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13th International Conference
on Functional Grammar
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| Placing Plains Cree locatives: On the road to a
functional analysis |
Arok Wolvengrey,
First Nations University of Canada,
Regina, Canada
This
paper will investigate the clausal and extra-clausal word
order of locative expressions in Cree discourse through a
survey of the Plains Cree texts collected by Ahenakew (1987).
The forms that locatives take in the Cree language -
deictic proforms, other indeclinable and adpositional
particles, and locative nominals - will be briefly described
and the positional tendencies of each type of locative
expression will be discussed.
As a necessary backdrop to this survey, an
idealized and general version of a Functional Grammar (FG)
word order template, based on Dik (1997), will be used to
organize the word order data on Cree locative expressions.
This template will be shown to compare favourably with
two additional word order templates that have been proposed
for Algonquian languages: the first originally proposed by
Dahlstrom (1995:3) for the Fox (Meskwaki) language within the
framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, and since cited with
reference to a number of other Algonquian languages, including
Ojibwe (Valentine 2001) and Menominee (Shields 2005); the
second recently proposed by Mühlbauer (2005) for Plains Cree
within the Minimalist Transformational framework.
When all three templates are compared, a considerable
amount of convergence will be observed.
However, applied to the Cree locative data, the FG
template allows for finer detail in differentiating
post-verbal constituents and, while it may appear to
underspecify the pre-verbal possibilities, proves sufficient
to characterize the placement of preverbal locatives as well.
Ultimately, the FG template will be used to illustrate
a very clear correlation between clausal and extra-clausal
position and function, with particular locative expressions
also being found to correlate with function to a large extent.
Not only does a functional analysis prove essential to
explain word order tendencies in this purportedly “free word
order” language, but it also provides a necessary aid to
teach and learn the language in attempts to reverse the trend
of language loss.
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| References: |
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Ahenakew,
Freda, ed. 1987. wâskahikaniwiyiniw-âcimowina
/ Stories of the House People.
Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
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Dahlstrom,
Amy 1995. Topic,
Focus and Other Word Order Problems in Algonquian. Winnipeg: Voices of Rupert’s Land.
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Dik,
Simon 1997.
The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part 1: The
Structure of the Clause.
Second revised edition, edited by Kees Hengeveld.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Mühlbauer,
Jeff 2005.
“Word Order and the Interpretation of Nominals in Plains
Cree.”
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http://www.linguistics.ubc.ca/People/Jeff/WordOrderNounsMuehlbauer.pdf
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Shields,
Rebecca in
press. “The
Functional Hierarchy in Menominee: Preverbs and Adverbs.”
Proceedings
of the CLS 41 (2005). https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/rashields/web/papers/MenomFunctionalHierarchy3.pdf
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Valentine,
J. Randolph 2001.
Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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