102

Some Aspects of Ojibwa Discourse

Richard A. Rhodes University of Michigan

1. Even the most casual student of Ojibwa cannot fail to recognize that Ojibwa texts are littered with short words that baffle the sharpest informants in their attempts to explain what they mean. Words such as dash,1 mii, go and sa seem to be sprinkled freely throughout texts but don't seem to carry any meaning of their own. They are classic examples of what Longacre (1976b) calls 'mystery' particles. Similarly the use of past tense in texts seem at times almost random, as does the surprising number of 'independent' uses of conjunct verb forms.

In this brief paper I would like to report on some ongoing research into a number of these questions and give some indication of what kind of analysis will explain these phenomena. While I will be working with texts from the Central Ojibwa/Ottawa dialect area, my preliminary impression is that much of what I have to say here is also true in other dialects. Some of the conclusions reached in this paper will undoubtedly need revision, even with respect to the dialect under consideration, but this paper is offered as a first step in the direction of serious linguistic analysis of Ojibwa discourse.

The texts that I will draw on include those in Bloomfield (1957) and several from my fieldnotes. I will concentrate on Bloomfield's texts because of their general availability, although I will refer to other texts when the phenomena in question are better illustrated there.

To begin the discussion of Ojibwa discourse, let us, for the purposes of exposition, classify discourse level phenomena into three types: structural, logical, and inter­active. Let me define and illustrate each type. 1.1 Structural phenomena in text are those things, either morphemes, words, or constructions, which serve to mark out where one is in the text, or at what level of prominence or focus a particular textual unit is, or where the points of transition are in the text structure. In Ojibwa the peak or climax of a text is often marked by the shortness of clauses as opposed to longer clauses with more embedded material in the buildup and post-peak. (BL 6 is a good example of this.3) Levels of prominence are marked in Ojibwa texts by several means: the use of tense markers in narrative, the use of dash, the use of direct quotes, and by a device called 'overlays' (Grimes 1972). In addition it has been suggested by Rogers (1978) that the use of the changed conjunct plays a role in marking the prominence of noun phrases." We will devote §2 below to an exploration of tense marking and the use of dash. Points of transition are marked in Ojibwa text by a number of devices, the most obvious of which are the morphemes: mii,5 miin'waa 'and, again', and ngodinq 'once'.

103

We will devote §3 of this paper to a discussion of these words and their use.

1.2 Logical phenomena in text are those things, morphemes, words, or constructions, which serve to indicate the logical relationships among the various clauses, sentences and even larger units. Some scholars of discourse refer to these things as interpropositional relations. I find the term sufficiently inappropriate not to want to use it. The things that I want to classify as logical phenomena indicate how the flow of the logic is running in a text: what is being talked about and how it relates to what else has been said, or even to something that has been left unsaid. Morphemes like wnji6/zaam (Ottawa 'because', anna7 'in vain, to no avail', maanoo 'anyway', giishpin 'if, et al. are of this type. Constructions such as shifted word order, deictics (including iw as a clause modifier), and the use of plain conjuncts as independent verbs are also logical phenomena. We will devote §4 below to a lock at the use of plain conjuncts as independent verbs. 1.3 Interactive phenomena carry information regarding how the speaker feels about a particular textual unit or about how the speaker wants the hearer to feel about it. In other words, interactive phenomena have to do mainly with how the speaker is using the text to interact with the hearer. Examples in Ojibwa include giiwenh, iidig (iidog) wii(n) (swii (n), shwii(n)),8 gsha, maa, and probably others. Not much is known about these particles, and the situation is complicated somewhat by the fact that two of the forms, wii(n) and maa are homophonous with wii(n) 'emphatic third person', and maa 'there'. We will devote §5 to a discussion and exemplification of the use of these forms at the end of this paper.

