Re: Polysynth Question

Thanks for the reminder, Jeff.

You asked three things, as I recall: 1) more on psych predicates, 2)
switch reference and transitivity, and 3) third person acting on a
second person.

1)  Predicates of perception or mental states are formed by suffixing
the possessive markers to stems; this creates intransitive predicates.
The possessive affixes are:

-wa 1st person
-ku 2nd person
se- 3rd person

The first and second person possessives are suffixes; the third person
possessive is a prefix. Here are some examples of psych predicates
using the stem 'pite':

pitte -ka -wa
see(IMPF) -IMPF -1poss
'I see him.' (lit: 'he is my seeing')

(This form of the stem is the one used for imperfectives / indefinites.)

pittekaku
pitte -ka -ku
see:IMPF -IMPF -2poss
'You see him.' (lit: 'he is your seeing')

sepitteka
se- pitte -ka
3poss- see:IMPF -IMPF
'He sees him.' (lit: 'he is his seeing.')

pitewa etukkana
pite -wa e= tukkana
see -1poss SS= thrush:IMPF
'I watched a thrush.' (lit: 'a thrush was my seeing')

All of these clauses are intransitive. In principle, it should be
possible to make any of them transitive by adding the transitive
prefix n-, but I don't know what it would mean to do this. Other psych
predicate stems include:

enga 'fear'
ama 'feel'
napa 'hear'
weti 'know'
sunu 'learn'
supa 'like, love; please'
sua 'look'
nangu 'remember'
nusi 'smell'
huyu 'understand'

2) I believe that the switch reference markers can appear with
transitive predicates. I can't find any examples, which I believe is
due to how I seem to be constructing sentences in Miapimoquitch. In
the longest passage I have (the story "Eye Juggler"), each new
"sentence" begins with a transitive predicate to which are adjoined
intransitive predicates. The intransitive predicates are introduced by
the switch reference markers. The next transitive predicate can be
introduced by an 'and' proclitic, but I don't have any switch
reference markers in this position. This merits some more thought. So
for now, I'd have to say that I think that a transitive sentence can
be introduced by a switch reference markers, but that the corpus is
not sufficiently developed for me to say this with certainty. (Before
you ask, I don't have the story in a finished form anymore; I tinkered
with it a while ago, but I can't remember if I finished revising it,
and I don't have lots of time for this sort of thing right now. It'll
have to wait for the end of semester.)

3) As for a third person acting on a second person, this is
accomplished by replacing the transitivity marker n- with the inverse
marker l-, as in the following:

pitewa akulkippeka
pite -wa a= ku= l- kippe -ka
see -1poss DS= 2>3= INV- poke:IMPF -IMPF
'I saw him--he was poking you.'

(Here's an example of a transitive sentence cooccuring with a switch
reference marker.)

In the 'poking' predicate, the person marker ku= involves both a
second person and a third person when transitive. The person hierarchy
is 2>1>3(>3'), so this marker normally corrsponds to a second person
acting on a third person. The inverse marker reverses the person
hierarchy so that it is now interpreted as a third person acting on a
second person.

I hope that answered your questions; let me know if it wasn't clear,
and I can try again.

Dirk