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Anthropological Linguistics
Dream as Deceit, Dream as Truth: The Grammar of Telling Dreams
Author(s): Waud H. Kracke
Source: Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 51, No. 1 (SPRING 2009), pp. 64-77
Published by: The Trustees of Indiana University on behalf of Anthropological Linguistics
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Dream as Deceit, Dream as Truth: The Grammar of Telling Dreams
Waud H. Kracke
ofIllinoisat Chicago
University
Abstract. TheKagwahiv
usedexclusive(Tupí-Guaraní)
particle
grammatical
ofdreams
hadearlier
beenclaimed
tobejusta specialized
tense
lyinthetelling
marker
usedindreamnarrative.
is also
Instead,itis arguedthatthisparticle
- specifically,
ofevidentials
ofa setofreportative
partofa system
pastmarkers.
Thisis supported
bothbytheform
oftheparticleandbyexamination
ofits
functions
andetymological
connections.
In a footnoteto The Interpretation
1. Introduction.
of Dreams, Freud
attributesto Sándor Ferenczithe suggestionthat "everytonguehas its own
dreamlanguage"(1900:99n. I).1 Freudwas referring
tothefeaturesoflanguage
thatfacilitatethe formation
ofdreams:the assonances,homonyms,
commonly
used metaphorsand underlying
linguisticimages,and all the otherformsof
connection
betweenwordsin the spokenand writtenlanguagethatcan be the
basis forassociativelinks.He was nottalkingabout,probablywas notawareof,
thosefarless numerouslanguagesthatpresentan explicitgrammarfordreams.
Kagwahiv,a Tupí-GuaranílanguageoftheBrazilianAmazonBasin,is one ofa
- a grammafewlanguagesthatoffer
a linguistic
formspecifically
fordreaming
ticalformfortherecounting
ofdreams.
When I presentedthis materialearlier,in a paper witha different
title
(KrackeI988),21 arguedthatthegrammaticalformbywhichKagwahivspeakersmarkthetellingofa dreamwas notan evidential,
but a simpletense.I must
now completely
reversethat argument,for,in fact,the dream-marking
tense
fits
into
a
well-defined
series
of
evidential
tense
in
markers
particle perfectly
as
in
Kwakiutl
and
Kagwahiv.Thus,
Quechua (Boas 1947:245;Cusihuaman
markeris
1976:170-72;Mannheim1987:146),the Kagwahivdream-discourse
likewisean evidential,and places the dreamas a formofindirectknowledge
abouttheeventdreamedof.
Kagwahivis a Tupí languagespokenbyvarioussmallgroupsin theUpper
Madeira RiverBasin and Rondôniain Brazil. The Parintintin,
wholive along
the east bank ofthe Madeira River,and theirTenharemneighborsspeak a
northerndialectofthe Kagwahivlanguage(Kracke2007:26-27). Theirtraditionalterritory
used to runfromthemouthoftheIpixunasouthto themouthof
theMachado,buttheircurrently
demarcatedarea lies to thenorthoftheTransAmazonianHighway,whichruns intoHumaitá,cuttingtheirold territory
in
two.
64
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WaudH. Kracke
2009
65
2. The dream particle ra'ú.
Dreaming was importantin traditional
Parintintin
life,closelyassociatedwithshamanism.Dreams wereused to forecastthepresenceofgamespeciesto organizetheday's hunt.Theywereused as
an auguryofillnessand death.In timesofwarfare,theywerecalled on to preand disdictthe outcomeof a war expedition.Dreams were told frequently,
theirknowledge
either
as
or
as
indicators
cussedto determine
value,
predictions
ofthe presenceofinvidiousspirits,or ofotherstatesofaffairs.Whentheyare
told- and this is itselfan index of theirimportancein Parintintinlife- the
narrativeofthedreameventis markedin each sentencebya particlera'ú.
Whena Parintintin
tellsa dream,the accountis usuallyframedinitiallyby
'I
a statementsuchas dreamedof. . .' (ahayhúji NP orNP ji ahayhú)3and the
ensuingdreamaccountis interspersedwiththe particlera'ú, a grammatical
operatorthatmarksthe narrativeas a dreamaccount.This dreamnarrative
occurswhendreamsare toldin Kagwahiv.4It occursgenerally
markerregularly
in everysentenceofthedreamaccount,thoughit maybe omittedin occasional
a sense ofurgentintensity.It generallyfollowsthe verb
sentences,conveying
in thesame positionthatwouldotherwise
be occupiedbya
and subjectpronoun,
with
A
marker
never
occurs
ra'ú.
marker.
tense
tense
together
past
past
The manydreamsrecountedto me by my informant
Gabriela,an older
womanoftheMytummoiety,in the courseofmypersonalinterviewswithher
(Kracke1999)provideexcellentexamplesofthisform.One suchexample,which
shetoldme in 1973,is givenin (1).
