A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

a) ‘Then I turned around to look and there was a real tall man running towards me.
b) He was following me, so I started running just hard.
c) There was a creek there with a log, two logs, lying across it.
d) That creek wasn’t very deep, and I waded right across and looked back at him
again.’
e) He was really big.
f) He jumped right across at the creek, and I ran real hard.’
Here, idash in (55d), which occurs as clitic –sh on the negator particle gaawiin, does not
introduce a new topic on a global level, but only quickly breaks the flow of prior talk (i.e.
a description of being chased by a tall man) in order to provide a brief background detail
(i.e. the creek wasn’t very deep) for upcoming talk (i.e. that she was able to wade
through). This usage is seen again later on in the story, where the speaker breaks the
flow of prior discourse in order to provide background for upcoming discourse.
(56) idash in digressions (Kegg 1991:104-107)
a) Ingoding igo omamaan iniw odoopwaaganan – ginwaakoziwan –
pretty soon EMPH he takes him/her that pipe s/he is long
onashkina’aad.
he fills him/her
b) Mii imaa nanaamadabid a’aw animosh.
DP there sitting around that dog
c) Zagwaswaad, eshkwaa-zagwaswaad, ingoding igo eni-izhi-zaaga’ang
he smokes him/her after he finishes smoking him/her pretty soon EMPH s/he goes out
a’aw animosh.
that dog
d) Ingii-owiiyawen’enyinan dash a’aw akiwenzii.
I am namesake to him but that old man
e) “Niiyawen’enh,” indig, “gaawiin animoshiwisiin a’aw omaa ba-biindiged,” ikido.
my namesake he tells me not not a dog
108
that here who came in he says