Before leaving this introduction we need to make careful note of the fact that it is fairly common for the three types of discourse phenomena that we have laid out above to overlap, so that the same form or construction in a given text may function both logically and interactively. Maanoo is very commonly used that way, as is aana. Or a form can have a lexical meaning as well as a discourse function. Ngoding 'once', and miin'waa 'again' are examples of that. 2. Now let us turn our attention to two structural devices of Ojibwa discourse which mark levels of prominence in text: the use of tense markers, and the use of dash. In order to talk about these things meaningfully we will have to explain the term prominence. In this discussion we will use the term prominence to refer to a division (by the speaker, and perceptible to a sensitive hearer) of in­formation into more and less relevant categories. The more relevant information we call prominent. Notice that this distinction is different from that of thematic vs. background. Roughly stated thematic material is that which moves the story forward, or moves the logic of an exposition ahead. Background material is that which enables one to interpret the thematic material or to put the thematic

104

material in perspective. Now there can be both prominent and non-prominent background material. Jones and Coleman (to appear) propose an analysis of Kickapoo modes using the notion of prominence. 2.1 Now let us turn to a consideration of the use of tense in Ojibwa discourse. First let us look at the style used by speakers like Andrew Medler, Bloomfield's informant. A good first approximation is to say that Medler regularly uses past tense on thematic verbs, but not on background verbs. So for example consider the following excerpt from BL 10 : (1) Bloomfield 10 (excerpt)

(a) Ggizheb dash ngii-naadin nbiish. In the morning I went for water.9

(b) Maa dash endhamaang dkibi aabtawdaaki yaamgad--besho yaag nbis.

The spring where we got water was halfway up the hill near the lake.

(c) Eni-dgoshnaan wiinaagmi iw nbiish endhamaang. When I got there the water was dirty.

(d) Ge go dbi njijwang ge wii go bkwebiigmi. And the water from the source was muddy, too.

(e) Maanoo dash go naa bgii aabtooshkin niimbaagning ngii-gwaahaan.

But I drew a half-pail anyway. (f) Ngii-maajiidoon endaayaang.

And took it back to where we were living. Notice that in sentences (la), (le), and (If) the main verbs move the story forward and are marked with a past tense gii, whereas in (lb), (lc), and (Id), as well as the embedded verb in (If) give background information and are unmarked for tense.

The first refinement that needs to be made in this analysis of the use of past tense markers is that while quote formulae are almost always thematic they only occasionally are marked with past tense markers, more by some speakers than by others.

A second refinement that needs to be made is that past tense marking does have a use in background verbs, but that use is different from its use on thematic verbs. On thematic verbs past tense indicates past time relative to the time of the production of the text. On background verbs, tense marking indicates time relative to the time of the action of the text. (1) (a) Eshki-dgoshnaan maa Walpole Island, iw enweyaan

ngii-nji-nbashaabhogoog. (BL 1) When I first came to Walpole Island they made fun of the way I talked.

Mii dash gii-boozyaan, gaa-shkwaa-giishpnadood iw mzingigan ge nii waa-ni-aabjitooyaan ji-bmidaabaan'goyaan shkodedaabaaning. (BL 9) Then I climbed aboard, after he finished buying the paper that I would use to ride on the train (i.e. after he bought the ticket).

(b)

105

(c) Aapji qii-zegzi aw sa ngashi wnji iw gii-bchishniyaan daa-gii-daapneyaambaa. (BL 6)

My mother was really scared because I had fallen out and might have drowned.

In (2a) the time of Medler's arrival (eshki-dgoshnaan) and the time at which they made fun of him were the same. Similarly enweyaan 'how I talk' refers to the same point in time as ngii-nji-nbashaabhogoog 'they made fun of me because of it.' Both eshki-dgoshnaan and enweyaan are unmarked for tense, i.e. they are present tense forms. On the other hand in (2b) the man's buying the ticket (gaa-shkwaa-giishpnadood) precedes Medler's embarkation (gii-boozyaan) and is there-fore marked with gaa- past tense. Again in (2b) Medler's use of the ticket is future with respect to the buying of it and so is marked future, waa-. In (2c) gii-bchishniyaan T fell' is marked past because it preceded his mother's being scared.

Two further comments need to be made about the use of tense, in background verbs, in this style. First, past tenses may occur optionally in phrases meaning 'during the time' when the main verb is in the past. (3) (a) Zhaazhi go megwaa binoojiinhyaan,

ngii-bbaa-maajiinig aw ngashi ... (BL 6) Long ago when I was a baby, my mother would take me around ...

(b) Megwaa gii-gwiiwzenswiyaan, pane go ngii-gdamoojge. (BL 7)

When I was a boy, I was always going fishing.

In (3a) binooj iinhyaan 'I am a baby' is unmarked for tense, but in (3b) gii-gwiiwzenswiyaan T was a boy' is marked with gii- past tense.