(1) Mbojájiahayhú.
oñarora'ú.
Oñaró"
ji-rehera'ú.
Orooñaroji-rehe.
Mbojáheihãihu.
Oroji hoi,
no.
oroji ojipe'íarepiagi
ra'ú.
Hei'yiji repíagi
I dreamed
ofa snake[mbojd].
Itwasangryra'ú.
Itwasangry
atmera'ú.
Itwasangry
atme.
Thesnakewashuge.
ThenI wenton,
one.
andI sawanother
I sawa lotofthemra'ú.
In thisaccount,twoinitialsentencesmarkedby ra'ú are followedbythreesento conveya
tenceswithoutthedreamparticle,increasingthepace and intensity
Thenthelast sentencecloseswitha finalra'ú,clarifying
senseofrisingurgency.
thatwe are stillin a dream.
A dreamtold to me in I967 by Coriolano,a youngman of the Kwandú
a littlemorecomplex,but shows
moiety,is presentedin (2). It is syntactically
thesame syntaxofthedreamparticle.
(2) Antonio
'gaji ahayhú,
Pykwéri
Uhuga rafú,
uhuga onï'ïjivera'ú.
ei:
Orogaei ra'ú, GabrieVga
"Tijukáyhuranuhü
jatua'gwyri-pe
nehe"[eiga]ra'ú.
tikutugi
I dreamed
ofAntonio
Pykweri.
He camera'ú,
hecametotalktomera'ú.
So hesaidra'ú,Gabrielsaid:
"Let'skillthebull
onthenapeoftheneck
[or]he'llgoreus"[hesaid]ra'ú.
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66
Anthropological Linguistics
51 no. i
In the openingphrase oftellinga dream,'I dreamed of . . .' (ahayhú ji NP, or
NP ji ahayhú), the noun phrase may referto the manifestcontentofthe dream,
as in (1) and (2). But oftenit refersto the augury ofthe dream- what the dream
predictswill happen. Thus, ifthe dream is manifestlyofpaddling a canoe, the
openingmay be aman ji ahayhú 'I dreamed ofrain*,since a dream ofpaddling a
canoe predictsrain. If the dream is ofa wild party,then the dreamermay say 'I
dreamed of peccary', since a wild party in a dream foresees a herd of peccary
crashingthroughthe jungle.
This frameoftelling dreams appears to be acquired relativelyearly in language learning.A child offivein 1973 told me a dream showingbasic masteryof
the dream-discoursemarker,with certain marginal divergences and in a mixture ofKagwahiv and Portuguese. An excerptis given in (3) (Portuguese words
are underlined in the example).
(3) Ni rakwâi- cortou
(Mâ 'ngâokutú?)
okutú.
Tapy'yntïn
Anängaji-pyhy.
Porco'íji ahayhú- morreura'ú.
Porquinhoornano.
Faz. Visasemvoryorquinho.
Ji rerohóra'ú. Lá no cemitério.
He cutoff-mypenis.
("Whocutitoff?"I asked.)
A whitemancutitoff.
A ghostgrabbedme.
I dreamedofa littlepig- itdied,ra'ú.
The pigdies.
He doesit.The ghosttothepig.
He carriesme off,ra'ú. Theretothecemetery.
From this point,he continuedthe dream in Portuguese,discontinuingthe use of
the dream particle. (For the completedream, see Kracke [2009].)
It is to be noted that in the highlytraumatic opening scene of the dream,
whichpresents a frightening
fantasyofcastration,the five-year-old
boy loses the
initialbracketingofthe dream account. He does not begin 'I dreamed of . . .' and
does not have recourse to the dream marker ra'ú. But as soon as he comes to a
calmer,more displaced segment ofthe dream (it is the pig who dies, not he), he
opens that section with the affirmationof dreaming,and immediatelystarts to
insertthe dream particle.He uses the dream particle as long as his account is in
Kagwahiv (even when the verb is in Portuguese), but drops it when he switches
the main language ofhis account to Portuguese.
3. Dream-account markers as evidentials.
The particle ra'u is used
exclusivelyto mark the narration of a dream; it is not used as a grammatical
particle forany other function.This usage is fairlyunique; there are very few
other languages that have particles used exclusively fortelling dreams. Guaraní, a closely related language ofthe Tupí-Guaraní family,seems to have the
same usage for the particle ra'ú as in Parintintin. Dooley glosses it as "em
sonho" 'in a dream', with no alternativemeanings (1982: 166).5
There are other languages that have dream-narrative markers, such as
Quechua and Quiche Maya, but in both these cases the markershave otheruses
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2009
WaudH. Kracke
67
as well. In Cuzco-CollaoQuechua, accordingto Cusihuaman (1976),6it is a
cases:7
suffix,
"reportative"
-sqa, thatis used in thefollowing
orprehistoric
events....
