argument structure k'u etc.

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005, "Alfred W. Tüting" wrote:
> I'd be interested in examples of other languages.

The within-verb prefixal arguments are pretty much the same in all
Mississippi Valley Siouan (MVS).  I'm not sure about further afield.  As
far as I know the potential to mention the patient - "the thing
transferred" - as a nominal argument within the clause is also constant
across MVS.

Within Omaha-Ponca I don't know of syntactic phenomena
distinguishing

1) the behavior of nominal patients and recipients of 'give' or dative
verbs, or

2) distinguishing arguments and non-arguments (other than prefix concord
or presence of postpositions), or

3) associating one or the other with the objects of simple transitives.

Postpositions may not be distinctive of non-arguments.   I know of some
cases of nouns with the akha/ama article (notmally for proximate
subjects) but also having postpositions.  And I think some more peripheral
(locative) nouns may be goverened by locative prefixes.

These are areas in which I haven't looked in Dhegiha.  Ardis or Catherine
may have.

> 2) Moreover, I'd suspect that _k'u_ in Lakota is a somewhat unusual form
> actually having the dative particle _-ki-_ built in (*ki-u -> k'u,
> phonetically maybe similar to _k'un_ <- *kin un).

I've suggested this as a possibility, too, but it would have to be way
before Dakotan, because *k?u 'give' has reflexes throughout Siouan.

Somewhat off the track, but ditto for the *?-stems like *?uN that you
mention, though, ironically, in most languages these have non-ejective
phonology.  I think not all of them are ejective even across Dakotan.  In
fact, the k?- and uNk?-forms in Dakotan ?-stems and the Winnebago second
persons in s^-?- in ?-stems are the only forms of *?-stems with ? that I
can recall, and I tend to believe that ? in these forms that have it is
secondary.  The original inflection pattern seems to have been first
person *m-, second person *y-, which look like prevocalic variants of *wa-
and *ya-.  There is considerable intrusion of second persons in *(s^)-n-
from nasalized *r-stems in the ?-stem inflection, e.g., in Dakotan, where
n- (< s^-n- (?)) occurs in the second persons of ?-stems.  Given Dhegiha
z^- < *y- I'd expect Dakotan *c^h-.

k