PREDICTING SYNTAX FROM SEMANTICS^523sed as "to know". This gloss, however, is inadequate, and to understand
how this verb can gain a remember-psych-action interpretation, it is neces
sary to contrast it with another predicate also often glossed by English
know. This predicate, kaltye, is nominal in nature and controls a dative/pur
posive argument (something known) as well as a nominative argument (the
knower). There is a clear semantic distinction between kaltye and itelare-,
which is reflected in their contrasting nominal and verbal statuses. Kaltye is
a stative predicate indicating that someone has knowledge about some
thing, that they are familiar with something (a person, place, fact, subject
matter). This predicate only refers to the fact that a person has knowledge
stored in their mind and would be better glossed as "be knowledgable
about" (e.g. (2)). Itelare-, on the other hand, is a non-stative predicate,
requiring that someone be actively aware of (be thinking about) a proposi
tion that they know. They may have just come to know the proposition (al
though this is neither entailed or implied), and it must be on their mind
rather than just in it. This verb can take either a direct object, as in (8a), or
an -rle clausal complement (core subordination), as in (5a) and (8).
(8) a. Re itelare-me mpware-ntye kurne re-nhe.
3SGA know-NPP do-NMz bad 3SG-ACC
"He knows (is actively aware of) the bad things (he did)."
b. New-ikwe-le itelare-ke Kwementyaye-le-rle
spouse-3Kinposs-ERG know-pc Kwementyaye-ERG-THAT
pwerte re-nhe ine-ke.
money 3SG-ACC take-pc
"Her spouse knew (was actively aware) that Kwementyaye
took the money."
These two predicates may be defined as follows: kaltye know (x,y), and ite
lare- think (x) about something.x.know.be.in.mind. As might be expected
from this distinction, it is kaltye and not itelare- which forms the basis for
the verbs meaning "learn" (kalty-irre- "know-INCH-) and "teach" (kaltye-
le-nthe- know-LIG-give-).
John Henderson (personal communication) has noted from his work
on the Arandic language Pertam that itelare- "(actively) know" originally
derives from ite "throat", -le "ERG/INSTR" and are- "see", and would
have literally meant "to see with the throat". It is also worth noting that the
verb "to think", itirre-, arose from adding irre- "inchoative" to ite "throat".
The origin of these forms is not transparent in MpA because the word for