(1) Historic
fablesorstories....
(2) Scenesoflegends,
before
thespeakerhadreachedtheageofreason
(3) Actsthatoccurred
whileinan unconscious
drunk
state,whether
(4) Actions
performed
bythespeaker
orina dream....
thepersonalparticipation
ofthespeaker,
who
(5) Eventsthattookplacewithout
knowsofthemonlythrough
otherpeopleorfrom
othersourcesofinformation
- phenomena
thatthespeakerhas justfoundoutabout....
(6) Newsituations
1976:170-71]
[Cusihuaman
BruceMannheimsumsit up as "a past formused fornarratedeventsto which
thespeakercannotattest"(1987:146),includingdreamsand myths.
In Quiche(Tedlock1987:120-22,131), dreamsare toldwiththe quotative
formkacha' 'he/shesaid'. This formis used also to tell storiesand in mythic
as in Quechua.However,as BarbaraTedlockpointedoutin response
narratives,
to markstatements
to an earlierversionofthisarticle,it is used moregenerally
whose authorityis absent or not manifested.When a divinerexperiencesa
he says kacha' 'thebloodspeaks'.Thus,in Quiche,the
muscletwitch,
diagnostic
use ofthis "quotative"to recounta dreammayimplyan authorityoutsidethe
consciousselfofthe dreamer,but notnecessarilya lesserdegreeofveritudeor
certainty.
telltheirdreamsin Portuguese,
Likewise,whenParintintin
theyoftenmark
theirdreamaccountsby a quotative,diz que, or disse que (lit.,'[indeterminate
thirdperson]says that' or 'said that'). This Portuguesephrase is used to
indicatethatthe sourceforthe statementto be made is an indirectone, as in
passingon gossip,forwhichthesame formis used.
Thisformoftellingdreamswiththequotativeis commonin thePortuguese
spokenin thenortheastofBrazil,and in AmazonianBrazil,thoughnotknown
in the south. When discussingthe Parintintindream particle with Aryon
Rodrigues'slinguisticsclass in Campinas,São Paulo, in I983, 1 mentionedthis
use ofthe quotativeto markthetellingofa dreamin Portuguese.Everyonein
theclass was familiarwiththeuse ofdiz que or disseque to pass on gossip;but
fromSão Paulo orothersouthernstates,deniedfamiliarity
mostofthestudents,
withtheuse ofdiz que to tell a dream.Two studentsfromnortheastern
states,
however,recognizedit immediately.
formsthatindicate
In variouslanguagesthereexistsa groupofgrammatical
status ofinformation
a
the epistemological
givenby speaker- whethera fact
thathe or she assertsis knownfromhis or her directobservationor personal
is heardfromothersordeductedfromevidence,oris learnedin some
knowledge,
firstnotedin KwakiutlbyFranz Boas (1911: 443, 496),
otherway.Such forms,
weredesignatedby RomanJakobsonas "evidentials"(Jakobson1990:392;see
from"moods,"by whichthe
Aikhenvald2004); and theycan be differentiated
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68
AnthropologicalLinguistics
51 no. i
(Jacobsen1986:3).8Often
speakercalls intoquestionthetruthoftheproposition
one ofthe sourcesofinformation
thus markedis the dream.Most often,the
dreamis includedin a broadercategoryofindirectwaysofknowing,as in the
case ofthesuffix
-sqa in Quechua,and oftheQuichequotativekacha'.The case
ofKwakiutl,describedeightyyearsago byFranz Boas, is the onlyone I know
besides Kagwahivand Guarani in whichdreamnarrativeis markedwitha
tomarkdreams.
particleused exclusively
In his sketchofKwakiutlgrammarin the HandbookofAmericanIndian
Languages (1911:443,496), Boas reporteda suffix-Eng-a affixedto verbsto
indicatethatthe actionofthe verboccursin a dream.He groupedthis suffix
withthreeothersto make a categoryof"suffixes. . . expressingthe sourceof
(1911:496, 1947:
subjectiveknowledge"(1911:443) or "sourceofinformation"
a
which
was
later
labeled
"evidentials"
245)
(Jakobson1990:392;
category
Jacobsen1986).9Ifspeakingofa sickman,Boas observesin theintroduction
to
the Handbook,a Kwakiutlspeaker,"in case he had not seen the sick man
wouldhaveto expresswhetherhe knowsbyhearsayorbyevidencethat
himself,
thepersonis sick,orwhetherhe has dreamedit [-Eng-a]"(1911:43).10
4. The Kagwahiv language: the past tenses and evidentials. In my1988
paper on the Parintintindreamform,I arguedthat ra'ú was simplya tense
markercontrasting
withothertensemarkersin Kagwahiv.I have sincerecognized- alertedto it by Helga Weiss's excellentunpublishedreporton Kayabi
tenses(Weiss 1986),whichI discoveredin SummerInstituteofLinguisticfiles
in Brasilia in I989- thatthepast tensemarkersin Kagwahiv,likethecognate
formsin Kayabi,are organizedon thebasis ofan evidentialcontrast,and that
the Kagwahiv dream markerra'ú fitsneatly into the series of past tenses
knownevents.
markingindirectly
A littlecontexton the structureofthe Kagwahivlanguageis neededhere.
