Adverbial and Argument-Doubling Clauses in Cree - MSpace

imponantly for our purposes, he recognized that subordinate clauses could be dependent
on main clause verbs. He also discussed the ordering of subordinate and main verbs,
including relative clauses.
Lacombe (1874) discussed relative clauses, ('le qui et le que relatifs', p. 153) and
described some of the uses of the conjunct preverbs ê- and ka,
None of these early grammars treat Cree subordinate clauses much differently than
subordinate clauses found in English or Latin. These constructions in Cree were assumed
to have similar structures, and moods, as the well-studied languages.
2.3 Recent Work on Cree
Wolfm's (1973) grammar of Plains Cree presented a comprehensive overview of Cree
morphology and word formation. This survey did not include a detailed description of
subordinate clauses. He mentioned subordinate clauses, but only with regard to the use of
the conjunct verb form, and the subordinators 2- and ka-, where the conjunct preverb 2-
indicates subordination in a neutral way, and kri- can be used for relative subordination as
well as many others. Subordinate clauses were called dependent clauses, but no syaactic
descriptions were given. He listed four uses of the conjunct verb: narrative, participial,
substantive and focal. The narrative use of the conjunct verb shows no agreement of
referents between the matrix clause and mbordinate clause. Agreement is shown either
between clauses, or oven or covert references when the conjunct is used for participial
constructions. A substantive clause occurs when a clause fiinctions as the adjunct of the