argument structure of k'u 'give'

[lcumberl at indiana.edu]

I need to correct some information I sent back in November:

"I have this in my data for Asb:

pusapina wiNc^ha-ma-k'u-pi  'they gave me the kittens'"

I noted that several people found this odd, and when I was checking some other
data with one of my consultants today - in fact, the one who gave me the above
example - she rejected it when I repeated it to her. I tried several other
sentences that might have produced wicha-ma-k'u and she rejected all of them. So
it appears that the original example was an error.

s^uka yamni mak'u   'he gave me three dogs'   *wichamak'u

but:

s^uka yamni wicha-mnuha 'I have three dogs'

suNkathaNka yamni ophe-wicha-wa-thuN 'I bought three horses'

Her feeling is that, when used with k'u, wicha refers only to people, as she
says "wicha is 'man', like those men, a bunch of people." She could not think of
situation in which wich-ma-k'u would be acceptable. It's as if wicha has a
different, more literal, meaning to her when it is used with k'u. When it is
used with other verbs, as in the two acceptable sentences above, she does not
perceive wicha as referring to people.


Just wanted to set the record straight.

Linda