Like otherTupí languages,Kagwahivhas a relativelysimpleverbmorphology,
withinflection
onlyforperson.Tense- past tense,at least- is indicatedby an
adverbialparticlethatfollowsthe verbit modifies.Thereis an arrayofthese
adverbialparticleswithspecificmeanings,suchas recentpast,longpast,etc.
The tense-marking
particlesfallintotwoseries,distinguished
phonetically
and in meaning.One seriesincludesra'é 'recentpast', and raka'é long past'.
(Anothertense marker,rimba'é,is used in mythforremotepast.) The other
includesko 'recentpast', and kakó'longpast'. This latterseries,ko and kakó,
refersto eventsthatthe speakerhas witnessedor experiencedfirsthand.
The
firstseries,on the otherhand- ra'é, raka'é- is appliedto eventsthatwerenot
witnessedbythespeaker,butwhichhe or she knowsfroma thirdparty.This is
the formgenerallyused in recountingmyths,usuallywithone ofthe distant
past markers,raka'é or rimba'é,oftenprecededby ymyä,'long ago' and the
dubitative
po, i.e.,. . . ymyàporaka'é.
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Waud H. Kracke
2009
69
Example (4) is an excerpt fromthe mythofMbahira creatinghis daughter,
told to me in November I966 by João Messias (Kuahã) (who had told mythsto
Nunes Pereira in the 1920s). It illustrates well the compound indirect-knowledge markers ofpast tense used in tellingmyths.
(4) Mbahirapo rimba'é
imondévipoga raka 'é,
to,to,tõ.
Akarahünuhüaturi,mbóru
Ga jukávolMbahiramombóri
po rimba'é gwakykwéri.
Kiropo hènõiMbahiraraka 9é
api! Toroky'wú,
api"
"Toroky'wú,
Ojirowá,mõpõpõ.
Bahira,maybe,a longtimeago,
plunkedhis igapongain thewater
maybelongago,
"plunk,plunk,plunk."
The darkacará camealong,swimming.
He killedit!Bahirathrewit,
maybe,longago,behindhim.
NowmaybeBahiralongago heard
[thevoicebehindhim,saying:]
"Letme groomyou,Papa!"
He turnedaround,and itfell.
More simply,these indirectknowledge terms are frequentlyused to report
gossip heard, or to pass on any informationthat one learned from another
person rather than fromfirsthandexperience. Clearly, the particle ra'ú used
in telling a dream fits into the phonetic pattern established by the series of
reportativepast tenses- ra'é, raka'é, the tense particles used forunwitnessed
events known only indirectlyby hearsay or inference.The use of the simple
quotative diz que when dreams are told in Portuguese is even more clearly
reportative,since it is also a formused by Amazonian Brazilians to pass on
gossip or to tell a tall story.
For both the Kagwahiv and Portuguese dream-discoursemarkers,then,the
dreamed event is presentedas somethingone knows onlyfromexternalauthority,not throughone's own directexperience.
But why,in Parintintinand so many otherlanguages that have markers for
dream narrative, is the dream narrative so often grouped with narratives of
events not witnessed by the narrator? In our way of thinkingabout dreams, it
would seem that dreams are par excellence events witnessed by the person
tellingthem. Indeed, by its nature, a dream is witnessed onlyby the person who
dreamed it. A fewlanguages- includingJarawara, an Arawá language in Southern Amazonia- follow our intuition, and treat dream accounts as reports of
somethingdirectlyobserved"since theyare supposed to be 'seen'" by the dreamer (Aikhenwald 2OO4:345).n But in most ofthe languages cited in Aikhenvald's
book that mark dream accounts evidentially,the great majoritycode them as
indirectknowledge ("reported"or "nonfirsthand"),like informationheard from
others.These include several Caucasian languages, such as Abkhaz and Svan;
Modern Eastern Armenian; Macedonian; Yukaghir in Siberia; and Cree, Montagnais, and Naskapi among Algonquian languages in NorthAmerica (2004:158,
222, 345-46, 381). Among Amazonian languages, Shipibo-Konibo speakers tell
dreams in the reportedevidential, "since what one experienced in a dream is
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70
AnthropologicalLinguistics
51 no. i
notpartofreality"(2004:346,38O);Tariana and Tucanononshamanstelltheir
dreamsin thenonvisual,"sincetheybelongto an unreal,imaginary
world,"but
of
dreams
shamans
are
cast
in
visual
since
evidential,"
"prophetic
theyare "part
oftheirsupernaturalexperience"(2004:309,346-47).
