36
ceremony is unnecessary. The use of the contrastive marker as she addresses the crowd creates a distance between Jii-Mlii and her understanding of the situation, and the crowd
who have misunderstood what happened to her. 29
+ 2222
what do PL-2S.F CTR
‘What on earth are you all doing?’ [Fish 532]
The contrastive marker can follow a possessive pronoun as seen in
30
.
30
+ L 2222
+ +
why not see 2M.POSS CTR DEM3 former far truly field bachelorette Joom ‘Why did you not see that Bachelorette Joom’s field is very far away?’ [IS14.142]
3.3.2.3.4 Numeral phrase NumP
Quantifiers fall into two types: those used for counting nouns non-human and those used for counting people. A classifier follows the number or other quantifier in a
numeral phrase. The general classifier for things
is used whenever a more specific classifier is not available.
31 hold
banana at arm two thing ‘You’re not even holding bananas in your two arms.’ [Cow 93]
When a single item is counted, the number ‘one’ is used with . The pair
contracts to form ‘one thing’.
Another word for ‘one’ is used for counting a single item with every other classifier. In 32 the noun
‘fish basket’ is functioning as a classifier.
37 32
+ K
+M NF E+, 3 F E+. E
F E+. E ‘They got many fish—one to two baskets full’
[Fish 24] The quantification of people utilizes different classifiers depending on the number
of persons being counted. The default classifier for people is 0, but Bunong employs
different classifiers for one person and two people as shown in the following table.
Table 7: Person classifiers
Number PERSON CLASSIFIER
MEANING
1
+
one person 2
+
two people 3 or more
three or any number greater people
Person classifiers are commonly used following pronouns as example
33
illustrates.
33
+ +
+ +
+ +
9 still
O +
E ‘Those two men continued to graze their cows together.’
[Cow 9]
3.3.2.3.5 Demonstratives DEM
Demonstratives occur at the end of the noun phrase. Bunong has four sets of demonstratives: general or distance, locative, temporal, and abstract. Counterparts to
each of these categories have been identified in other Mon-Khmer languages. Smith 1979:78 describes three types of demonstratives in Sedang: demonstratives, locatives,
and temporal demonstratives. In the Bru language, Miller and Miller 2002:125 refer to a set of demonstratives which they call abstract deictics. Each type of demonstrative is
defined in terms of a point of reference.
38
General or distance demonstratives describe the location of a referent in terms of distance from the speaker and addressee. The three general demonstratives are given in
Table 8.
Table 8: General or distance demonstratives
Bunong word Definition
Abbreviation
here, this proximal within the sphere of the speaker
DEM1 there, that medial within the sphere of the
addressee DEM2
there, that distal far away and out of sight of the speaker and addressee
DEM3
Demonstratives are often used with verbs of motion. In 34 the proximal demonstrative functions as an NP within a prepositional phrase. The speaker uses
because the younger sister left from her house which is the immediate context. 34
+ +
3S go truly from DEM1 ‘She went directly from here.’ [Fish 396]
In example 35, the speaker has prepared food which is located close to the addressee, which is why she uses the demonstrative
DEM2 when referring to the food and the place where she wants him to eat.
35 +
DEM2 rice DEM2 food eat.rice eat quickly at DEM2 ‘Rice is there. Food is there. Eat it there quickly’
[Fish 127-9] The speaker in 36 uses the distal demonstrative to refer to her aunt’s home
because it is out of sight from the location of the speaker and the hearers.
39 36
+ +
1S go pound fermentation younger.aunt 1S.POSS at DEM3 ‘I went to pound my aunt’s fermentation there.’
[Fish 466] Locative demonstratives describe the location of a referent in terms of elevation
relative to the speaker or addressee. There are three locative demonstratives as shown in the table below.
Table 9: Locative demonstratives
Bunong word Definition
Abbreviation
up there—above the horizontal line of speaker LOC3
over there—same horizontal line of speaker, but not within sphere of speaker or addressee
LOC2 down there—below the horizontal line of speaker
LOC1
In 37 the narrator uses to indicate that the younger sister’s house was at a higher elevation than the stream. This represents the geographic layout of the land since
streams are on the valley floor and Bunong villages are built on the hills above. 37 +
after drop return alone to
house LOC3 ‘After dropping the fish in the water, she returned alone to her home up there.’
[Fish 85]
In 38 the mother is speaking to her son and referring to a nearby house. She uses the demonstrative
because the house is not within the sphere of either of them, but is located at the same elevation as the current house they are in.
38 +
+ ++
fiancée 2S.M.POSS go to house LOC2 former EVID
‘Your fiancée went to the house there.’ [Fish 433]
40
In 39 Smelt-fish uses ‘below’ because the water is located at a lower
elevation from where Jii-Mlii is, whom he is speaking to in a dream. 39
obey 2S.F to drop 1S in water LOC1
‘I instruct you to drop me in the water down below.’ [Fish 74] A phrase may contain more than one demonstrative. The prepositional phrase in
40 contains a locative demonstrative followed by a general demonstrative. The locative demonstrative points to the location of the fiancée up above, on the land the mother fish
is speaking and she is located in the water below. The general demonstrative refers to far away, out of eyesight for the speaker and the hearer.
40 +
+ fiancée 2M.POSS call from LOC3
DEM3 HORT ‘Your fiancée is calling from up there, ok’
[Fish 262] Temporal demonstratives describe a referent in terms of distance from the time of
speech. Bunong has two temporal demonstratives.
Table 10: Temporal demonstratives
Bunong word Definition
still to come, more
+
former, already mentioned
In 41 the demonstrative at the end of the time phrase makes it explicit that
the speaker is pointing to time in the future. As an adverb also has the sense of ‘more,
further’. 41
side here more instruct 2S.F to transport rice to
1S ‘Shortly after this, I instruct you to bring rice to me’
[Fish 102]
41
In 42, + ‘former’ at the end of the noun phrase places the event of shooting
the fish in the past. 42
+ +
++ +
1PL.INCL slash fish 3S shoot fish 3S.POSS former ‘We have already filleted her fish, shot her fish’
[Fish 380] One final category of demonstratives are what Miller and Miller 2002:125 refer
to as “abstract deictics.” It is common to say “like this,” or “like that” when referring to things in a general or abstract way. At this point I am hypothesizing that the abstract
demonstratives are contractions because of similar constructions in other Mon-Khmer languages.
10
The distal abstract deictic is very common in direct speech and can have the senses of ‘like that, therefore, really’. The table below gives the general demonstrative in
the first line followed by the contracted abstract deictic in the second line.
Table 11: Abstract demonstratives
Proximal Medial
Distal
General demonstrative
‘this’ ‘that’
‘that’ Abstract
demonstrative ‘like this’
‘like that’ ‘like that’
43 K live like.that like.that
‘They lived like that, like that.’ [Fish 5]
44 L
+ 1S NEG think that become like.this
‘I did not think that the fish would become like that.’ [Fish 168]
10
In Chrau the final particle ‘like that, so, thus’ is a compound of the word ‘like’ and ‘that’
Thomas 1971:99. Richard Watson per. comm. has comfirmed a similar process in Pacoh.
42
3.3.2.4 Verb phrase
