A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

odaa-agindaan.
he could read it
c) Gaawiin-sh gegoo wiin imaa odaa-ondinanziin mazina’iganing
not thing him/her there s/he would not get it from there in a book
ji-agindang noongom.
if s/he reads it today
d) Aano-gikendaasod, gaawiin odaa-gashkitoosiin ji-gikendang i'iw
even though s/he is smart not s/he would be able to know it that
enamanji’od a’aw Anishinaabe.
what he means that Indian
e) Imaa isa wiin i-gaa-ina’oonind, ke gaawiin wiin ingoji
there DM him/her the thoughts s/he was given see not him/her somewhere
okanawisinzinini ogii-ozhibii’anziin i-gaa-pi-ina’oonind.
it is not written s/he does not write it the thoughts that s/he was given
a) ‘But as for white people, they put everything they know into a book.
b) And no one today would understand it even though they could read it.
c) They wouldn’t get anything out of it if they read it today.
d) Even though they are knowledgeable about it, Indians wouldn’t be able to know
the true meaning of it.
e) With [isa] the knowledge that he was given, you see, their knowledge wasn’t
written anywhere.’
In this story, the speaker was asked whether it would be possible to combine the Indian
religion with the white man’s religion into one. This query ultimately led the speaker to
contrast the way in which white people handled their knowledge (they put it into books)
with the way that Indian people handled their’s (not written in anywhere). While there is
a contrast being made between these propositions, this contrast is largely a pragmatic one
due to the contrasting content inherent in the propositions themselves. The use of isa,
therefore, is not marking contrast in the way that, say, idash does, but is used to
strengthen the illocutionary force of the Indian way of handling knowledge. It allows the
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