454 LINDA SCHWARTZ
(59) Ó-ma-kiye
1-u help
"He helped me."
(60) Ma-wáste/ wa-wáste
1-u good
"l'm good."
(61) Da-má-kota/*da-wá-kota
1-u Dakota
"I'm a Dakota."
(62) Ma-t'é kte/*wa-t'e kte
1-u die FUT
"I will die."
(63) Wa-niwe/*ma-niwe
I-A swim
"I swam."
In an examination of split intransitivity in Dakota, Merlan (1985) estab
lishes that the default class for intransitive subjects is the objective class.
She claims that the subjectively-inflecting class can be positively charac
terized, while the objectively-inflecting class cannot. In her characterization
of this class, she follows Boas and Deloria (1941) who observe that the sub
jectively-inflecting class requires animate subjects: these include all verbs of
coming and going, all verbs ending in -pha (except locatives),^17 and a list of
approximately forty other verbs including both volitional (wachi "dance",
psíča "jump", maní "walk", slohq "creep, crawl", kiyą "fly", etc.) and non-
volitional (e.g., ? "be (animate)", psá "sneeze", kazó "have diarrhea",
blokáska "hiccough", ni "be alive"). Merlan notes that there are several
descriptive predicates in this class (I take her term "descriptive" to be
essentially the same as the combination of my terms "attributive" and
"identificational"): kapι "to be disinclined", ni "to be alive", ksápa "to be
wise".^18
The objectively-inflecting class, on the other hand, cannot be posi
tively characterizeed: it contains predicates that require animate subjects as
well as those which do not: e.g., t'e "to die", chqzé "to be angry", etc.,
which require an animate subject, and also ilé "to burn", suthu "ripe, to
bear fruit", etc., which typically would not take an animate subject. There
fore, animacy of subject is necessary but not sufficient for membership in