In Kagwahiv,theparticlera'ú thatmarksa dreamaccountis notidentical
withthe reportativepast tense markersra'é and raka'é,but it fitsphonolowiththefirsthand
gicallyintoa sequencewiththem,contrasting
past tensesko
and kakó.How is it that accountsofdreamsare assimilatedin so manylanwhose authoritylies in someoneother
guages to the categoryofaffirmations
thanthespeaker?
Ofcourse,eventhoughthequestionis relatedto a trendthatinvolvesmany
different
languageswithsystemsofevidentials,it mustfirstbe answeredfor
each languageon itsownterms.
5. Connotations of the dream marker. Beforeaddressingthisquestion,I
wantto raise a secondone:just what is the fullmeaningofthe particlera'ú?
What are its connotations?
And what does it suggestforParintintinbeliefs
aboutthenatureofdreaming?
Thereare threewaysto approachthisdoublequestion.One, whichI have
alreadyutilized,is to look at its positionalmeaning:what syntacticslot does
it occupy,and whatpartdoesitplayin thesystemofcontrastsamongthealternativewordsthatcan occupythatslot?Secondly,we can lookat thatslippery
ofsynonyms:
whatwordsdoesit alternatewith,in thesame slot,withcategory
out changingthe meaning(verymuch)?Third,one maylookat close cognates
withinthesame language;and,fourth,
onemaylookat theword'setymology,
or
thecognatewordsin other,closelyrelatedlanguages.
The positionalmeaningofra'ú we have alreadyexamined;thatis,thebasis
on whichwe have assigneditthefunction
ofa tense-marker
and,withinthepast
tenses,the functionofan evidentialmarkingthe past eventas one that was
dreamedand notdirectlyexperiencedin wakingor heardaboutfromsomeone
else. It is, however,on thebasis ofits formthatI deemit closerto theparticles
thatmarkheard-abouteventsthanto thosethatmarkeventsdirectlyexperienced.
- wordsalternating
Whenwe lookforsynonyms
withit thatat least approxthe
same
we
find
one.
Some
imatelypossess
meaning
speakersuse the term
an adverboftimeotherwisemeaning'temporarily',
in substitution
rameñúmi,
forra'ú whentheyare recountingdreams.I considerit a case ofalternation
ratherthan ofcontrastbecause the use ofone or the otherseemsto be determinedby the speakerratherthanby a contrastin meaning;certainspeakers
regularlyuse rameñúmi,othersra'ú, when recountinga dream,in similar
distribution.
One ofthosewhouses rameñúmiregularlyis Gabriela'sdaughter
Marielena.An excerptofa dreamfromthefirstinterview
I had withherin 1973
is presentedin (5).
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2009
Waud H. Kracke
(5) Kirámeji Mundico'ga rayhúvino.
Oroji ga rayhúvi,
Oroimoendytata'íypytúnimo,
Orojipe'gwówo.
Oroga ei rameñumiPaolo'ga jive
"Ehóerúa lamparina!"
Paolo'ga rameñumieijive
"Ehóerúa lamparinaokáripe"
Oroji hoirameñumi herda
lamparina,
. . . añangajivé rameñumi!
Oroiñániogwówoikia rameñumi.
"Añang!"ejigapé rameñumi.
(<
Añang!"e ji gapé rameñumi.
71
YesterdayI dreamedofMundico.
So, I dreamedofhim,
thenI lita littlefire,
and thenhe wentaway.
So thenPaulo said tome temporarily.
"Gobringthelantern!"
said tome
Paulo temporarily
"
"Gobringthelanternintothebedroom!
to getthelantern,
So I wenttemporarily
Therewas a ghostafterme!
So I ran awayand wentinsidetemporarily.
"Aghost!"I said to himtemporarily.
"Aghost!" I said tohimtemporarily.
Marielena uses rameñumi in this way through all of the dreams that she
told me. I have rarelyheard the same speaker use the two terms in alternation
in tellinghis or her dreams; the use ofone or the other seems to be a preference
of the speaker rather than a marking of any contrast in meaning. In one
instance,Marielena's motherGabriela used the term rameñumiin describingto
me how, in her childhood,her motherhad tried to reassure her that the nightmare that had just terrifiedher was a transient event.12Her motherused the
term to characterize her daughter's nightmare image as evanescent and her
daughterreplied,insistingon her feelingthat the image was real, but accepting
that it was transitory.It was not used by either as a substitute forra'ú. Still,
that bringsout the implicationofthe substitutionof rameñumi'temporarily'for
ra'ú as a marker of the dream discourse. It emphasizes the evanescence of
dreaming,the transientnature ofthe dream.
