A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

(108) bina (text communication)
a) Consultant: Zoogipon omaa bangii.
it’s snowing here a little
b) Me: Indaa-dibaabandaan the weather report.
I should check it the weather report
c) Me: Niwii-pi-izhaamin. (later)
we are coming
d) Consultant: Ahaw bina.
okay DM
a) ‘It’s snowing here a little.
b) I should check the weather report.
c) We’re coming.
d) Okay go ahead and do it.’
In (108a), my consultant informs me that it was snowing a little up at Mille Lacs (the
reservation where we had our meetings), thereby implying that it might be better not to
come up. I then told her that I would check the weather report, and after doing so, I
texted her back sometime later saying that we would be coming. To this, she responded
with ahaw bina ‘Okay go ahead and do it’. Ahaw shows a receipt of information, and
bina strengthens that receipt. What the speaker appears to mean by this statement is that
she is really indifferent and could go either way. In other words, the attitude that can be
pragmatically inferred by the use of ahaw bina is: okay, whatever you want to do, it
doesn’t matter to me.
What all these examples have in common is the use of bina to strengthen the
illocutionary force of its containing proposition. If bina is used with a confronting
imperative, then that imperative is given more force. If bina is used with non-confronting
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