58 049 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
Child of the Water speaks to Killer of Enemies: 050
“Don’t cry,” 052
yi-Ø-V he says to him.
053 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
Killer of Enemies speaks to Child of the Water: 054
“I cry because Giant is coming,” 055
go-Ø-V he says to him.
056
a
oNP bi- ji- V
-go He CoW beginning to eat the meat-
SUB
057 go- yi-Ø-V
he Giant took it from him.
058 “You sg have that which I will eat,”
059 sNP postposed go- Ø-V
he says to him, Giant does.
060 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
Child of the Water speaks to Giant: 061
I have prepared that which you will make your excrement, 062
go-Ø-V he says to him.
a
Hoijer has ‘they’ and ‘them’ for ‘he’ and ‘him’ CoW in clauses 056–059 but note the second singular subject prefix in the quote. Third and fourth person dual verb forms are the same as the corresponding singular forms unless the
rare dual prefix is used see Hoijer 1945:203.
The quote of 058 has no pre-quotative when there is fourth person tracking, about 70 of quotes are without a pre-quotative in Mithlo’s ten narratives. Since the quote occurs within the fourth person tracking unit clauses 056–059, it could be expected that if there were a pre-quotative
it would be of the form sNP go-Ø-V the addressee, Child of the Water, is the fourth-person-tracked participant. If the pre-quotative were sNP oNP yi-Ø-V—presumably an acceptable alternative—this would create a reference-switching unit comprising the pre-quotative and clauses 058–
062; there would still be a fourth person tracking unit clauses 056–057. In passing, note that props the arrows in 56 and the meat in 57 and 58 are third-person-coded, by yi- when the subject is third person
Giant in these passages and by bi- when the subject is fourth Child of the Water in these passages yi- never occurring with a fourth person subject ji-, section 2.1. The alternation between yi- and bi-, dependent upon the person of the subject, is particularly noticeable in 57 clauses
065-068.
4.4 Pragmatics of the post-quotative pronominal choices
In this section, the pragmatics of the third and fourth person pronominal choices in post-quotatives will be considered, verb forms yi-Ø-V versus go-Ø-V, encountered when pre-quotatives are of the form sNP oNP yi-Ø-V see chart 55.
When the pre-quotative is sNP oNP yi-Ø-V, the addressee is coded by obviative yi- and the point of view is with the speaker of the quote. Therefore, when all pre-quotatives are of the form sNP oNP yi-Ø-V in a dialogue, the point of view of the two speakers is taken alternately; local
topicality does not rest with either participant. It is in Mithlo’s “The Killing of the Giant” and in the second half of his “The Child of the Water”
that most instances of pre-quotative sNP oNP yi-Ø-V are found and with these particular pre-quotatives, two thirds of the post-quotatives are go- Ø-V. In these two narratives, there is one soliloquy with pre-quotative sNP Ø-V but otherwise all pre-quotatives are of the form sNP oNP yi-Ø-V,
or can be oNP yi-Ø-V when there is no change of subject, or are reduced to sNP omitting from consideration just one anomalous same-non-agent unit
30
. The alternating point of view correlates with the fact that confrontation between the participants is more sustained in these two narratives than in the other Mithlo narratives: in “The Child of the Water”, White Painted Woman and Giant are each trying to foil the other in
respect of Child of the Water, and in “The Killing of the Giant”, Child of the Water and Giant are each trying to kill the other. In “The Killing of the Bull”, the narrative having the next highest frequency of fourth person reference-switching canonical forms listed in
chart 55, there are five post-quotatives sNP go-Ø-V, four occurring when fourth person tracking is not in operation. These four post-quotatives occur either with the only two pre-quotatives in the narrative, which both have the form sNP oNP yi-Ø-V, or with no pre-quotative, or with one
reduced to sNP. The first post-quotative go-Ø-V occurs when Child of the Water announces to his mother that he is going out to kill the bull
31
to which plan she no doubt objects as she did when he was going out to kill Giant, passage 49, and the other three post-quotative verb forms go-
Ø-V when Gopher is urgent in his instruction of Child of the Water in how to use the tunnels that he will dig clauses 030, 036, and 039 of “The Killing of the Bull” in passage 60 below—but not when Child of the Water actually uses the tunnels to come under the bull to kill him when all
proceeds smoothly according to plan and is recounted relatively briefly, having been foreshadowed in Gopher’s instructions.
