Serial verbs

Sat Feb 22 14:08:13 UTC 2014

Dear Willem,

Thank you for sharing your interesting paper on Serial Verb in Lakota.

One thing that caught my eye is the statement that the V2 is always
intransitive. In my experience compound verbs with transitive V2 are as
common as those with intransitive V2. 

I thought it might be something you would want to look at if you have a
chance to revise the paper.

All the best

Jan

From: Siouan Linguistics [mailto:SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] On Behalf Of De
Reuse, Willem
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 8:29 PM
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Serial verbs

Dear David and all:

Attached, a .pdf of my article on Serial Verbs in Lakota.

All of the Lakota forms in this article are from field research done by
others, so it never hurts to check with a Lakota speaker, if you see
something you doubt.

I don't think it should be a problem if I share this article to this list.
If it is a problem, let me know.    Full quotation available at Oxford
University Press website. Use for scholarly purposes only, and do not post
anywhere else.

Best,

Willem

  _____  

From: Siouan Linguistics <SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu> on behalf of David
Kaufman <dvkanth2010 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 12:53 PM
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives 

Thanks Rory and Justin for the feedback. 

On another note, I've also been wondering about how serial verbs are handled
in Siouan in general.  In the Kaw data, when two verbs come together, the
second verb always conjugates for person while the first looks like it can
either conjugate to match the second verb or it can stay in the third person
(neutral) form.  I seem to recall that in Biloxi, serial verbs *always*
match, first and second verbs having the same person conjugation.  What do
other Siouan languages do in regards to this?  Are there any hard and fast
rules about this?

Thanks again!

Dave

David Kaufman

Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas

Director, Kaw Nation Language Program

On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 5:15 PM, Rory Larson <rlarson1 at unl.edu> wrote:

Thanks for the analysis, Justin.  That makes much better sense than what I
had suggested.  Very interesting that the Kaw (a)be particle, which should
be either cognate or closely related to the Omaha (a)bi particle, can
ablaut.  I wasn't aware of that; it's good to know.

Best,

Rory

From: Siouan Linguistics [mailto:SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] On Behalf Of
Mcbride, Justin
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 3:00 PM
To: SIOUAN at LISTSERV.UNL.EDU
Subject: Re: Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives

For what it's worth, I believe that what appears to be a second token of aba
in the example, aba-daN is actually a different type altogether. In this
case, I think it's a case of the verb e(e), 'to say', plus the -(a)be
completive aspect marker plus the conjunction -(a)daN, 'and'
[e(e)-(a)be-(a)daN > aba-daN]. If so, then, that one really is just 's/he
said and,' and the first one is actually the subject marker. But that's not
to say that there aren't other examples of the quotative use of subject
markers in Ks, even within the same text. Here's an example of quotative
akHa:

iccikkitaNga akha oo aNs^i waali miNkHe akHa.

The Old Man said, "Oh, I'm getting fat."

This case is much clearer to my way of thinking because there are two verbal
auxiliaries marking the same state (in this case, at rest) back-to-back, one
of which refers to 1st person (miNkHe, part of the quotation), and one 3rd
person (akHa, marks quotation). It's curious to note that in the audio for
this, the speaker laughs after miNkHe and then almost catches her breath
before saying akHa, which would indicate to me that she felt it was
essential for concluding the sentence. It's interesting to me in that it
seems that the entire quoted clause is acting almost like a verb following
the canonical pattern (subject) SUBJ (verb) AUX, where SUBJ and AUX match
shape in the continuative aspect, as in s^idoz^iNga akHa ghaage akHa, 'the
boy is crying.' 

-jtm

On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Rory Larson <rlarson1 at unl.edu> wrote:

Hi Dave,

In Omaha and Ponca, the corresponding article is amá, where you have abá.
As with Kaw, it tends to imply 'moving/absent'.  But we also have another
particle, apparently pronounced the same way, coming at the end of the
sentence, that implies that the foregoing is hearsay rather than solid fact.
It can stand by itself, or it can be coupled with the 'allegedly' particle
bi to make the common ending for 3rd person hearsay action, biama.

I notice the accent changes to the first syllable in the second case of your
example.  I wonder if that could be underlyingly a-aba in that case?  The
first would be the ablauted version of 'he said it', followed by either the
Old Man's article abá or a 'hearsay' particle as in OP.  One problem with
that would be that the 'hearsay' amá in OP shouldn't cause a preceding verb
to ablaut.

My $0.02.

Best,

Rory

From: Siouan Linguistics [mailto:SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] On Behalf Of David
Kaufman
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 1:30 PM
To: SIOUAN at LISTSERV.UNL.EDU
Subject: Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives

Hi all,

I have a question re: a curious structure in Kaw, and whether anything like
it occurs in other Dhegihan or even non-Dhegihan Siouan languages.  The
structure involves the articles akhá and abá, used for subjects in Kaw and
usually translated 'the', the first being roughly for 'standing/sitting' and
the other for 'moving/absent'.  However, in Kaw, these subject articles also
somehow seem to have become used as quotatives, or 's/he said.'  Here is an
example sentence with gloss:

Icíkitanga  abá, "Anyáxtaga-édan," ába-dan,  nanstábe.

Old.Man   said   bite.me-then          said-then   kicked.him

The Old Man said, "Then bite me," and he kicked him.

So abá, which is normally used for 'moving' subjects and is usually
translated 'the', is now being used for 's/he said.'  

Any thoughts on this, esp. from other Dhegihan perspectives, or other Siouan
languages that might have some similar usage?

Thanks!

David Kaufman

Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas

Director, Kaw Nation Language Program

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