Second, complements of some verbs take copies of the tense of the matrix verb, although there appears to be idiolectal variation.

(4) (a) Gii-wewiibtaawag dash go iw bgii gii-bwahowaad maanda sa bgoji-mnoomin. (BL 6)

They hurriedly gathered a little [more] rice. (b) Mii dash gii-webtaayaan gii-nokiiyaan maa

carpenter shop. (BL 9) So I started working in carpenter shop.

Here gii-bwahmowaad 'they knocked it off and gii-nokiiyaan T worked' are the complements of gii-wewiibtaawag 'they acted in a hurry' and gii-webtaayaan T started' respectively, and are marked with past tense gii-. By contrast I have in my field notes examples like (5) from speakers whose texts reflect a style very similar to Medler's.

(5) Ngii-webtaa wii-nokiiyaan. I started working.

The form wii-nokiiyaan T will work' is marked for future by wii-.1"0

106

Before leaving this topic let us mention briefly a slightly different style of tense use that seems to be characteristic of Ottawa speakers. In this style, plain conjunct verbs are used as thematic and past tense is used on thematic verbs to mark them as prominent. Again in this style quote formulae are treated differently. They are independent (unless modified by mii) and are almost always untensed.

In summary our analysis of the use of tense is that tense is used on thematic verbs to express time relative to the time of the production of the text, with the exception that for Ottawa speakers such verbs are only marked with tenses if they are considered more prominent. Quote formulae are often unmarked for tense even though they are typically thematic. This probably relates to the rule of Ottawa style that tenses mark more prominent verbs, since the quote formulae are themselves almost never prominent (i.e. it is not so important that someone thought or said something but rather it is what was thought or said that is important).

With the exception of several particular syntactic constructions, tense marking on those verbs which convey background information expresses time relative to the time of the action of the thematic verbs with which they are associated. 2.2 Now let us turn our attention to a consideration of the word dash. The word dash is distributed at the sentence level and is always the second word of a sentence.11 Please note that this analysis is greatly at variance with the one implicit in the punctuation in Bloomfield (1957). The punctuation there seems to be based on the easily dis-provable hypothesis that conjunct verbs cannot function as main clause verbs.12 Those speakers who have opinions about punctuation all seem to feel very strongly that sentences start one word before dash, on this basis we propose this syntactic analysis.

The function of dash seems to be to indicate a subset of the most prominent sentences expressing both thematic and background information as the outline or synopsis of a text. Consider the following examples: (6) Bloomfield 18 (sentences containing dash)

(a) Kina dash gegoo zhi-zhiitaawag gonda Fair Company ge-zhi-mno-yaawaad giw waa-bi-zhaajig.

The Fair Company is setting everything up so that those who come will have a good time.

(b) Kina dash gnandmigoom daa-bi-zhaayeg. You're all invited to come.

(c) Miin'waa dash kina gegoo wii-baatiinad sa ge-waabdamwaad giw ge-bi-zhaajig.

And in addition there will be all sorts of things to see for those who come. (7) Bloomfield 3 (sentences containing dash) (a) Ddibew dash ngii-ni-patoo ni-giiwebtooyaan. I ran away [from him] along the bank heading home.

107

(b) Mii dash gii-giiwebtooyaan, gii-wiindmaag aw ngashi. I got home and told my mother.

(c) Mii dash gaa-zhid, 'Gaa wii gdaa-yaawgosii.' She told me, 'He isn't after you.'

(d) Mii dash maa gii-boonendmaan. So, ya know, I forgot about it.

In (6) these three sentences are all the sentences from BL 18 that contain dash and give a very accurate synposis of the text, which is some 2 6 sentences long. In (7) we have a case more typical of straight narrative. Again the synopsis is the story is very good, but there are only 10 total sentences in the story. A higher percentage of sentences containing dash seems characteristic of straight narration. In fact dash seems only to occur in narrative portions of text, as can be seen from its use in BL 13 and BL 15 which are mostly expository, with only short embedded narrative sections.

