Blackfoot Grammar by Donald G. Frantz

Author:Donald G. Frantz [Frantz, Donald G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781487500863
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2017-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

(b) Nitá-oow-atoo’pi amostsi paatákistsi.

‘I’m eating these potatoes.’

(c) Nitá-oow-atawa amo pi’kssííwa.

‘I’m eating this chicken.’

The portion (here preceded and followed by hyphens for ease of exposition) common to all of these stems is a verb root.2 Only a few verb roots can alone serve as a verb stem;3 most, like that above, must occur with a final. The stems in (a)–(c) differ from each other in that they end in different finals (highlighted).4 And as was stated above, the final determines the syntactic category of the stem. So the final in (a) determines that the verb stem is AI; consequently that stem occurs in an intransitive clause; i.e., one with no object unless that object is non-particular (recall from section C of chapter 7 that objects which are non-particular in reference do not count as objects for purposes of verb transitivity in Blackfoot). Likewise, the finals in (b) and (c) determine that the stems of these two examples are TA and TI, respectively, and occur in transitive clauses.

There are many roots which, like the one in (a)–(c), can occur with different finals. Here is another set of three sentences with verbs that share a common root, but this particular root selects different finals to form AI, TI, and TA stems:

(d) Kitá-omai’t-akihpoaawa.

‘You2p believe.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.