Comparative Siouan Grammar project

Tue Jun 24 19:27:23 UTC 2008

Dear Colleagues,

Before we get too far along with this project, we might want to set some goals and limits.  "Comparative grammar" is a pretty flexible topic and we might want to try to specify what we mean.  Does this mean "comparative and historical" in the traditional sense?  Or are people thinking more along the lines of synchronic grammars and some sort of typological approach?  Do we intend to limit ourselves to surface grammar (that's certainly what the historical apporoach would require) or should we admit solutions that appeal to invisible/hypothetical superstructure?  It seems to me that these would be vastly different projects appealing to different kinds of evidence and information.  It's probably worth thinking about in advance.

Thanks to a lot of hard work by Jill and Catherine, the meeting in Joplin was a lot of fun and very informative.  I'm looking forward to next year's meeting already.  

Bob

________________________________

In Billings, we had a planning session led by Linda Cumberland and John Boyle. On the huge blackboard there we outlined and summarized the topics to be included in the projected three volume opus of a CSG. 

According to my notes and recollections, Vol. III contains sketches of the individual Siouan languages following perhaps a common scheme (which does not exist yet, of course)

Vol. I contains investigations to the following topics. I will mention also the names as far as I can remember (I may be wrong, though).

Obliques/ Postpositions (Regina Pustet)
Applicatives (including the benefactive applicative) (Johannes Helmbrecht) 
Determiners (?)
Nominal Possession (?)
t-words (Bruce Ingham?)
Prefixes (morphological positions, etc.) (Bob Rankin)
Suffixes/ Enclitics  (Bob Rankin)
Relative Clauses (?)
Switch references and clase chaining (John Boyle)
Pronominals and the stative/active split (Bob Rankin)
Deictic motion verbs (Linda Cumberland)

Vol II contains the following topics:

Plural marking
Compounding
Noun incorporation
Causatives (Helmbrecht)
External Possession
Coordination
Subordination
Instrumentals
Absolutive (wa-)
TAM
Negation
Serial verbs (David Rood ?)

That's what I have in my notes perhaps John or Linda have more in their files. 

The topics of the two volumes as given above are unordered and rather a list of key words than a systematically developed structure of such a project. But it was the point where we stopped further planning. It might serve as the starting point for pushing the whole thing further. 

As I indicated in my last mail, it would be of some importance for me if I knew the precise date of the next conference in Lincoln. So, perhaps, this could be decided on in Joplin in the coming days.

I wish everyone a wonderful and exciting conference in Joplin,

Best
Johannes

Datum:             Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:38:13 -0500
Antwort an:       siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Von:                 "Catherine Rudin" <carudin1 at wsc.edu>
An:                   <siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU>
Betreff:             RE: Comparative Siouan Grammar project