One comment on example (7b) is in order here. Normally it is assumed that thematic verbs are distributed in sentences at the rate of no more than one per sentence. However, there are several types of constructions in Ojibwa which may reduce two such sentences to one. (7b) is an example of such a construction. Both verbs are thematic, but both fall under the scope of the dash. We will explore the construction of (7b) below. 3. The next group of structural devices that we would like to look at are those which mark points of transition in text. These include mii, miin'waa, and ngoding. We will take up ngoding first. 3.1 The literal translation of ngoding is 'once, one time' but that gives no indication of how ngoding is used in narrative text. Ngoding only appears in its discourse use in narrative texts. It is used to section off large units of text into episodes. It appears as the first word of the first sentence in an episode. BL 9 is a good example of this use of ngoding. It has three episodes; the middle one is very short. The first episode explains how he came to be working in the carpenter shop at the Carlisle Indian school. The second tells how he found out that there was a girl there that spoke Ojibwa, and the third tells how he actually got to talk to her. Notice that this gives a very different slant on this text than the translation Bloomfield provides. 3.2 The second word we want to look at is miin'waa, 'again, in addition, and'. This word is used in both narrative and procedural texts. It is used to mark the stages of development of the plot of the story, or to mark out the steps in the procedure. BL 26 is a good example of this use of miin'waa. Where miin'waa is used, this seems to be a fairly satisfactory analysis, but it does not appear in all the narratives and we currently have no good explanation for why it is used in certain texts but not in others.

108

3.3 Finally let us consider the word mii. This ubiquitous form has the function of marking the final sentence of a paragraph. It appears as the first word of the main clause of the final sentence of each paragraph, with the slight complication that, if the final sentence of a paragraph is a compound sentence (i.e. contains two thematic verbs) then mii appears either as the first word of the main clause of the first subsentence, or as the first word of the main clause of both subsentences. Mii triggers the appearance of a conjunct verb in the clause it occurs in, but does not trigger a conjunct in the second subsentence of a compound sentence. Some examples showing the syntax of mii are given in (8). (8) (a) Mii dash niw myaamwi-mdidnijin bnensan

gii-ggwejmaad ezhnikaaznid. (BL 36) Then he asked the biggest partridge his name.

(b) Gaa-giizhtood dash mii gii-webi-mkadeked shkin'we. (BL 31)

After he finished making it, the young man started his fast.

(c) Waya yaakzijin mii go gii-mdoodoohind maa mdoodoowgamgong. (BL 21)

Whenever anyone got sick, he would be given a steam bath in the steam bath hut.

(d) Aw maa mindaagnini, mii maaba aw sa jiindiisiinh ezhnikaazod. (BL 23)

That fancy man, ya know, he's the one known as the bluejay.

(e) Mii dash maaba shkinikwe gii-nboodewi-yaad, ge go doopwining gii-nwagkweshin. (BL 30)

This young woman became very melancholy, and sat there with her head on the table.

(f) Mii dash enaagshig eshkam gii-gchi-aabwaag, ge go mii gii-waabdamaan waasmowaad giw nimkiig. (BL 10)

Then in the evening it got really warm, and I saw some lightning.

In (8a) it can be seen that mii occurs clause initially because it precedes fronted noun phrases (in this case niw myaamwi-mdidnij in "the biggest partridge'). In (8b) and-

(8c) it can be seen that when fronted temporal clauses move outside of the main clause, mii still retains its position as initial in the main clause. In (8d) it can be seen that when there are topicalized noun phrases, which are outside of the main clause,13 mii retains its position as initial in the main clause. Finally in (8e) and (8f) we have examples of compound sentences involving mii. In (8e) we see that miT does not trigger a conjunct veTb in the second subsentence: gn-nwagkweshin 'his head was lowered' is independent, c f . gii-nwaqkweshinq, conjunct. In (8f) we see an example of mii appearing twice in a compound sentence. This analysis is corroborated by the fact that both sub-sentences are in the scope of the dash. Good examples of the use of mii~To~divide texts into paragraphs are given in BL 15, BL 18, and BL 26. Let us discuss each of these individually. First BL 15 This text

109

divides naturally into two parts, the first a discussion of the various occupations of the Indians on Walpole and the second a discussion about firewood. Medler gets from the first part to the second part by mentioning that Indians sometimes sell firewood to supplement their income. This is apparently a pet peeve with him and he immediately takes off on a discussion of clearing land to get firewood. What is important for us is that the last sentence about Indians earning money selling firewood is marked with mii. This marks the break in the text. Similarly the discussion of firewood falls naturally into two parts: the first a discussion of what Medler himself does and second a general discussion regarding firewood. Again the last sentence having to do with Medler's treatment of his own trees is marked with mii. There are two other occurences of mii in the text. Both of these instances mark the end of embedded discussions of how those two particular occupations generate, income, exactly where one might expect text breaks.