Let us look at the cognates of ra'ú in Kagwahiv. There is one principal close
cognate:the noun ra'úv,13a noun ofcomplexmeaning which includes references
to dream-imagesamong its significata.This noun basically means a representation ofsomething.A pictureof a house, ongá, can be referredto as ongá ra'úva.
If a child picks up a stick and pretends in play that it is an arrow, u'yva, the
stick is u'yva ra'úva. In talking about a dream, the term is used forthe dream
image of something; if you dream of a fish,pirá, the image of the fish in your
dream ispira ra'úva.
But the term also has other referentsthat intrude into a semantic domain
signifyingsomethinglike 'soul' or 'spirit' or 'lifeforce,center offeeling'. In food
taboos (Kracke 1990), when someone eats a forbidden species, the offended
animal in certain cases (paca, piranha) retaliates by "biting the liver" of the
offender(or ofhis or her child), or "bitinghis or her ra'úv" (hu'u'u ahe ra'úva).
In the case of deer, it "stamps on the ra'úv" (opyvondyahe ra'úva). The ghost,
añáng, is oftenreferredto by the term ha'uvagwéra 'the formerra'úv . A dying
person's ra'úv is said to go out to visit his or her close relatives, appearing to
them in their dreams to announce its departure.
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72
Anthropological Linguistics
51 no. i
When we turnto otherlanguages ofthe Tupí6. Etymological comparisons.
Guaraní family,there is only one in which a cognate particle is attested with
just the same meaning as in Kagwahiv, a grammatical marker of dreams. This
is in Mbüá Guaraní (Dooley 1982:166). Withinthe contextofthe Tupí-Guaraní
family,Mbüá is rather distant fromKagwahiv, which suggests that there must
be other intermediatelanguages in which ra'u or a variant of it is so used, but
these are not attested in the literature.14
In other Tupí-Guaraní languages, we find a number of cognates, with
diverse significata,clustering around a set of meanings that illuminate in an
interestingway the concept of dreaming in these languages. The meaning of
'soul' or 'ghost' is prominentamong them. In old Guarani,15as in Kagwahiv,
raugue ("formerrau," a synonymouscognate ofKagwahiv ha'uvagwera") means
'ghost', as also does tau (Ruiz de Montoya I876 [1639] :338, 359). But many
cognates of Kagwahiv ra'u refer to divination: hau in old Guaraní means
'divination, prognostication,outcome [sucesso]', or "coger al espirito atraer la
volontad del ausente" ('to seize the spirit to attract the desire of someone
absent'). The verb ahau means 'to divine', and the participle hauvõ means
'to augur', or an 'augury ofsomething'.In present-dayGuaraní, the verb rauvõ
is still glossed "Augurar. Pressentir.Predizer", 'to augur, have a premonition,
foretell'(Sampaio 1986:141)- another aspect ofbeliefs associated with dreams
in Parintintin(Kracke 1979:130-32, 1999:262-64).
And finally,the term,used as a suffix,indicates either a wish, or deceptiveness. Thus, in old Guaraní, accordingto Ruiz de Montoya(I876 [1639]:74), sol is
a desiderative,but au signifies'burla [jestingdeception,pullingthe leg], fiction,
fantastic': aba au 'a fake man' {hombrede burla); Aha au 'he pretended to go'
(iba de burla). The adverb rail (which he translates as 'doubt' and derives from
ra 'already' and the desiderative au) can indicate either a wish ("Eyapó rail, 'do
it rightaway' [expressinga desire that the other do it]") or deception: "This ra
withthe particleail, 'in pretense,'puts what is said or done in doubt:Oho rail yê,
'they say that he went,but don't believe it'" (I876 [1639] :338).
The various clusters of meaning that we find attached to cognates of ra'u
in otherTupí-Guaraní languages- 'ghost', 'augury', desiderative,and markerof
falsehood- all have some referenceto aspects of Kagwahiv concepts of what
dreamingis. I have noted that certain dreams are interpretedas the appearance
ofthe soul of a dyingperson to announce his or her impendingdeath to a close
relative. More generally,however, dreams are regarded as auguries of future
events or states. These auguries are not literal visions of the future;they are
messages about the futurethat are evidentonlyto those who have masteredthe
elaborate code in which dreams are couched. Dreams are not depictions,but, as
suggested by the cognate noun in Kagwahiv, representationsofwhat is to come
(Kracke 1979:130-32, 1999).
