6 ‘Impersonal’ fourth person
In previous sections, the fourth person pronominals discussed have referred to one of the protagonists in a narrative, either the main character or a major character, and have been fully referential. However, not all occurrences of the fourth person pronominals in the Mithlo and Kenoi
narratives are covered by the discussion in these sections. When these other instances of the fourth person subject and object pronominals are analysed, they fall into certain categories, with impersonal at one end of an unspecified-specified scale.
6.1 Impersonal fourth person
The impersonal use of the fourth person in Apachean is well-known see Young Morgan 1987:76f for Navajo examples. Examples from the Mithlo and Kenoi narratives are:
82 dáʔát’égo daajiyą́
-í [doo
yédaagósį -da
- náʔa ]
what.way 3:4.
DISTR
.eat -
REL
[
NEG
3:3.
DISTR
.know.about -
NEG
-
NARR
] ‘[they do not know] how people eat it’
The Foolish People do not know how the coffee they have acquired is eaten Kenoi’s “The Foolish People Acquire Coffee”. The verb of the embedded clause contains ji-, the fourth person subject pronominal.
White Painted Woman makes this remark about Giant in Mithlo’s “The Killing of the Giant”: 83
ʔá -
ń naagołtsee
that -
REL
4:3.kill.pl ‘that one kills people’
The verb contains the fourth person object pronominal go-.
6.2 Unspecified fourth person
There are some occurrences of the fourth person which are not impersonal but their reference is not clearly specified. The referent is often a subgroup, maybe a single member of a group, but no further specification is given. It is not important to name the referent precisely.
For example, the Foolish People do not know what the horse eats so they make gravy for it Kenoi’s “The Foolish People and the Horse”. The Foolish People have been third-person-coded in the previous clauses but there is fourth person coding of the subject in just this one clause.
Presumably only one of their number handled the container of gravy and it is not necessary to specify who did so: 84
taaⁿdile -í bich’įįnjíńką́
- náʔa
gravy -
REL
3:3:4.put.before -
NARR
‘they someone put the gravy before it’
The man who knows about mountain spirits will make some Indians into mountain spirits by decorating them as dancers representing them but exactly which of the Indians these people will be is not specified Kenoi’s “The First Mountain Spirit Ceremony”. The fourth person
object pronominal go- refers to these people: 85
gą́hé naháʔágoshłá
mt.spirit 2p:4:1s.make.for
‘I make people into mountain spirits for you’ Coyote has driven the pack train he has tricked the white men into giving him to a camp of coyotes. Now he has distributed all the goods
among the coyotes there before the white men catch up with him Kenoi’s “Coyote and the Money Tree”. The coyotes have been third-person- coded in the preceding clauses in speaking of the coyotes living in the coyote town to which Coyote has driven but there is fourth person coding
by the fourth person object pronominal go- in this one clause. Probably not all the coyotes received some of his ill-gotten gains but only an unspecified subset of them:
86 díík’eh gotaadaisⁿdii
- náʔa
all 4:3:3.
DISTR
.distribute.among -
NARR
‘he distributed it all among some of them’ The first sentence in Mithlo’s “The Quarrel Between Thunder and Wind” is:
87 [k’adi dí -í
łiʔgo ʔánágóót’įį -í
] ʔiłk’idą́ ⁿdii
ʔágojilá -
dą́ [now this -
REL
other
SIT
.happen.too -
REL
] long.ago ground
SIT
:4.make -
AT
.
WHEN
‘[now this is another of the things that happened] long ago when the earth is being made’ Hoijer translates: ‘long ago when they were creating the earth’. Fourth person subject pronominal ji- in the verb
ʔágojilá ‘they make it’ refers to the agents of creation in Apache mythology, whoever exactly is specified by this group.
In this unspecified usage, łiʔ ‘some, someone’ is sometimes coindexed with the fourth person pronominal. Coyote is travelling again and he
comes to a big rock. Someone unnamed enters into a dialogue with him telling him not to defecate on the rock because it is a rock which moves Kenoi’s “Coyote and the Rolling Rock”:
88 łiʔ
ʔáałjiⁿdi -
náʔa someone 3:4.say.so.to
-
NARR
‘someone speaks to him’ łiʔ is coindexed with the fourth person subject pronominal ji-.
Coyote is dancing among the prairie dogs whirling his club around and there comes a time when he almost hits one of them Kenoi’s “Coyote Dances With the Prairie Dogs”:
89 łiʔ
k’asą hanáágóółxaal
someone almost
4:3.whip.again ‘he nearly hit someone again’
In this case, łiʔ is coindexed with the fourth person object pronominal go-.
6.3 Semi-activelapsed-active fourth person