One possible objection that might be raised to our analysis of mii with respect to this text is that the final sentence contains no mii. In fact, only about a third1 "* of the Bloomfield texts contain a mii in the final sentence. This could be a problem but it should be noted that if mii functions to mark the end of paragraphs, its presence at the end of a text is redundant and therefore could easily be omitted by rule. Furthermore it is worth noting that the closing formulae: Mii iw mnik ekdoyaan. 'That's enough.' and Mii sa ekoozid. 'That's as far as it goes.' and their variants all contain mii. Therefore we maintain our analysis of mii assuming that an explanation can be worked out for text final sentences, consistent with it.

BL 18 also shows the function of mii very clearly. The text is an announcement of sorts for the Walpole Island Fair. It divides very nicely into four sections. The first tells that there will be a fair and when it will be. The second tells what will happen in connection with the fair. The third tells what there will be to see, and the fourth section talks about the dancing. As before, the first three sections have a mii in the final sentence. The fourth section does not. Instead, there is a one sentence coda which connects to the text as a whole and which is marked with mii.

BL 26 is a procedural text on making Indian bread, but is given in a narrative style, and therefore serves as a contrast to the two previous texts which are expository. But here again mii marks off the naturally occuring sections. The first section discusses the general preparations (including the making of the dough). The second section tells about the baking. And the third section explains how the bread was apparently whipped up before it was eaten.1 Then there is a one sentence coda. In this text all three sections are marked with a mii in the final sentence, including the third section. Before closing our discussion of the use of mii, one further observation needs to be made. In narrative texts, the climax of the story is generally marked by both the shortness of clauses and shortness of paragraphs. In longer

110

stories, the climax of each episode may be marked this way. BL 9 provides an excellent example of this. The excerpt in (9) is the climax of the story in which Medler meets a Menominee girl at the Carlisle Indian School who speaks Oj ibwa. (9) Bloomfield 9 (excerpt)

(a) Ngii-miinig dash iw order. He gave me the work order.

(b) Ngii-zhaa dash widi gii-wa-ndawaa-ndo-kendmaan wegdagwen iidig nendwendaagdagwen.

And I went there [to the girls' quarters] to find out what they wanted.

(c) Ngii-waabmaa maaba Menominee girl dzhi-gziibiignang waasechganan widi waa-ni-zhaayaan.

Then I saw the Menominee girl there washing windows at the place I was going to.

(d) Mii-dash gaa-nendmaan, 'Mii sa noongo sa Jibwemtawag,' ngii-nendam.

So I thought, 'This is my chance to speak Ojibwa to her.'

(e) Eni-dgoshnaan dash besho, mii gii-gnoonag. When I got up close I spoke to her.

(f) Mii dash gaa-nag, 'Megwaa sa ggiziibiignige'. ' I said, 'You're washing things off!'

(g) Mii dash gii-nkwetwid, 'Enh, megwaa ngiziibiignaanan.'

'Yes, I'm washing them off,' she answered. (h) Mii dash gii-nhendmaan iw gii-kenmag geget iw

nsidtang. Then I was sure she really did understand [Ojibwa].

Notice that sentences (9d-h) all contain mii. 4. In this section we would like to look at the use of plain conjunct verbs in text as independent, thematic verbs. With respect to this point there are two very distinct dialects, as alluded to above. In the Ojibwa dialect under consideration independent conjuncts have a very restricted use and meaning. But in Ottawa, independent conjuncts are used as the thematic forms of a text. Consider the following exerpt from an Ottawa text. (10) (a) Gii-pagdosed iidig gaa-dbikak.

After it had gotten dark, he set out walking. (b) Mkoon iidig gaa-zhi-nkweshkwaad.

That's how he came to meet this bear. (c) 'Aabii-sh ezhaayan?' wdigoon-sh ge.

'Where ya headed?' the bear asked him. (d) 'Ann Arbor,' wdinaan ge.

