Academy of Sciences] INTRODUCTORY 3 



express situational relations, modalities, that do not affect the meaning of the stem complex. 

 The declarative, future, negative, customary, imperative, interrogative, quotative, and some 

 others are included in this group. Most characteristic is the differentiation of these terms in 

 the speech of men and women. 4 An enclitic expressing plurality belongs to this group. It 

 does not express plurality of a single word but pluralizes the whole sentence. Its use is confined 

 to animate beings. 



Some enclitics perform syntactic functions. The most important among these are the arti- 

 cles. Since every noun may also be predicative if provided with the proper ending, and since 

 the articles nominalize phrases, they might perhaps better be called nominalizing elements 

 comparable to our relative pronouns. Numerous coordinating and subordinating conjunctions 

 belong to this class. 



The noun has no cases. The locative ideas "at, from, towards" are expressed by means of 

 nominal suffixes; more complex locative forms are adverbial forms derived from verbs; "with 

 (several people)," for instance, is the adverbial form of the verb "to join." 



The general syntactic structure is determined by the order of words. The subject followed by 

 all its qualifiers opens the sentence which closes with the verb preceded by all its qualifiers, but 

 followed by the modal enclitics. The nominal object is one of the qualifiers of the verbal theme 

 and stands near it. Subordinate clauses should be considered as nominalized, the "conjunction" 

 standing at the end of the complex. Thus: he came the one — , a young man he comes if — ; 

 you do it when — , are units which may function as subject or object of the complex sentence. 

 These clauses unless very simple are often summarized by a demonstrative. In verbal complexes 

 each element qualifies the following: "carrying them || nice place-a | searching for || he went"; 

 i. e., he went searching for a nice place while carrying them 21.11. 



A peculiar feature of the language is its tendency to express approval, disapproval, or indiffer- 

 ence. Datives have two forms expressing whether an action is done with or without approval. 

 "I give it to him with" or "without his approval," or also "at my own" or "at his initiative." 

 "I gave it to him, but he did not accept it," has one form if my giving is appropriate, another if 

 it is inappropriate, a third when no judgment as to propriety is made. "He gave me stone instead 

 of bread," highly inappropriate; "he gave me bread instead of stone," highly appropriate, "he 

 came instead of his brother," indifferent, have distinctive forms. 



* This differentiation is a general feature of Siouan languages. In Mandan the usage has been reversed insofar as one form is used in address- 

 ing men, the other in addressing women. 



