Elena Leman

Cheyenne Major Constituent Order Elena Leman

Cheyenne narratives exhibit all possible orders for the three major constituents of subject, object, and verb. In this book, the author explores factors that could possibly influence the order of major constituents in Cheyenne narrative. Through the analysis of texts elicited from Cheyenne speakers, she concludes that the newsworthy first principle provides an accounting for alternate constituent order and can be used to predict constituent order.

Cheyenne, an Algonquian language, is spoken by Native Americans living in Montana and Oklahoma. The author has done language research with those in Montana since 1975. The theoretical basis of this study comes from her work toward earning a master s degree at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

2.1 Obviation
2.2 Verb Inflection
2.3 Pronominal Prefixes and Inverse Markers
2.4 Indirect Object

3.1 Syntactic Role and Constituent Order
3.2 Semantic Role and Constituent Order
3.3 Animacy and Constituent Order
3.4 First Mention and Constituent Order
3.5 Tomlin's Theme First Principle
3.6 Tomlin's Animated First Principle
3.7 Payne's Conbination of Factors
3.8 Other Combinations

4.1 Newsworthy Contrasted with Other Linguistic Terms
4.2 Tests for Mithun's Newsworthy First Principle
4.3 Other Support for Newsworthy First
4.4 Cognitive Support for the Hypothesis

5.1 Introduction to the Experiment
5.2 Online Video Narration

Appendix A. Cumulative Referential Density in Cheyenne
Appendix B. Diary of Video Experiment Process
Appendix C. Samples of Cheyenne Texts
References