Being and Becoming in Ojibwe  

Oleh:

Valentine, J. Randolph

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Anthropological Linguistics (ada di JSTOR) vol. 43 no. 4 (Mar. 2001), page 431-470.
Fulltext: Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 431-470.pdf (3.64MB)

Isi artikel

Drawing on textual materials from several dialects of Ojibwe, this article describes an array of morphological and syntactic constructions used to express identity, equation, existence, possession, location, and focus. Identity constructions with the verb asawi 'be an X' are shown to consistently place their predicate nominal before the verb, suggesting that this position is particularly associated with indefiniteness. By contrast, expressions of equation, which typi- cally have definite predicate nominals, show more variability in the positioning of the predicate nominal. Denominal verbs of identity are also examined, focus- ing on those which have pronominals as bases. Several distinct sets of verbs of existence are presented, particularly the verb ayaas, which has a variety of func- tions, expressing identity, existence, and possession, and serving as a diluted base for a host of preverbs expressing various psychological and physical states. Various verbless constructions related to identity and focus are also examined, particularly those involving the ubiquitous predicative particle mii.

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