Lakota ki- 'to become by itself'

Tue Dec 11 19:44:05 UTC 2007

(quoting myself)
  Jan said that the ki- in my previous example ki-was^tecakA should be analyzed as a dative, rather than as ki- 'to become'. I responded that both options might be possible. I'm still defending that claim, but meantime I found rich documentation of dative ki- in ki-was^tecakA in my own data, with both types of datives. For instance:
  waki-was^tecake 'I was good to him'

  Regina

REGINA PUSTET <pustetrm at yahoo.com> wrote:    (quoting JAN) 
  >I think it should be noted here that the meaning of the prefix ki- is not "to become" but "to >return to the original state". 

  I was aware of this meaning which is listed in Boas/Deloria when I started working on ki-, but for some funny reason, my speakers didn't provide any data to support the hypothesis that 'to become again' is the sole meaning of ki- (which wouldn't work to well with stuff like David's ki-was>icu etc.). It might be an additional reading of the basic meaning 'to become'. 

  >In my experience and fieldword data, the prefix is not productive. 
  This coincides with my findings.

  >So I am a bit surprised by some of the words in Regina's list. 
  ki- might be productive enough to have produced words you haven't encountered. As for my own list, I would never claim that it is anywhere near complete.

  >ki-was^tecaka ye!  'behave yourself!'
   >This is a dative. It means "Be nice to him/her." 
  It's impossible to tell whether a certain ki- is a dative or a 'become'-ki- just from looking at the verb form. The translation might not always be helpful in resloving such conflicts. At least, in my translation, a secondary argument that represents a recipient or experiencer is not indicated. And I really trust my speakers.

  >Regina, what does your data say on conjugating the verbs in your list?
  Unfortunately, nothing. That's the weak spot in my data. As I said, I didn't do much work on ki- because I accidentally removed the file from the active field materials that needed double-checking years ago, as I found out yesterday. But having data on inflection might help answer the quesion of what particular type of ki- we're looking at in individual cases.

  Regina

Jan Ullrich <jfu at centrum.cz> wrote:
        I think it should be noted here that the meaning of the prefix ki- is not "to become" but "to return to the original state". Notice kini 'to come back to life', not 'to become alive'. The prefix is used with this meaning throughout the text corpus. Most of the words with ki- given in Buechel's dictionary originate in his translation of the Bible History texts (for instance ki-sagye – 'to turn into a cane' is used in the story about Moses) and are not attested by contemporary speakers. 
  It is true that some younger speakers today use ki- with the meaning 'to become', but its use is semantically restricted, occurs for instance in kiwichas^a – 'to become a man'. Deloria (in her grammar) defines kiwichas^a as 'to become a man again (like a human who in a tale had appeared in animal shape)' and kiwiNyaN as 'to become a (respectable) woman again'
  In my experience and fieldword data, the prefix is not productive. So I am a bit surprised by some of the words in Regina's list. If the words come from eliciting rather than texts, I would recoment caution and cross checking.

  > ki-ska 'to turn white'

  Deloria and a couple of my native informants give "to fade (to return to an original white color)" See also Bushotter's sentence: 
 oowa uN owapi tkha hechunpi chan echakchala kiska s'a – 'when they painted (those things) with colors they often faded'

  > ki-suta  'to get hard'

  'to become hard again' as in mazasu s^loyiN na kisuta  'The bullets he melted became hard again'

  > ki-bleza  'to become conscious'

  'to become clear-minded or conscious again, come to one's senses', this is often used for 'to sober up'

  > ki-was^tecaka ye!  'behave yourself!'

  This is a dative. It means "Be nice to him/her." Very common phrase.

  > ki-thamahecha  'to get skinny'
  > ki-haNska  'to get tall'
  > ki-ksapa  'he got smart'
  > ki-luzahaN 'to get fast'
  > ki-'okhate  'to become warm inside, like when turning up the heat'

  These are all somewhat surprising to me.

  Notice also, that for instance kini 'to come back to life' is an active verb (1s wakini), but kibleza 'to conscious again' is treated as a stative verb (1s: makibleze). This makes me wonder whether some of the ki- words actually originate in dative, just as akisni – 'to recover from smth, as a sickness (1s: amakisni)' or iyokiphi 'to be pleased with' 1s: iyomakiphi). 
  Regina, what does your data say on conjugating the verbs in your list?

  Jan

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