> I agree with Bob; it all sounds good.  Language instructors' session
> is a good idea, and we should DEFINITELY get the momentum back for the
> comparative Siouan grammar project.   These two ideas don't conflict -
> we can do both and still have time for some regular papers at the 2009
> meeting.  
> 
> I think we should devote a whole day to comparative grammar, and we
> should get organized well in advance.  I wasn't able to get to
> Billings, and I've forgotten which topic I said I would look at (am I
> the only sieve-brain?) but I do think this is important!!! If Johannes
> is willing to be the organizer that would be great.  Is there someone
> who will be in Joplin who could bring the list of topics/chapters that
> was compiled before?  (And/or could someone circulate it
> electronically?)  I suspect I'm not the only one who could use a
> reminder.
> 
> I believe that Mark has not only offered, but we collectively have
> accepted Lincoln as the 2009 site.  The date I have noted is "June 5-7
> or 12-14".  Should we make a decision?
> 
> Let's include a quick "business meeting" in the Joplin schedule, with
> confirming at least next year's plans as item #1 on the agenda. 
> Tentative 2010 plans could be discussed too - Chicago or wherever.  
> 
> Apologies if any of you get two near-identical messages from me.  I
> tried to reply earlier to Mark's note, but it seems to have gone only
> to him, not to the list -- at least I hope that's what happened to it!
> 
> Catherine
> 
> >>> "Rankin, Robert L" <rankin at ku.edu> 06/17/08 12:53 PM >>>
> This all sounds really great to me.  Perhaps Johannes would like to be
> the organizer of the comparative sessions (which might, in turn,
> provide an even stronger rationale for his getting travel funds), and
> Mark could organize the language instructors' sessions.  Hopefully we
> could schedule them so that we could all attend both.
>  
> Bob
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU on behalf of Mark J
> Awakuni-Swetland
> Sent: Tue 6/17/2008 9:06 AM
> To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
> Cc: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU; siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
> Subject: Re: Comparative Siouan Grammar project
> 
> 
> 
> Aloha Johannes, 
> Many thanks for your suggestions about future SACC agendas. 
> I have offered to host the 2009 gathering here in Lincoln, Nebraska
> (the center of it all...or the most distant from anywhere else sort of
> place). 
> 
> The Dhegihanists have met here back in 2000 or so. 
> 
> I will be polling folks at Joplin about their interests regarding the
> agenda for 2009. 
> 
> If there is sufficient interest in organizing a session or three on
> the Comparative Siouan Grammar, Lincoln would be a good time to
> formalize it and push it forward a bit. 
> 
> There may be interest in organizing a session geared towards language
> instructors from on- and off-rez institutions. I would suspect that
> the Tribal Colleges in NE, SD, and OK might find this useful. Omaha
> Nation Public School (K-12), Walthill Public School, and Winnebago
> Public School could find some value in this as well. 
> 
> Let's put on our thinking caps as we head to Joplin. 
> 
> iNcHoNxti woNgithe widoNbe ttamiNkHe. 
> Uthixide 
> 
> Mark Awakuni-Swetland
> Assistant Professor of Anthropology
> and Native American Studies
> University of Nebraska
> Lincoln, NE 68588-0368
> 
> http://omahalanguage.unl.edu
> Phone 402-472-3455
> FAX: 402-472-9642
> 
> "Ttenixa uxpathe egoN" a biama, winisi akHa. 
> 
> 
> 
> "Prof. Dr. Johannes Helmbrecht"
> <johannes.helmbrecht at sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de> 
> Sent by: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU 
> 
> 06/17/2008 07:50 AM 
> Please respond to
> siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
> 
> 
> To
> siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU 
> cc
> Subject
> Re: Comparative Siouan Grammar project       
> 
>                      
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Siouanists,
> 
> I regret very much that I won't be able to attend this year's SCLC in
> Joplin,MO in particular because 
> the program seems to be so interesting. Since I won't be personally
> there, I would like to make 
> some suggestions from the other end of the world for the future
> conferences, which may be 
> discussed during the conference in Joplin.
> 
> One of the exciting projeGrammar. 
> Papers dealing with various aspects of Siouan grammar in a typological
> and historical comparative 
> perspective were presented there. We also compiled a list with
> additional topics filling all in all at 
> least two volumes. Unfortunately, this project came to a halt
> afterwards and I would like to give it a 
> new push. So, my suggestion would be to plan on a follow up workshop
> on Siouan Comparative 
> Grammar for the next year's conference, if this goal is still
> considered worthy among the participants 
> to invest time and research. Could you discuss this question during
> the coming days? 
> 
> For me personally, this implies that I will revise and expand my paper
> on applicatives in Siouan. In 
> addition, I volunteered for the causative constructions (if I recall
> that correctly), so I will start to work 
> on a draft version on this topic that will be presented at the
> conference next year.
> 
> Another important point for me is: I will be able to come next only,
> if I can get funding for an 
> overseas trip. This is not too difficult to obtain in particular for
> such a fascinating project, but I need 
> the conference details some months in advance in order to be able to
> apply for money. Therefore, I 
> would like to ask you to fix a date and location for the next and if
> possible for the conference in two 
> years so that people from abroad have a chance to get the necessary
> funding. John Boyle 
> mentioned to me that he is going to organize a conference in Chicago
> in 2010?
> 
> Anyway, I think the meeting in Joplin could provide a good opportunity
> to talk about the state of the 
> art with regard to the comparative Siouan Grammar project and to plan
> on the next steps. 
> Personally, I would like to participate in the planning, the
> organization, and the research as much as 
> I can so that this project will come to a succesful end.
> 
> So, I wish all of you a wonderful and interesting meeting in Joplin,
> 
> Best,
> Johannes
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Prof. Dr. Johannes Helmbrecht
> Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
> Universität Regensburg
> Philosophische Fakultät IV 
> Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft
> Universitätsstr. 31
> 93053 Regensburg
> Deutschland
> 
> Tel: ++49(0)941 943-3388
>        ++49(0)941 943-3387 (Sekretariat)
> Fax: ++49(0)941 943-2429
> E-Mail:    johannes.helmbrecht at sprachlit.uni-regenburg.de
> Webseite: http://www-avs.uni-regensburg.de/index.htm
> 
> 
> 

--

Prof. Dr. Johannes Helmbrecht
Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Regensburg
Philosophische Fakultät IV 
Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft
Universitätsstr. 31
93053 Regensburg
Deutschland

Tel: ++49(0)941 943-3388
        ++49(0)941 943-3387 (Sekretariat)
Fax: ++49(0)941 943-2429
E-Mail:    johannes.helmbrecht at sprachlit.uni-regenburg.de
Webseite: http://www-avs.uni-regensburg.de/index.htm <http://www-avs.uni-regensburg.de/index.htm> 