'Ann Arbor,' he replied. (e) 'Gga-ni-waawiidsemi,' kido giiwenh wa mko.

'Let's walk together,' the bear suggested. (f) Bbaamsewaad giiwenh nshaawi-dbik. So they walked around through the night.

Ill

In both (10a) and (lOf) the verbs are clearly thematic, i.e. they move the plot forward, but both are plain conjunct in morphology. This is typical of Ottawa usage.

4.1 In Ojibwa on the other hand the appearance of independent conjuncts is more restricted. The use of an independent conjunct indicates an intimate semantic connection between the clause of the conjunct and the immediately preceding clause. In temporally oriented passages the meaning is that of temporal immediacy. For example, let us call the construction in (11a) a simple compound sentence, and the construction in (lib) a coniunct compound sentence. (11) (a) Gii-giiwe, ge gii-wiisni.

He came home, and he ate. (b) Gii-giiwe, ge gii-wiisnid.

He came home and ate. The difference between (11a) with an independent form in the second clause and (lib) with a conjunct form in the second clause is that (lib) means that he ate immediately upon coming home, whereas (11a) leaves the time lapse between his coming home and his eating indefinite.

Examples of conjunct compound sentences are very common in narrative text. Consider the following excerpt from BL 21. (12) Bloomfield 21 (excerpt)

(a) Gmaapii dash gii-bi-gdoode, ge gii-bengzhehdizod, ge gii-biiskang bekaandin'gin niw sa gwiwnan.

After a while he crawled out, dried himself off, and put on some different clothes.

(b) Miin'waa dash nbaagning gii-gwishmo, ge ggizheb gii-nishkaa.

Next he went to bed, and got up the [next] morning.

The conjunct compound sentence in (12a) expresses the idea that three actions happen one immediately after the other. This is given by the conjunct form of the verbs gii-bengzhehdizod 'he dried himself off and gii-biiskang 'he put it/them on'. On the other hand the simple compound sentence of (12b) with two morphologically independent verbs leaves the temporal distance unmarked. In fact, the paraphrase of (12b) in conjunct compound form is un-grammatical, because his getting up can't be both immediate and in the morning. (13) * Miin'waa dash nbaagning gii-gwishmo, ge ggizheb

gii-nishkaad. (=12b) 4.2 At this point it is necessary to look at another construction involving conjunct verbs in which the conjunct verb is not thematic but is embedded and serves to modify the subject of the main clause. Examples of this are given in (14) .

112

Aanind gtigaaning nokiiwag maajiigtoowaad waa-miijwaad: ... (BL 15)

Some work on farms growing things to eat: ... Ddibew dash ngii-ni-patoo ni-giiwebtooyaan. (BL 3)

I ran away [from him] along the shore, heading home.

Ggizheb dash gii-maajaa maaba kwe gii-giiwebtood. (BL 31)

In the morning the woman left and ran home.

The general meaning of this type of construction is that the second verb gives more specific information relative to the first verb. Let us call this a specifying construction. (14b) shows that in narrative, specifying constructions can be clearly distinguished from conjunct compound sentences like that in (12a) by the fact that the second verb in specifying constructions lack a tense marking. (14c) exemplifies a special subtype of specifying construction that is fairly common. In this subtype the first verb is always a verb of motion and the second verb is almost always marked for tense. The meaning seems to be inter­mediate among that of temporal immediacy, specificity, and purpose. The clearest cases, like (14c), line up best with the general meaning of specifying constructions. Some details of a syntactic nature also group this construction as specifying rather than as a conjunct compound sentence, but an examination of those details is beside the point of this paper. 4.3 The last type of thematic conjunct construction we will look at here is that involving thematic futures. Consider the excerpt from BL 13 given in (15).

(15) Bloomfield 13 (excerpt) (a) Ge go maaba niikaanis gchi-waasa gaa-njibaad Mr.

Snow widi waasa giiwednong, ge wii ji-zhi-giiwed ndawaabdang neyaab miin'waa widi gaa-bi-nji-maajaad.

Any my friend Mr. Snow who comes from far way, way up north, he, too, will be going back home to see the place he came from.

(b) Ge nii go ji-giiweyaan. I'll be going home.

(c) Ge gonda niikaan'sag jejiibaan gaa-bi-njibaajig: aanind widi Indiana, ge go maaba bezhig Philadelphia gii-bi-njibaa.

