draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

the Full Catechism, and (9.15) from the Profession of Faith, where the use of =aRi appears to be
motivated by the partial semantic overlap between the Old Omaga diffuse locative =aRi and the
Spanish preposition en.
In (9.14), for example, the diffuse locative co-occurs with the verb saRa ‘await’, which in Omagua
takes a direct object without requiring an adposition. The construction in (9.14) appears to be a
direct calque of Spanish esperar en ‘have faith in’, where the use of saRa ‘await’ stems from the
homophony of esperar ‘wait’ and ‘hope’, and use of the diffuse locative stems from the (overgeneralizing)
identification of the diffuse locative with the Spanish preposition. 375 In order to make clear
the presence of the calque we gloss saRa as ‘await’ but translate it as ‘hope’ in the target translations
given here.
(9.14) nesaRatipa upakatu neĩyamukuikatu DiosaRi ene utSakana RatenepetaRi, neumanuRaSi, RaeRusuaRi
ene sawa 1watimai Ritamakate, naRaSi?
ne= saRa =tipa upa =katu ne= ĩya =mukui =katu Dios =aRi ene
2sg= await =interr all =intsf 2sg= heart =com =intsf God =loc.diff 2sg
utSa =kana Ra= tenepeta =aRi ne= umanu =RaSi Ra= eRusu =aRi ene
sin =pl.ms 3sg.ms= forgive =impf 2sg= die =nass 3sg.ms= take =impf 2sg
sawa 1wati =mai Ritama =kate naRaSi
soul be.high.up =inact.nomz village =all ?
‘Do you have faith in God, with all of your heart, that he will forgive your sins, and that
when you die he will take your soul to Heaven?’
(see (6.34a))
A similar calque is found in (9.15), where the Spanish verb-plus-particle expression creer en
‘believe in’ appears to be the basis of the use of the diffuse locative with the Omagua verb sapiaRi
‘believe, obey’. Note that sapiaRi is itself a transitive verb that takes a direct object with no need
for a postpostion, and that, at least in modern Omagua, does not participate in a construction
resembling that found in (9.15).
(9.15) tayaRa jesucristo, aisetui dios, aisetui awa, enesemai tasapiaRi ene kumesamaikanaRi.
ta= yaRa jesucristo aise -tui dios aise -tui awa ene =semai ta= sapiaRi
1sg.ms= master Jesus.Christ true -? God true -? man 2sg =verid 1sg.ms= believe
ene
2sg
kumesa
say
=mai
=inact.nomz
=kana
=pl.ms
=aRi
=loc.diff
‘My Lord Jesus Christ, true God, true man, I truly believe in you and your words.’
(see (7.1))
9.3.3 Semantic Extension of Lexical Items
The use of Omagua linguistic forms in ways inconsistent with native speaker uses of those same
items is not limited to functional morphemes, but extends to lexical items. An instance of semantic
extension of an Omagua lexical item based on Spanish lexical semantics was already encountered
in §9.3.2.3 where Omagua saRa ‘await’ was used to translate Spanish esperar ‘hope, await’, where
375 Note that German, the native language of several Jesuit missionaries who worked among the Omagua, does not
express the sense of ‘have faith in’ with a construction that would result in this type of calque (i.e., in X Vertrauen
haben).
139