Rory wrote:
> So the basic conjugation pattern for a typical stative verb
> ending in -e seems to work as follows:
>
> bi'ze 'dry'
>
> oNbi'ze 'I am dry'
>
> dhibi'ze 'thou art dry' dhibi'za 'you all are dry'
>
> wabi'ze 'we two are dry' wabi'za 'we all are dry'
>
> bi'ze 's/he is dry' wabi'za 'they are dry'
I beat this into the ground with the speakers on Monday,
and it seems the above paradigm needs to be corrected:
bi'ze 'dry'
oNbi'ze 'I am dry'
dhibi'ze 'thou art dry' dhibi'za 'you all are dry'
wabi'ze 'we two are dry' wabi'za 'we all are dry'
bi'ze 's/he is dry' (Obv.) bi'za 'they are dry'
bi'za 's/he is dry' (Prox.)
Interestingly, while wa- is the affixed pronoun for P3 plural
in active verbs, it does not seem to be so used for P3 plural
in stative verbs. I hadn't realized that before. Also, the
proximate/obviative distinction in 3rd person singular is
alive and well marked in the statives. We've even found some
contextual examples that help make that distinction a little
clearer to me.
Alberta, as a little girl, is helping her father in the
barn. She stoops to lift up a horse harness for him.
He is afraid she will hurt herself, and warns her:
Udhu'doNba ga!-- Ski'ge!
Watch out!-- It's heavy!
Here, the father's focus is on his daughter, and the harness
is simply a factor she must deal with. But if he were
actually discoursing upon the harness itself, he would say:
S^oN'ge-we'?iN akha' ski'ga.
Horse-harness the it's heavy.
The horse harness is heavy.
The akha' is definitely not restricted to animate beings.
The speakers spontaneously gave me two sentences using the
word for 'deep' (s^ku'be):
Ni' akha' s^ku'ba. Ma' akha' s^ku'ba.
Water the it's deep. Snow the it's deep.
The water is deep. The snow is deep.
Here, the focus is presumably on the water or the snow,
which both take the proximate article akha' as well as
proximate marking on the verb.
Rory