Given then that the consistent choice of pre-quotative sNP oNP yi-Ø-V is a mark of a degree of sustained confrontation in dialogue between two participants, what governs the choice between yi-Ø-V and go-Ø-V in the post-quotatives?
The hypothesis is made that the use of go- in a post-quotative highlights the quote it follows indicating tension between the two participants, and the discussion of the passages below in this section work out what the consequences of the hypothesis might be in the specific
cases. Some passages already presented in section 4.1 are repeated here. Consider the passage 59 from “The Killing of the Giant” repeated from passage 54:
59 095 sNP
oNP yi-Ø-V
Giant speaks to Child of the Water: 096
“Let’s shoot at each other,” 098
oNP yi-Ø-V
he says to Child of the Water. 099
“OK,” 100
sNP go-Ø-V
Child of the Water says to him. 101
sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Giant speaks to Child of the Water:
102 “You stand up for me,”
104 go-Ø-V
he says to him. 105
sNP Child of the Water:
106 “OK,”
107 go-Ø-V
he says to him. 108
go-Ø-V He stood up for him.
30
The unit is “The Child of the Water” clauses 073–076 which may be found towards the end of this section in passage 65 from this narrative.
31
See “The Killing of the Bull” clauses 002–005 in footnote 29 for the actual passage.
109 sNP
go-Ø-V Giant shot at him four times.
110 go-Ø-V
Every time he misses him. 111
sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Child of the Water speaks to Giant:
112 “You stand up for me,”
113 yi-Ø-V
he says to him. 114
sNP go-Ø-V
Giant stood up for him. 116
go-Ø-V He is not afraid of him.
117 sNP
go-Ø-V Child of the Water shot at him.
119 go-Ø-V
He shot at him again. 121
go-Ø-V He shot at him the third time.
124 go-Ø-V
He shot at him the fourth time. 125
Ø-V He shot right into his go- heart.
There are two confrontations here, clauses 095–110 Giant confronts Child of the Water, and clauses 111–125 Child of the Water confronts Giant. The first same-non-agent unit in each confrontation is sNP oNP yi-Ø-V: “Quote,” oNP yi-Ø-V, with object pronominals yi- in the post-
quotative as initially each confrontation may be supposed to be relatively low-key, but each build up to a climax in which in turn one participant shoots at the other; the post-quotatives and non-quotatives in the build-up and climax contain verb forms go-Ø-V.
In passage 60, from “The Killing of the Bull”, in the first same-non-agent unit there is a simple statement of Child of the Water’s problem but in the next two, in which the post-quotative verb forms are go-Ø-V, there is foreshadowing of the action which will lead to the killing of the
bull as Gopher urges his plan upon Child of the Water:
60 017 sNP Ø-V
Child of the Water speaks: 020
“I cry because there is no way to do it kill the bull,” 021
yi-Ø-V he says to him Gopher.
022 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Gopher speaks to Child of the Water:
023 “I dig four tunnels for you,”
030 go-Ø-V
he says to him. 031
go-Ø-V He advised him well.
032 ʔákoo
-go Then-SUB:
033 “Now hurry up
034 Run in right here
035 Do all I say to you,”
036 sNP go-Ø-V
Gopher says to him. 037 sNP
Child of the Water: 038
“Very well I’ll do just so,” 039
go-Ø-V he says to him.
[exit Gopher] The quote of clauses 033–035 lacks a pre-quotative, and the subject NP in the post-quotative, clause 036, probably renews fourth person
reference-switching following a paragraph break after clause 031. Following clause 031, it can be supposed that Gopher is digging the tunnels and this event is represented by the fragmentary clause 032. When they are dug, in clauses 033–035 Gopher urges Child of the Water to act.
