In:Neglected Aspects of Motion-Event Description: Deixis, asymmetries, constructions
Edited by Laure Sarda and Benjamin Fagard
[Human Cognitive Processing 72] 2022
► pp. 209–233
Chapter 10The description of transitive directed motion in Lakhota (Siouan)
Published online: 7 July 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.72.10oss
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.72.10oss
Abstract
Siouan languages such as Lakhota provide an interesting case for the study of transitive directed motion descriptions because of their rich inventory of deictic motion verbs and instrumental (causative) affixes. The goal of this article is to show in detail how the different meaning components involved in such descriptions are distributed over the lexicon, the morphology, and the syntax of Lakhota. In particular, Lakhota supports a multi-verb construction for expressing transitive directed motion that consists of a transitivized deictic motion verb used as the main verb, which encodes caused motion or accompanied motion, and a dependent verb that describes the way in which the actor sets or keeps the undergoer in motion and the manner in which the undergoer moves.
Keywords: causation, deictic motion, Lakhota, multi-verb construction, Siouan, transitive motion
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Semantic parameters of transitive directed motion
- 3.General properties of Lakhota
- 3.1Verbal morphology
- 3.2Multi-verb constructions
- 4.The expression of (transitive) directed motion in Lakhota
- 4.1Deictic motion verbs (= verbs of coming and going)
- 4.2The expression of goals and directions
- 4.3Transitive deictic motion verbs
- 4.4Expressing manner and causal force in directed motion constructions
- 5.Instrumental prefixes
- 5.1Overview of the inventory
- 5.2Aktionsart properties of instrumental prefixes and prefixed verbs
- 6.The composition of causation, manner, and deictic motion
- 7.Typological perspectives
Acknowledgements Notes Abbreviations References
References (33)
Boas, F., & Deloria, E. C. 1941. Dakota grammar [Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences V23]. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Bohnemeyer, J., Enfield, N. J., Essegbey, J., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I., Kita, S., Lüpke, F., & Ameka, F. K. 2007. Principles of event segmentation in language: The case of motion events. Language, 83(3), 495–532.
Bohnemeyer, J., & Van Valin, Jr., R. D. 2017. The macro-event property and the layered structure of the clause. Studies in Language, 41(1), 142–197.
Boyle, J. P. 2011. Switch-reference in Hidatsa: The evolution of a grammatical system. International Journal of American Linguistics, 77(3), 413–428.
Buechel, E., & Manhart, P. 2002. Lakota dictionary. New comprehensive edition. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Cumberland, L. A. 2005. A grammar of Assiniboine: a Siouan language of the Northern Plains. PhD thesis, Indiana University.
de Reuse, W. J. 2006. Serial verbs in Lakota (Siouan). In A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (Eds.), Serial verb constructions (301–318). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gehrke, B. 2008. Ps in motion. On the semantics and syntax of P elements and motion events. Utrecht: LOT.
Matsumoto, Y., Akita, K., & Takahashi, K. 2017. The functional nature of deictic verbs and the coding patterns of deixis: An experimental study in English, Japanese, and Thai. In I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano (Ed.), Motion and space across languages: Theory and applications (95–122). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Matsuse, I. 2020. Distinct coding of deixis and path in Kathmandu Newar. In Y. Matsumoto & K. Kawachi (Eds.), Broader perspectives on motion event descriptions (25–40). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Merlan, F. 1985. Split-intransitivity: Functional opposition in intransitive inflection. In J. Nichols & A. Woodbury (Eds.), Grammar inside and outside the clause (324–362). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Michotte, A. 1954. La perception de la causalité. 2nd edition. Louvain: Publications Universitaires de Louvain.
Parks, D. R., DeMallie, R. J., & Cumberland, L. A. 2012. Assiniboine Narratives from Fort Belknap, Montana. Stories told by Rose Weasel. Part 1: Interlinear Texts. Bloomington, IN: American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University.
Pinker, S. 1989. Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rankin, R., Boyle, J., Graczyk, R., & Koontz, J. 2002. A synchronic and diachronic perspective on ‘word’ in Siouan. In R. M. W. Dixon & A. Y. Aikhenvald (Eds.), Word. A cross-linguistic typology (180–204). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rankin, R. L., Carter, R. T., Jones, A. W., Koontz, J. E., Rood, D. S., & Hartmann, I. 2015. Comparative Siouan dictionary. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Rood, D. S., & Taylor, A. R. 1996. Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan language. In I. Goddard (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 17 (440–482). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Talmy, L. 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics. Volume I: Concept structuring systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Taylor, A. R. 1976. On verbs of motion in Siouan languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 42(4), 287–296.
Ullrich, J. (Ed.) 2011. New Lakota dictionary. 2nd edition. Bloomington, IN: Lakota Language Consortium.
2018. Modification, secondary predication and multi-verb constructions in Lakota. PhD thesis, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.
Van Valin, Jr., R. D. 1985. Case marking and the structure of the Lakhota clause. In J. Nichols & A. Woodbury (Eds.), Grammar inside and outside the clause (363–413). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2013. Head-marking languages and linguistic theory. In B. Bickel, L. A. Grenoble, D. A. Peterson & A. Timberlake (Eds.), Language typology and historical contingency (91–124). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
