Re: Miapimoquitch text: Eye Juggler (long)

Dirk Elzinga wrote at 2004-01-21 08:31:15 (-0700)
 > Hi everyone.
 >
 > So this is where the rubber hits the road (as my dad would
 > say). I've been hinting around for a while now about the changes
 > I've made to Miapimoquitch. Well, I spent the day yesterday
 > translating a text -- it's a version of the Great Basin story "Eye
 > Juggler".

Masterful work.  I'm always pleased to see Miapimoquitch material.  I
have some questions.

Questions about the first clause:

 >
 > 1.  [s1'piD1 ?i ?a'p1ja j1'hamm1Ga "1s1'p1G1~: ?i ?a'taBun1]
 >      sepite i apeya ehammeka esepeken i atapune
 >
 >      se-    pite i   a=  peya   e=  hamme  -ka
 >      3poss- see  OBL DS= Coyote SS= play:U -UN
 >
 >      e=  se-    <Vk>   pen   i   a=  tapune
 >      SS= 3poss- <COLL> child OBL DS= Cottontail
 >
 >      Coyote saw Cottontail's children playing.
 >
 > Experiencers are expressed as possessors in predicates of sensory
 > perception and cognition ("psych predicates"). Psych predicates are
 > syntactically intransitive as are other possessive expressions; the
 > possessor can appear as an adjoined oblique predicate, as is the
 > case with _peya_ 'Coyote' and _tapune_ 'Cottontail'.
 >

It took me a while to understand this, and I'm not entirely certain I
grasp it even now.  What I understand you to have here is a series of
three intransitive predicates linked by the same-subject relation:

seen - playing - children

[I write "seen" rather than "see" as the subject, if I'm following
this, is the experienced party rather than the experiencer]

with oblique, different-subject possessors attached to the first and
third.  Do I have this right?

Now, you mention that possessive expressions are syntactically
intransitive - are the oblique possessor arguments then optional?  If
so, what would "sepite ehammeka esepeken i atapune" mean?  What about
"pite ehammeka esepeken i atapune"?  Are these valid sentences?

Does _pen_ show the same ambiguity between "offspring" and "juvenile"
as English "child"?

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