Re: CHAT: Nakiltipkaspimak

Patrick Dunn wrote:

>Oh, that's simple enough, then.  Is there a special form of the noun used
>for such incorporation?  Is it usually the object of the verb, or the
>subject that incorporates?  Can both subject and object incorporate?
I briefly answered these questions in my previous post. Now to the more
interesting question. :)

>   And,
>finally, something that always puzzles me . . . how can one tell if the
>noun is incorporated or if it's a separate word?
The quick dirty answer is: you can't always. In languages where the
incorporated noun occurs between the verb stem and agreement, it is pretty
straightforward -- it is visually and audibly part of the verb. In
languages where the noun comes first or last in the verb, you cannot always
tell if they are attached or merely adjacent. My advisor and I disagree
about whether objects that have not been marked accusative in Chickasaw are
incorporated or not. She's worked on the language for 20 years and thinks
they are, I've worked on it for just over a year, and think they aren't.
(Truth be told, I have a much better argument than she does, and at least
one of my syntax professors agrees with me after reading my explanation.)

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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
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