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2009
WaudH. Kracke
73
But, despitetheseways in whichdreamsmayprovideimportantinformadreamsare stillregardedin a senseas deceptive.Concludtionaboutthefuture,
ingthe accountofa dream,the dreamerwouldoftenremark:"I thoughtit was
-oroähä 'in theend,itwas not',"itwas just a dream;theyagreewith
so-and-so;
Descartes'sjudgment.
Thus, the various senses of ra'ú reflectedin its cognatesin otherTupíGuaranílanguagesform,as it were,a synopsisofthemaintenetsofParintintin
or auguriesofthefuture;dreams
beliefsaboutdreams:dreamsare predictions
the
of
be
a
way perceiving spiritworld,especiallyghosts;and dreamsare
may
unreliable,deceptive.
7. Conclusion. Finally,let us returnto the questionraised earlier:whyin
and in so manyotherlanguageswhichhave special grammatical
Parintintin,
ofdreamsseen as indirectknowmarkersfordreamaccounts,are descriptions
accountsofeventswhichare
with
of
dreams
accounts
are
grouped
ledge?Why
heard about froma thirdperson,ratherthan witheventswitnessedby the
speaker?
Dreams are notwhattheyseem to be. In a literalsense,theyhave all the
but theyare not perceptionsofsubappearanceofa real, wakingperception,
stantialreality.One wakesfromthem,and theyare notthere:-oro âhâ. Atthe
same time,theydo conveysometruth,butthetruthis notwhatis presented.It
is whatthedreamcan tella personwhois versedin thecodeofdreamsaboutthe
future.
The dreamdoesnotpresentthetruth,butrepresentsit,througha language
to be understoodby the dreamer.In this sense, then,the dreamis not an experience,it is a message,a messagefroman unknownsource.The knowledgein
frombeyond.Hence,it cannotbe coded
a dreamis receivedas a communication
as personalexperience.
Freud's footnotes
generatefieldsofresearchand thought.In anotherfootnote to Interpretation
ofDreams,in chapter7, Freud asks: "To whomis the
dreama wishfulfillment?"
(1900:580 n. 1). It is clearlynotto the personwho
wakesfromthe dreamand is puzzledbyit,or distressedbyit. It is, he reflects,
the dream."A dreamerin his relation
anotherpersonwithinus whoconstructs
can onlybe comparedto an amalgamationoftwoseparate
to his dream-wishes
This footnote
inspiredJacques
peoplewhoare boundin a strongcommunality."
the
"unknown
Lacan's conceptof"theex-centric
subject"ofourunconsubject,"
inner
life
scious
(Lacan 1988:43).
Andit also providesus withan answerto our question,witha reasonwhy
accessed.
languagesthatmarkdreamaccountsmarkthe dreamas indirectly
The dream comes fromanotherspace, anotherscene. It is a message from
anotherself,distinctfromourwakingself."Someoneotherthanourselvestalks
in ourdreams"(Lacan 1988:135).
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74
Anthropological Linguistics
51 no. l
Notes
This articleis based on a paperpresentedin the symposium
on
Acknowledgments.
"Re-Presentation
ofDreams"organizedbyLaura Grahamat theNinetieth
AnnualMeetAssociation,
ingoftheAmericanAnthropological
Chicago,22 November1991.Revisions
weremadein 2005 and 2009.
In thetranscription
ofKagwahivused in thisarticle,y is a highback
Transcription.
'
unrounded
vowel,likeRussian¿1; is glottalstop;r is flapped;e is as in Englishpet;o is
likethea in Englishcall] ñ is a palatalizedn,as in Spanish.
I do notfindtheremarkin theEnglishtranslationoftheFerencziwork
1. Actually,
referred
to (Ferenczi1950),thoughthedreamsoftheHungarianpatientsthatFerenczi
interpretsin that articleofferample materialto documentsuch an assertion.In a
footnote
to the article,however,thetranslator,ErnestJones,does make the comment
that the sense of one dreamin Hungarian"dependson a play on wordsthat is not
translatedbytheauthor"(Ferenczi1950:121n. 1).
2. The titleofmy I988 paper was borrowedfromDescartesvia O. K. Bouwsma
ofdreaming
fromDescartes's
(1965),whotookthetitleforhis articleon theepistemology
"I have oftin sleepbeendeceived.. . ."
famousexclamation,
NP standsfor"nounphrase."It mayrefereithertothemanifest
3. The abbreviation
- whatthecontentofthedreampredicts.
contentofthedream,orto thedream'saugury
witha considerableadmixtureofPortuguese,
4. Dreamstoldwithcode-switching,
toldin Kagwahiv,ormaydispensewithit ifthe
maystillutilizethera'u formin portions
overallstructure
becomesmorePortuguese.
5. He adds the exampleokyjera'u 'dreamedofbeingafraid',and cross-references
[r]exara'u 'to dreamof. . .' (1982:57),literally,'tosee ... in a dream'.