And those friends of mine who came from all different places: some came from Indiana, and this one from Philadelphia.

(d) Ge wii ji-waabdang iw sa gaa-bi-njibaad. The latter will be seeing the place he came from.

In this example the main clause verbs of (15a), (15b), and (15d) are all plain conjunct futures:16 ji-zhi-giiwed 'he will go home to [a place]', ji-giiweyaan T will go home'. and ji-waabdang 'he will see it', respectively. This is the way that thematic material is treated when the events are

(14) (a)

(b)

(c)

113

anticipated in the future. A similar thing happens fairly commonly in the consequent of 'if constructions.

(16) (a) Ge zhoon'yaamsiwaan ji-giishpnadooyaambaa iw mtiq. (BL 15)

And if I'm ever broke, I'll sell the wood. (b) Giishpin ni-noonde-biigsidood niw wmakzinan

jibwaa dgoshing ezhaad e-bgishmog, ji-njibdood neyaab miin'waa ji-biiskang niw mkiznan. (BL 24)

If he should wear out his shoes before arriving at his destination in the west, he can take these [other] shoes out and put them on.

(c) Giishpin dash kwe shkon'ganing debendaagzid niibwid zaagjiyiing, aabdig wii-bgidnang wwiijiiwewin zhiwi e-njibaad.

And if a woman marries outside of her reserve, she shall relinquish her membership in that band.

The difference between this type of 'if construction and those that use independent verbs in the consequent seems to be that there is more certainty of the consequent coming to pass when a conjunct verb is used.

There remains a small residue of plain thematic conjuncts in Bloomfield's texts which are not covered by the preceding analysis. It is hoped that an ultimate explanation can be found which will incorporate both those cases and the types of constructions discussed here.

5. In this final section of this paper we will look at several words which mediate, fairly directly, between the speaker and the hearer. The words we want to consider are wii (n) with its contractions, swii(n) [sa + wii(n) ] and shwii(n) [sha + wii(n) ], gsha, '7 and maa. These words all appear in the second position of a sentence,18 and one can thereby distinguish (in most cases) the interactive words wii (n) and maa, from the homophonous wii(n) '3rd person singular pronoun' and maa 'here, there' which can occur in other positions in a sentence.

5.1 The use of wii(n) or one of its contractions in a clause indicates that the speaker feels that the hearer does not expect that the information in the clause is true or, in the case of a negative clause, false. Since this is the typical circumstance under which negative clauses are used, it is little surprise that wii(n) is so common with negatives. Some examples are given in (17).

(17) (a) Ge wiin dash zhaazhi go giw gaa-bi-nbojig, gaa wii gegoo mzinhigan gii-yaasnoon. (BL 24)

But for those who died a long time ago, there weren't any books.

(b) Wene-sh wii gii ge-giishpnadooynba? Well, what would you buy?

(c) Nagsha wedi waasnidl Edakjihgan wii go naa wdaab j itoon'.

Look at him [a baby] eat! He's using a fork!

114

(d) Se, gwiintaagoz swii gii go naa! Shame on you'. It sounds like you're talking dirty!

(e) Gaa wii gsinaasnoodig wadi. It isn't supposed to get cold there.

(f) Oo, gaa swii nii go naa ndaa-baamtawaasii aw! Oh, I wouldn't listen to him [if I were you]!

5.2 On the other hand both gsha and maa elicit co­operation on the part of the hearer. Gsha seems more to suggest that the hearer should suspend judgment, while maa suggests general compliance or sometimes forbearance.

(18) Kaa gsha wiin ... No, but ...

(19) (a) Ngii-zegzimin maa naa! Well, we were scared! [That's why we ran away.]

(b) Goji maa! Get out of here!

(c) Aw maa mindaagnini, mii maaba aw sa jiindiisiinh ezhnikaazod. (BL 23)

That fancy man, ya know, he's the one known as the bluejay.

While we have not covered even all of those things in Ojibwa discourse for which we currently have an analysis, we hope that the sampling represented in this paper is enough to give an overview of the types of phenomena that occur in the discourse of an Algonquian language, and that this paper will encourage others to delve into this fascinating and still wide open area of linguistic research.

NOTES

In this paper I will break with Bloomfieldian tradition and transcribe the data in a practical orthography.

