Active & stative verbs in biclausal sentences.

[R. Rankin]

That's great, Rory -- thanks!

I was wondering if both verbs might use -(b)i if the subjects were the same but
only one might use -(b)i otherwise, but it's probably not that easy.

As for "deers don't get tired", I should have forseen that from my time in the
field and made the object of the first clause "his brother".  My mistake.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rory M Larson" <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 4:24 PM
Subject: Re: Active & stative verbs in biclausal sentences.
> 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
>
>