This symbol represents a series of sounds—that

85 Examples of Deictic Use of onf sany a. onf t|m sany a-ra Nom Nom-thing = ‘this matter’ b. onf pmtkyf sany ca up Nom paper+ to cover = ‘this book’ c. onfuJhodkh sany kai. sui. Nom Pr+Pth = ‘this manner’ d. onf eSf sany hnai Nom kind = ‘this manner’ e. onf ajumif. sany kraung. Nom reason = ‘that reason’ f. onfrSm sany hma Nom+Loc = ‘here’ In these cases, onf sany occupies the non-head position, unlike its role in most other constructions. In this way, the deictic function is marked semantically and grammatically as distinct from the other functions of the nominalization template.

4.3.3.2.1 Close Proximal Deixis

T i There is another deictic specifier in FB which is also often translated into English as ‘this’. The sense of this specifier is that the object is within reach of the speaker, who is at the deictic center at the time of speaking, and therefore the object and the speaker are assumed to occupy the same general physical space. This morpheme, in its pre-positional form, is represented in FB as a single grapheme T

i. This symbol represents a series of sounds—that

of a glottal stop plus a vowel [ i], which is written in the Burmese orthography as belonging to the class of having an initial vowel series, for which there are a whole series of graphic variants rather than writing the symbol, for example, as a glottal stop consonant together with the dependent vowel. Other independent vowel symbols are occasionally used to signal grammatical function, such as the post-positional variant of this deictic particle described below. By using somewhat rare symbols for grammatical functions the reader is able to rapidly identify a “whole word” function. It serves the purpose of rapid textual chunking and segmenting of meaning during the reading process. 86 Examples of Deictic Use of T i a. Tt|m i a-ra ‘this matter’ b. Tpmtkyf i caup ‘this book’ c. TuJhodkh i kai. sui. ‘this manner’ d. Tenf: i nang: ‘this manner’ e. Ttajumif: ajumif. i a-kraung: kraung. ‘for this reason’ f. Tt|yfY i a-rap hnai. ‘ here’ ‘at this place’ g. TuAsmrsm: i ka.bhya mra: ‘these poems’ The data in 86 demonstrate that the deictic specifier can be used with a variety of concrete or abstract nouns. The selection and translation of both deictics appear the same in their English translations. Okell and Allott 2001:261 attribute the difference between the two to a difference in formality, with T i being the more formal. They relate the latter form to a historical process whereby Burmese emulated and translated Pali texts word-for-word. And, where a stylistic form was lacking, one was created or imported for use within a specific context to serve as that specific Pali grammatical function Okell 1965. Both Okell and U Hoke Sein, in his Burmese-English-Pali Dictionary 1978:1044 note the relative equivalence of Burmese T i to Pali ayam. While the historical process is undeniable, what is of interest here are the resources Burmese brought to that solution, and how the system adapted, adopted, and accommodated its own underlying structure, or structuring processes. It is beyond the scope of this study to examine the extent of historical borrowing of structure, but what will be examined is the systematic nature of the use of deictic particles in regard to nominalization. We will look at the usage in Formal Burmese and at the structure as it is represented in modern Colloquial Burmese. Having established the use of onf sany for deixis of nominals, and the similarity in distribution and function of T

i, the discussion now turns to an examination of the system