As is well known to any student of Algonquian languages, every verb has two sets of inflections for person and number agreement. Forms inflected with one set are labelled independent, while those inflected with the other set are labelled conjunct. The names follow from the distribution of these forms in simple sentencewise elicitation. Independent forms appear in single clause sentences in isolation, and in the matrix clause of complex sentences. Conjunct forms appear in embedded clauses.

I use the abbreviation BL 6 to refer to text number 6 in Bloomfield (1957), likewise BL 1, BL 2, BL 3, etc.

" Rogers uses the term focus.

Many of the forms we will discuss have no useful tr lation, so we leave them untranslated without further apology.

115

Bloomfield wrongly transcribes wnji as menj i on occasion.

All the sources have aano, but I have only ever heard aana.

8 Swii(n) is a contraction of sa + wii(n). Shwii(n) is a contraction of sha + wii(n).

3 We will use translations that lean heavily towards a natural English style in an attempt to convey not only the basic meaning of the examples, but also their force, especially because this will make the point in the examples much clearer. In some cases the translation is very free.

10 Many speakers use j i- 'future' as the unmarked tense of complements instead of wii-.

1: Occasionally dash will occur twice in a sentence where there is a longish preposed subordinate clause or phrase, as in (20) .

(20) Kina dash gaa-giizhtood gegoo, mii dash miin'waa gii-naawngahang maa shkodeng waa-dzhi-mnodeg iw bkwezhgan. (BL 26)

After she finished doing all the other stuff, she leveled out a place in the fire for the bread to bake .

It should also be noted that directly quoted materiel does not count in determining the position of dash, as shown in (21) .

(21) 'Aanii-sh gaa-zhi-zaad aw gshiimenhwaa?' wgii-naan dash niw myaamwi-mdidnijin. (BL 36)

'What happened to your little brother?' she asked the biggest.

12 Bloomfield, of course, recognized that main clause verbs could be conjunct if modified by mii. These are not the conjunct main clause verbs we are referring to.

13 The truth of this claim and the one about the bracketing of fronted temporal adverbs can be supported by a number of syntactic tests (some involving obviation), the demonstration of which is beyond the scope of this paper.

111 Perhaps we should say: 'relevant final sentence', because many of the texts have codas or closing formulae.

15 This bread was apparently made without leaven.

16 There are two future morphemes in Ojibwa, as outlined in (22) .

116

(22) intentive future

wii-

wii-

waa-

non -intentive future

ga-/da-

ji-

ge-

modal

daa-

daa-

(ge- + preterite)

with independent wii-

with conjunct

under initial change

The choice between the allomorphs of the non-intentive future with the independent, ga- and da- is determined by their position in the verbal construction. Da- is chosen as the word initial variant, ga- is used elsewhere. Because of the way the person marking works this means that da- is only used with intransitive verbs having 3rd person subjects. To add to the confusion, however, Bloomfield frequently mis­transcribes the modal daa- as da- on conjunct verbs. 17 Gsha is possibly a contraction of go + sha.

3 Since several of these words can occur in the same clause, they are not always in exactly second position, but rather occur between the first and second major constituent. In addition wii(n) and (rarely) maa can occur second in a clause, meaning that some fronted material may make them appear to be further into the sentence.

REFERENCES

BLOOMFIELD, Leonard 1957 Eastern Ojibwa: grammatical sketch, texts, and word

list. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

GRIMES, Joseph 1972 Outlines and overlays. Language 48.513-24.

1975 The thread of discourse. (Janua Linguarum, 207) The Hague: Mouton.

JONES, Linda K. 1977 Theme in English expository discourse. Lake Bluff,

Illinois: Jupiter Press.

JONES, Linda K. and Ned COLEMAN TA Towards a discourse perspective of modes and tenses

in Kickapoo narratives.

LONGACRE, Robert E. 1976a An anatomy of speech notions. Lisse, Netherlands:

Peter de Ridder Press.

1976b 'Mystery' particles and affixes. Papers from the Twelfth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 468-75. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

117

RHODES, Richard A. 1976 The morphosyntax of the Central Ojibwa verb.

University of Michigan Ph.D. dissertation.

ROGERS, Jean 1978 Differential focusing in Ojibwa conjunct verbs:

on circumstances, participants, or events. IJAL 44:167-179.