a well-defined
> set of things that are tied together somehow.  The latter
> usage nicely contrasts with /ge/, meaning 'scattered things'
> not linked together belonging to an unbounded set.
>
>
> >> I think that /the/ also refers to very precisely located points,
> vs.
> >> /dhaN/, which implies a general area if referring to a location.
>
> > This materializes in the temporal use of /the/ and /dhaN/, e.g., in
> 'when'
> > uses.
>
> Yes.  My impression has been that /the/ was used for an
> instant of time, while /dhaN/ referred to a period.  I never
> found enough examples to be quite sure about this though.
>
> Rory
>
>
>