Chapter 124Humi: Sensation and Internal Experience
Bodily and emotional experience, humi ne continuations, sound-based questions, Tokachi and Shizunai evidence, and the absence of a sensation.
124.1 Sensation and felt experience
Humi can concern sound, smell, taste, touch, bodily sensation, or an internal impression. Nakagawa relates these uses to information outside vision and verbal expression, while showing that a felt reaction can arise in a visibly present situation Nakagawa (2024: 400–401).
‘Oh, my foot hurts!’
Nakagawa 2024: 400–401; Saru, Example 816
A different exclamation concerns a daughter returned home in a monstrous form. Her appearance is visible, but Nakagawa understands humi as expressing the mother's horrified feeling about what she sees Nakagawa (2024: 401, example 817). The grammatical choice reflects the experience being expressed, beyond simply cataloguing which physical senses are available.
124.2 Humi ne and its continuations
Nakagawa observes that standalone final humi ne is uncommon in his material. Expressions meaning ‘think’, ‘seem’, or ‘whether’ often follow it. One narrator feels as if a bear has caused a dream, then gets up; another does not know where they seem to be going Nakagawa (2024: 400, examples 813–815).
The dream example has humi ne pekor yaynu=an. Nakagawa uses it to explain that a dream's presentation can be treated as felt experience even where another language would naturally speak of ‘seeing’ a dream Nakagawa (2024: 400, example 814).
124.3 Sound-based questions and replies
Tamura's Saru dictionary illustrates humi an with a question about an audible activity. The answer identifies what is being dragged and ends in humi un Tamura (1996: s.v. humi, formal-noun entry).
The same entry distinguishes formal humi from the ordinary possessed noun humi(hi): the formal use does not take the extra hi syllable. For meaningful cries interpreted as messages, compare Chapter 123 (Hawe: Voice, Wording, and Reports).
124.4 Regional descriptions
Takahashi's Tokachi examples use shorter hum with an. They include both a temporary bodily state after putting down a load and a garment's relatively stable properties Takahashi (2013: 133, examples 28–29).
Refsing reports a different evidentiary limit for Shizunai: she has ordinary humi, sometimes modified by a clause, but no generalized nominalizer or corresponding clause-ending use in her material Refsing (1986: 37). This records the limits of that sample.
124.5 Inference and the absence of a feeling
Dal Corso analyzes humi as as an inferential expression in the surveyed Hokkaido constructions, alongside its independent lexical uses for sound or sensation. He finds no reportative use in those data Dal Corso (2018: 308, 318, 329). For combinations with other endings, see Chapter 125 (Evidential Combinations, Discovery, and Structural Change).
Humi ka isam can deny the presence of a sensation or impression. Tamura's examples include failing to feel sweetness despite added sugar Tamura (1996: s.v. humi, formal-noun entry). That construction differs in scope from a negated predicate followed by an evidential ending, where the negative proposition is what the speaker presents as known or perceived; see Chapter 126 (Clausal Negation with Somo).
References cited in this chapter
Dal Corso (2018) ·Nakagawa (2024) ·Refsing (1986) ·Takahashi (2013) ·Tamura (1996)