Active & stative verbs in biclausal sentences.

[Rory M Larson]

Bob wrote:
> So, in the language(s) YOU are studying, can
> you have something like:
>
> 1.  I ran fast and am very tired.  (two conjugated verbs)
>
> And, then, in the sentence:
>
> 2.  The boy chased the deer and (X) was very tired.
>
> Would the sentence, without any noun or pronoun mentioned for X, mean
> "the boy chased the deer and he (the boy) was very tired" OR would it
> mean "The boy chased the deer and he (the deer) was very tired."?  Or
> would it simply remain ambiguous?  How do speakers treat this?

I'm not sure this question can even be answered for OP.  One of
our long-standing frustrations in learning and teaching this
language is that they just don't seem to have words that equate
to our "and" and "or".  Lakhota does, but OP doesn't.  To put
these sentences into modern Omaha, you'd probably just replace
the "and" with a comma.  At that point, of course, you just have
two separate, short sentences.

For what it's worth, I tried testing my Omaha translation of
these two sentences with our speakers.  Both were accepted.

> 1.  I ran fast and am very tired.  (two conjugated verbs)

  AnoN'hegamaz^i, oNwoN'z^edha.
  I ran like mad; I'm tired.

> 2.  The boy chased the deer and (X) was very tired.

  Nu'z^iNga akha' ta'xti dhix^a', uz^e'dha.
  Boy       the   deer   chased,  he's tired.

I asked who was tired in the second sentence, and it seemed
obvious to the speakers that it was the boy.  When I asked
how to say "The boy chased the deer so the deer was tired",
the arthritic elder speaker rejected the idea on grounds that
"Deers don't get tired.  They just go running and jumping all
over the place."

At this point, Mark drove them away.  Maybe I can pick this
up with them again later.

Rory