In the next passage also repeated from passage 50, from “The Killing of the Giant”, the first same-non-agent unit can be supposed to be relatively low-key and the post-quotative is yi-Ø-V, but the second quote with post-quotative go-Ø-V expresses Killer of Enemies’ disturbance as he
anticipates the trouble that the arrival of Giant will bring: 61 049 sNP
oNP yi-Ø-V
Child of the Water speaks to Killer of Enemies: 050
“Why do you cry?” 052
yi-Ø-V he says to him.
053 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Killer of Enemies speaks to Child of the Water:
054 “I cry because of the evil person coming towards us,”
055 go-Ø-V
he says to him. Clauses 070–079 and 083–090 of “The Killing of the Giant” repeated from passages 52 and 53 will be considered together, here re-
displayed in passage 62 to show the situational parallelism in the events described in clauses 070–082 and 083–090. In clauses 070–079, the dialogue is about Child of the Water’s arrows and, in clauses 083–088, about Giant’s:
62 070 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Giant G speaks to CoW:
083 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
Child of the Water speaks to G: 071
“Where are your arrows?” 084
“You Where are your arrows?” 072
go-Ø-V he says to him.
085 go-Ø-V
he says to him. 073 sNP
oNP yi-Ø-V CoW picked up his arrows.
086 sNP oNP go-yi-Ø-V Giant indicates pine logs to him.
074 “These are my arrows,”
087 “These are my arrows,”
075 go-Ø-V
he says to him. 088
oNP yi-Ø-V
he says to Child of the Water. 076 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Giant speaks to CoW:
077 “Hand them over,”
079 go-Ø-V
he says to him. 080
bi-bi- ji- V He CoW gave them to him.
089 sNP Ø-V
Child of the Water rose up. 081
a
sNP oNP
go- yi-Ø-V G rubbed the arrows for him. 090 oNP go-yi-Ø-V He slid along the pine logs for him.
082 go- yi-Ø-V He threw them away for him.
a
There are actually two yi- in the verb of clause 081, a postpositional and a direct object form, and there are object NP in the clause coindexed with each of them: ‘Giant rubbed the arrows on his anus for him’. Clause 090 describes a similar action by Child of the Water.
In clauses 070–079, all the post-quotatives are go-Ø-V, and maybe the dialogue starts with bluster on both sides. However, it may be that some of Giant’s aggression oozes away so that, while the post-quotative is go-Ø-V in clause 085, the next post-quotative verb form following Giant’s quote
is yi-Ø-V in clause 088. When the same-non-agent unit containing a post-quotative verb form go-Ø-V occurs medially in a dialogue, probably this same-non-agent
unit is the high point of the dialogue in respect of the degree of engagement between the participants as in clause 020 of “The Killing of the Giant”, passage 63 repeated from passage 49. Child of the Water expects his mother to go along with his plans but she objects that Giant
kills people and Child of the Water cannot succeed in killing him:
63 011 sNP
Ø-V Child of the Water has become stronger is a man.
012 oNP
yi-Ø-V He speaks to his bi- mother, White Painted Woman:
014 “I go hunting with my brother,”
015 oNP
yi-Ø-V he says to his bi- mother.
016 sNP
oNP yi-Ø-V
White Painted Woman speaks to her bi- son: 018
“Giant will kill you,” 020
go-Ø-V she says to him.
021 sNP
oNP yi-Ø-V
Child of the Water speaks to his bi- mother: 022
“Even so, I hunt with my brother,” 023
Ø-V he says.
024 “Make arrows for me,”
025 oNP
yi-Ø-V he says to his bi- mother.
