A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

ackground
d) Mewinzha giiwenh gii-aakozi.
long ago apparently he was sick
foreground
e) Akina dash ogii-wanitoonan iniw wiinizisan.
all DM he lost them those his hairs
f) Oonh, gichi-aya’aawi a’aw akiwenzii.
Oh he is very old that old man
a) ‘And a misko-waabowayaan ‘red blanket’ – that’s what they called those big
blankets long ago – that’s what he wore.
b) He never took off his hat.
c) He was bald. background
d) It was said that he had been sick long ago. background
e) He [dash] lost all his hair. foreground
f) Oh, that old man was ancient.’
In (58), there are two tokens of idash, in (58a) and (58e). The first token in (58a)
introduces the global topic of what the old man wore, i.e. a red blanket and a hat that he
never took off. The second token of idash in (58e) occurs within support of this major
topic as a device to contrast local backgrounded content, i.e. events that lead to his hair
loss, with local foregrounded content, i.e. that he lost all his hair. In short, the
background information in (58c) and (58d) contextualizes the foregrounded information
in (58e), and it is idash which links these two discourse actions.
This sort of contrast between local backgrounded and local foregrounded content can
also be seen in another story where an Indian man is taken to court for fighting. Before
this man is introduced in this story, however, the speaker provides this global background
episode.
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