Query Details

Query Subject:	Proximate/obviative
Author:	Wayles Browne
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	Syntax

Query:	A European colleague inquires: As is well known, some languages, notably some American Indian languages, discriminate two kinds of verbal third person, namely the proximate and the obviative. One can compare the Latin iste vir and ille vir 'that man'. A constructed Latin example would be iste vir curri-X versus ille vir curri-Y, for 'that man run-s', where X and Y represent different desinences on the finite verb. What happens if the proximate and the obviative are coordinated within the subject NP? Does the finite verb take the desinence corresponding to the proximate or to the obviative? I refer again to the theoretical Latin example: iste vir et ille vir curri-Z; what shape does -Z take? What category wins if the subject contains the proximate/obviative AND the first or the second person? Latin: iste vir et ego curri-Z; ille vir et tu curri-Z. Is the proximate or the obviative the less marked category of the two? Please answer me directly at ewb2@cornell.edu and I will pass answers on (and summarize them for the list, should there be enough). Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics Department of Linguistics Morrill Hall 321, Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A. tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h) fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE) e-mail ewb2@cornell.edu
LL Issue:	10.720
Date posted:	11-May-1999
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