A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

) Ganabaj naa niimi.
probably DM dance
‘I think he’s dancing.’
The basic proposition for both these statements in (113) above is essentially the same,
he’s probably dancing. While the English translations do not make the distinction clear,
it is the use of naa in (113b) which allows the speaker to distance him/herself from the
accuracy of the containing proposition. When naa appears with other words such as
ganabaj ‘probably’, which are quite hedgy themselves, it is quite difficult to parse out
naa’s contribution to the proposition overall. For example, in the following example, naa
may occur with the evidential adverb iidog ‘must be, apparently’. In this story, a little
girl steals some snuff from a birch bark box, puts it in her mouth, and then gets sick.
(114) naa with other hedging words (Kegg 1991:136-137)
a) Niwenda-minwaabandaan imaa ayi’ii atemagak, ayi’ii wiigwaasi-makakoons.
I really like the look of it there thingy be put there thingy little birch bark box
b) Mii go naa iidog i'iw biindaakwaani-makakoons gaa-izhi-ayaayaan 62 ,
DP EMPH DM must be that snuff box then I got it
giimaabamag iko ninoshenh, gidasiged, gaa-izhi-biindaakweyaan,
I peek at her used to my aunt she is parching then I took a pinch of snuff
gaa-izhi-agwanemwag, mii a’aw biindaakwaan, babaa-dazhitaayaan imaa
then I put him/her in my mouth DP that snuff I play around there
agwajiing babaa-zaziikoyaan.
outside I spit around
62
My consultants suggest that the verbal complex gaa-izhi-ayaayaan should appear as the verbal complex
gaa-izhi-ayaamaan instead.
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