In two of Kenoi’s three ‘at-night’ narratives, it is the main character who is fourth-person-tracked. The man and the woman, who play the shaman’s part in “The False Shaman” and “The Woman Shaman” respectively, are the main characters in these and are fourth-person-tracked
throughout. In both these narratives, the Indians also as a group are fourth-person-tracked at certain points in “The Woman Shaman”, throughout. In “The Woman Shaman” there is a third-person-coded participant only in the last third of the narrative the enemy soldiers who
creep up on the windbreak inside which the Indians are sitting. The third narrative “The Apache and the Comanche” is told from the Apache’s point of view and the Apache must be considered the main characters, third-person-coded initially until one of their number is singled out and is
fourth-person-tracked. In the last third of the narrative, the Apache group are fourth-person-tracked.
The conclusion is that a referential fourth-person-coded participant is not intrinsically more or less topical than a third-person-coded participant, whether it be the fourth person coding of a participant in fourth person tracking section 3 or in post-quotatives sections 4 and 5.
Non-referential usages of the fourth person are to some degree ‘impersonal’ section 6.
7.2.2 Avoidance of the obviation system
If fourth person is not used for the disambiguation of participants as was suggested by Young and Morgan sections 3, 3.7, when is fourth person used rather than third?
Before considering this question, notice that, when there is fourth person tracking, transitive verbs involving two participants, of which one is fourth-person-tracked, will be either bi-ji-V fourth is subject yi-ji-V is non-occurring section 2.1 or go-Ø-V fourth is object instead of yi-
Ø-V or bi-Ø-V in which all pronominals are third; that is, whichever of the two participants is fourth-person-coded, yi-coding of either does not arise; or in other words there is no yi-bi- choice.
Consider then the episode in “The Foolish People Acquire Coffee” in which the Foolish People are fourth-person-tracked. The Foolish People have brought back some coffee from somewhere but don’t know how to handle it. A Mescalero living among them tells them to give him some of
it and they watch him as he demonstrates how coffee is roasted and ground. Both participants are non-agents at some point and would be coded by obviative yi- if no fourth were used. If there is fourth person coding of either, then, as noted, the use of the obviative yi- is avoided. In “The
Foolish People Acquire Coffee”, it is the Foolish People who are fourth-person-tracked as soon as the Mescalero appears on the scene. yi-coding of the Foolish People, the main characters, is avoided, and yi-coding of the Mescalero also, a locally topical participant.
Aissen says use of fourth person tracking “permits the continual reference to the main character outside the obviation system” i.e. avoiding yi- vs. bi- as in “The Foolish People Acquire Coffee” above and “use of the 4th person to avoid the 3rd may be motivated precisely by the desire
or need to avoid the obviation system” Aissen 2000:147. Willie speaks of ‘overriding’ the animacy hierarchy in Navajo Willie 1991:131 by the use of the fourth person. When two nominals are
coindexed with third person pronominals in a clause, the animacy hierarchy requires that a nominal having reference to a human precede a nominal having reference to a non-human. Therefore, if the non-human is agent, an inverse bi-verb must be used as in 104:
104 ashkii łééchąąí bishxash
ibid. 122 boy
dog
INV
3.3.bit ‘the dog bit the boy’
This requirement can be avoided by the use of a fourth person object pronominal ha-:
105 łééchąąí hashxash
ibid. 123 dog
4.3.bit ‘the dog bit himthat person’
Inverse bi-clauses with two NP occur infrequently in Mithlo and Kenoi’s narratives. One clear example is 106 repeated from 12 that occurs in Mithlo’s “Coyote Obtains Fire”:
106 ʔákoo ʔá
- ń
maʔye -ń ńłch’iʔ -í
bijoosⁿdee -go […]
then that -
REL
coyote -
REL
wind -
REL
3:3.help -
SUB
[…] ‘then that Coyote the wind helping him […]’
Here bi- is coding the main character Coyote. The animate anthropomorphised maʔyeń ‘Coyote’ precedes the inanimate ńłch’iʔí ‘wind’.
yi-coding of the main character is generally avoided in both Mithlo and Kenoi’s narratives.
7.2.3 Commentary on “The First Mountain Spirit Ceremony”
