698

*awat.iri.p jamasa.ta oveja.naka.x manq'a.p.x.i.wa.
shepherd 3p hiding sheep eat 333
S

‘Hiding from their shepherd, the sheep ate.'

According to Yapita, in Aymara culture sheep are encouraged
to eat, and would in no case be considered capable of
guile; their use as a metaphor for people is therefore not
appropriate.

In Missionary, Patron, and Radio Aymara, translation
often results in what in other dialects would be violations
of Aymara selectional restrictions on verb subjects and
complements (refer to 8-2.25). For example, in the Baptist

sermon already referred to, the following sentence occurred:

Ma: ejemplo hermana.naka.s usku.:na, no?

an example sister put 333
RDK

This is intended to mean ‘He was an example, wasn't he,
sisters?’ The Spanish noun ejemplo, associated in Spanish
with the verb poner ‘to put, place' as in poner un ejemplo
‘to give or be an example,' may take either concrete or
abstract complements. But the verb the speaker chose to
translate poner is usku.fa ‘to put a small object in some-
thing' (e.g., a key in a keyhole), which in non-Missionary
Aymara takes a nonliving, concrete zero complement. The
meaning of the sentence outside of the Missionary context
is therefore something like 'He put an example (a small

something) in something. '