Passage 64 following the analysis discussed in section 4.3 is immediately preceded and followed by those in which fourth person tracking is in operation see passages 57 and 58. In the preceding clauses, clauses 057–059, Giant, who has put in an appearance in clause 057, has
taken the meat from Child of the Water that he was beginning to eat, and the feelings of antagonism aroused in Child of the Water and Giant have pragmatic expression in the go- of the post-quotative of clause 062:
64 060 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Child of the Water speaks to Giant:
061 “I have prepared what you will make your excrement,”
062 go-Ø-V
he says to him. Mithlo’s “The Child of the Water”, passage 65, contains two situationally parallel sections, clauses 044–062 and 063–080. Clause 080 is the
end of the narrative. Previous clauses have described how White Painted Woman has kept her baby Child of the Water from Giant by hiding him in a hole under the fire. Now Giant appears on the scene in person and there is confrontation:
65 044
There were his bi- CoW tracks. 063
Blankets being excrement-SUB 045
bi- ji- V -go She WPW putting him away-
SUB
, 046 sNP
go- Ø-V Giant came to her.
064 go-yi-Ø-V he saw them of her.
047 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
Giant speaks to WPW: 048
“What are these?” 065
“What are these?” 050
go-Ø-V he says to her.
067 go-Ø-V
he says to her. 051 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V WPW speaks to Giant:
068 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
WPW speaks to Giant: 054
“I make tracks,” 071
“I make excrement,” 055
Ø-V she says.
072 go-Ø-V
she says to him. 056 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Giant speaks to WPW:
073 sNP go-Ø-V
Giant speaks to her: 058
“Do it show me how” 075
“Do it show me how” 060
go-Ø-V he says to her.
076 oNP
bi-ji-V he says to White Painted Woman.
077 sNP oNP yi-Ø-V
WPW picked up a blanket. 061 sNP
oNP go-go-Ø-V WPW made tracks for him.
078 oNP yi-yi-Ø-V She smeared honey on it.
079 It blanket is so like the other.
062
a
sNP Ø-V
Giant believes. 080 sNP
Ø-V Giant believed.
a
Clauses 062–067 are accounted one same-non-agent unit: Giant is agent in the events described in clauses 062–067 and White Painted Woman the non-agent except in the subordinate clause 063; in this clause the subject refers to a ‘prop’, the baby blanket, not to a participant.
In clauses 047-072, the verb forms of most post-quotatives and non-quotatives are go-Ø-V. The non-quotative verbs in this passage whose ‘bare bones’ form is go-Ø-V include 061
32
and 064 which contain object prefixes coding props—‘tracks’ and ‘blankets’. But the post-quotative 055 is Ø- V; presumably White Painted Woman’s first response to Giant, clause 054, is a mild one. The non-quotative 062 is sNP Ø-V when there is a
temporary lull in the confrontation. Concerning the remaining clauses of 65, the same-non-agent unit clauses 073–076 is the anomalous same- non-agent unit mentioned towards the beginning of this section.
33
Clauses 077–079 contain no mention of Giant. In passages 66-68 in the remainder of this section, there is not an ongoing interaction between two participants but instead there is only
the one same-non-agent unit in which two interact and therefore no fourth person reference-switching—fourth person reference-switching is
32
ʔáłchiné bikék’e ‘baby tracks’ in clause 061 is a prop, coindexed with the second go- in the verb form káʔágólaa ‘she made them for him’. Only the first go- in ká- go-á- is a fourth person pronominal. The second go- is the ‘place-time’ object pronominal Hoijer 1945:198, Young Morgan 1987:66, homophonous
with the fourth person object pronominal go-, replacing yi-bi- when the object has reference to an area or to time. In certain forms, in one analysis, the prefix may also occur in subject function see Hoijer 1945:201, Young Morgan 1987:76. The prefix is glossed ‘SIT’ situational in this paper.
