A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

(36) miinawaa (Kegg 1991:152-153)
a) Mii dash ayi’ii misko-waabowayaan iko – gii-izhi-wiindewan
DP then whatchamacallit red blanket used to it was called thus
mewinzha gichi-waabowayaanan – mii i’iw egwazhed.
long ago big blankets it is that what he covered up with
b) Miinawaa gaawiin wiikaa gii-kiichiwakwaanesiin.
and not ever he did not take his hat off
c) Gii-waabizhagindibe.
he was bald
d) Mewinzha giiwenh gii-aakozi.
long ago apparently he was sick
e) Akina dash ogii-wanitoonan iniw wiinizisan.
all but 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) [miinawaa] He never took off his hat.
c) He was bald.
d) It was said that he had been sick long ago.
e) He lost all his hair.
f) Oh, that old man was ancient.’
In (36), there are two topics (which are semantically related to the overall topic of the old
man): 1) the blanket the old man wore, and 2) the old man never took off his hat. Only
the second topic, however, is expanded into event structures in (36c-f) which amount to
background information, i.e. he was bald, it was said he had been sick long ago, he lost
all his hair, and oh, that old man was ancient. This has the following structure.
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