Adverbial and Argument-Doubling Clauses in Cree - MSpace

(107) ( kêtahtawê pr~~kiskêyhtam-pro, ayisiniw s i [, pro,-êh-ayiyitB }.
presently know.TA-(3-inan) persona' near cj-be. AI-3'
'Presently, she, knew that some person, was near.' (P: 154-02)
Simply clairning, howevei, that only one proximate arpment is allowed per clause would
mle out an acceptable sentence like the one given in (108), where both 'Ben' and 'he' are
proximate.
(108) Bert, knows that hei failed the test.
If 'Bert' and 'he' are CO-referential, and 'Bert' is proximate, then 'he' must be
proxirnate as well. We saw in section 4.3.3 that a participant must maintain its obviation
status between a matrix clause and an A-doubling clause. An analysis that claimed only
one proximate argument per dornain, however, would rule out sentence (108) as
unacceptable (having two proximate arguments). It would also predict, incorrectly, that
the following sentence (109) is acceptable, where 'Bert' and 'he' are CO-referential, but
there is only one proximate argument in the domain.
(109) * BenAprox) knows that hei(obv) failed the test. (CO-referentiai reading)
This sentence cannot mean that 'Bert' himself failed the test. The only acceptable
reading occurs if 'he' refers to somebody other than 'Bert'. We have already discussed
(see section 4.3.3) that if a pronominal argument in the A-doubling clause has a diffeient
obviation status than an argument in the matrix verb, t hey cannot be refemng to the same
participant. We can compare the examples in (1 10)' which demonstrate that to interpret