33
It is situationally parallel to the same-non-agent unit clauses 056–060 in which the coding is sNP oNP yi-Ø-V 056: “Quote,” 057–059, go-Ø-V 060. But in this parallel unit the pre-quotative clause 073 is sNP go-Ø-V and the post-quotative clause 076 is oNP bi-ji-V. Canonically, both these clause structures only occur
when fourth person tracking is in operation excluding consideration of fourth person used ‘impersonally’ section 6.
dependent upon the juxtaposition of two same-non-agent units in which fourth person pronominals go- in the one are non-coreferential with fourth person pronominals go- in the other. In these single same-non-agent units also post-quotative or non-quotative verb forms go-Ø-V may
occur in highlighting function. In passages 66 and 67 the verb form go-Ø-V is post-quotative and in passage 68 it is non-quotative. In passage 66 from Mithlo’s “The Killing of the Giant”, the setting for clauses 129–133 is not a dialogue between Child of the Water and
Killer of Enemies—in clauses 126–128 Giant is thinking out loud, following his shooting by Child of the Water clause 125, and clauses 134 and 135 report the reactions of the re-introduced Killer of Enemies. Clause 133 containing the post-quotative verb form go-Ø-V marks the same-non-
agent unit clauses 129–133 as a climax—of the whole narrative in this case as Giant falls dead:
66 126 sNP Ø-V
Giant speaks: 127
“What has been done to me?” 128
Ø-V he says.
129 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V CoW speaks to Killer of Enemies:
132 “He’s falling on you he Giant is dead”
133 go-Ø-V
he says to him. [exit Giant]
134 sNP Ø-V
Killer of Enemies is happy. 135
Ø-V He is dancing around and around.
In passage 67 from “The Killing of the Bull”, the same-non-agent unit clauses 002–004 is similar. The clauses are not set in a dialogue between Child of the Water and his mother; there is just this one quote in which the two interact and it summarises Child of the Water’s
intentions: 67 001 sNP
Ø-V The bull exists.
002 sNP oNP
yi-Ø-V Child of the Water speaks to his bi- mother:
003 “My mother, I go to the bull,”
004 go-Ø-V
he says to her. [exit White Painted Woman]
005 bi-Ø-V
He went off to him bull. In passage 68 from “The Child of the Water”, Giant and White Painted Woman interact in just this one non-quotative same-non-agent unit
clause 013, containing a non-quotative verb form go-yi-Ø-V. yi- codes White Painted Woman’s infant children who count as props to all intents and purposes. Giant eats White Painted Woman’s children because as it is stated in the omitted clause 010 he does not want there to be people
on the earth:
68 009 sNP Ø-V
Giant exists. 011
a
spNP bi-NP Ø-V White Painted Woman’s children are being born.
013 sNP go-yi-Ø-V
Giant eats them from her. [exit Giant, children] 014 sNP
Ø-V White Painted Woman goes about weeping.
a
pNP = possessor NP, coindexed with the possessor pronominal bi- immediately following. sx denotes that x is the subject of the verb.
The fourth person object pronominal go- coding White Painted Woman marks the content of clause 013 as significant in the development of the narrative the narrative will recount how White Painted Woman succeeds in foiling Giant and raises a child. Also, there is undoubtedly a
significant degree of tension in the engagement between Giant and White Painted Woman here and again the choice of the fourth person pronominal registers this.
Hoijer does not gloss the fourth person pronominal and the postposition kaa- go-aa- in the verb of clause 013 in passage 68, kaayinłⁿdé
‘he eats them from her’, but the addition of the pronominal and postposition creates a transitive construction and enables the coding of the non- agent by fourth person for highlighting. Similarly, in “The Killing of the Giant” Hoijer’s English translations of clauses 086 and 090 in passage
62 include no gloss of the fourth person and the postposition to which it is attached, ká- go-á- ‘indicated to’‘slid along for him’, but it seems that in these clauses also the fourth person and postposition function to include a reference to the non-agent participant and to create a
transitive construction. Probably ká- ‘stood up for him’ in clauses 108 and 114, and ka- go-aa- ‘not afraid of him’ in clause 116 in passage 59, function similarly and these Hoijer does gloss though in English clauses 114 and 116 would have made sense in context if they were
reduced to ‘Giant stood up’ and ‘he is not afraid’.
4.5 A second type of fourth person reference-switching?