6. This is the first"linguistically
informedreferencegrammarof Cuzco-Collao"
(Mannheim1991:117).In Wanka(CentralPeruvian)Quechua,Aikhenvaldreports,citingFloyd(1999),that"thedirectevidentialis used in recounting
dreams,as iftheywere
partof'everydayexperienced
reality'"(Aikhenvald2004:345).
7. The Spanishoriginalofthispassage is as follows:
o prehistóricos
....
(1) Hechoshistóricos
(2) Escenas de leyendas,fábulaso cuentos....
antesde que el hablantetengauso de razón....
(3) Actosocorridos
(4) Acciónque realizael hablantemientrasse encuentraen un estadoinconsciente,
ya de borracho,
ya en sueños
(5) Hechos que transcurrieronsin que haya participado per sonalmenteel
de otraspersonaso de
hablante;éste sabe de ellossolamenteporintermediario
otrasfuentesde información
....
(6) Situacionesnuevas,fenómenos
que el hablanteacaba de descubrir....
8. Schlichter
also
(1986:47,49, 51)
opposesevidentialsto markersofdoubt("dubitative") in her discussionofevidentialsin Wintu.Jacobsenalso notes Swadesh's 1939
rolein introducing
theterm"evidential"
theNootka"quotative
intermediary
bygrouping
and inferential
togetheras 'modesofevidence'"(1986:4).
9. JakobsoncitesBoas as holdingup Kwakiutlevidentialsas an exampleofepistemologicalaccuracy:"In his last publishedlinguisticstudy'Language and Culture'
(1942),Boas wittilyremarkedthatwe wouldread our newspaperswithmuchgreater
satisfaction
if,in the same way as Kwakiutl,our language,too,wouldcompelthemto
statewhethertheirreportswerebased on self-experience,
on inference,
oron hearsay,or
thereporter
had dreamedit" (Jakobson1944*192).In fact,Boas thereonlyrecommends
distinguishing"whethertheir reportsare based on self-experience,inference,or
hearsay"(1942:182);he doesnotmentiondreamingas a sourceofjournalistic
knowledge.
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2009
Waud H. Kracke
75
10. The respectiveKwakiutlreportativesuffixis -el(a) 'it is said'. Anotherofthe
is -Emsku'as I toldyoubefore*
evidentialsuffixes
(Boas 1911:496).
11. Dixon givesonlythe laconicstatementthat "anythingthe speakerwitnessed
(in real lifeor in a dream)will be describedby e," the "eyewitness"form(2003:168).
s elaborationis consistentwiththe criteriagivenin Dixon forJarawara
Aikhenvald'
and byDixonelsewhere(2004:203-7),althoughhe doesnotmentiondreams
evidentials,
in thelatterpassage. Aikhenvald(2004:345)citesseveralotherlanguagesthatclassify
theEasternTucanobecausetheyare seen,including
dreamsas directvisualevidentials
an languagesTuyukaand Tatuyo."In Turkiclanguages,"she adds, "dreamsare never
evidential"(2004:345).
cast in nonfirsthand
12. When Gabriela woke froma nightmare,her motherreassuredher Avi âhâ
rameñúmimbatéra'buttherewas nothingthereat thatmoment'.But Gabrielainsisted
'It was too!It was dark
Avité!jypívuhurameñúmi'upa,Hi! Mbatérajypívuhurameñúmi
- insistingon thedream'sreality,
ee! Thereweredarkthingstemporarily'
temporarily,
it as an evanescentevent.
butacknowledging
either
it maybe pronounced
in
13. Depending parton phoneticcontextand prosody,
ofv
as in theSpanishpronunciation
[ra'u]or [ra'ußa]([ß] representsa bilabialfricative,
orintervocalic
ò).
(1978),he definessa'u as 'to imagdictionary
14. In Bouchard'sTembé-Portuguese
ine or suppose',and the verbsuffixaub as 'to dream,imagine,conjecture,suppose,
conceiveorguess,predict'.In thenextsentence,he adds onemoredefinition:
adivinhar,
whichmeans'to guess' in Portuguese,butit can also mean'to divine'(see below).
15. "Old" Guaraní (PortugueseGuaraní Antigo)is the Guaraní spoken in the
sixteenthand seventeenthcenturies,documentedin the reportsofearlymissionaries
and travelerssuch as Padre Ruiz de Montoya.I am indebtedto AryonRodriguesfor
accessto his libraryofsourceson old Guaraníand oldTupinambáand forputtingat my
ofTupí languages,whichmadethispartoftheresearchpossible.
disposalhis knowledge
I also owehimthanksforhis guidancein mystudyofKagwahiv,startingwithmyfirst
at theMuseuNacionalin 1966-68.
efforts
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