Tracking use NPs with determiners in discourse

My husband saw them, he was from here to there away; it was reasonably far, a distance that one could look and see, the distance from here to that kapok tree. Discourse deictic use points to a previous segment in the text. This is often seen in speech margins as shown in 55, where the NP nɛɛw niʔ like this points to the previous speech clause. 55 Thief.010 məh be kɨˈmuul money kʰɑɑ ruɑ compensation kɔɔn child niʔ this ɡəə 3sgm lɑw say nɛɛw type niʔ this lɛʔ PRT It was the compensation money for my child, he said like this.

3.6.1 Tracking use

In Kmhmu one of the most frequent uses of NPs with determiners in discourse is in tracking participants or other referents. An NP with a demonstrative may be used to signal an identifiable referent, to disambiguate an accessible referent, and to signal thematic salience of a referent. Identifiable referents may have been previously introduced in the text, their identity may be inferrable from a schema or expectation structure in the text, or from the text-external world. An example of an NP with a demonstrative marking a referent that has been previously introduced in the text is shown in 56. The NP kɨˈmuul niʔ the money in Thief.004 signals that the referent kɨˈmuul money is identifiable. It was introduced in the previous sentence, Thief.003. Because of this function of signalling identifiability, the demonstrative niʔ this in this context is translated as the, the English definite article, which has a similar function. 56Thief.004 ɡəə 3sgm ʔuun put_away kɨˈmuul money niʔ this hootɕ CMPL tɕɑwˈɡəə that məh be joŋ father kɔɔn child hɑɑn die lot vehicle tɑm hit niʔ this He put away the money, he who was the father of the child who died when the car hit him... In the Thief narrative, the main character, the thief, is introduced as a teenager who was badly behaved and practised stealing. The schema associated with a 51 teenager leads the audience to expect some parents to be involved in the life of this adolescent. When the parents are first mentioned, an NP with the immediate proximal demonstrative joŋˈmɑʔ niʔ the parents is used, as shown in 57, thus signalling an identifiable referent. This referent is assumed by the speaker to be identifiable by the hearers because of the schema of the family of a teenager. 57Thief.014 nəəŋ know joŋˈmɑʔ parents niʔ this lɑw say ʔɑm NEG sɑj pay_back jɔɔr sɑh because mɑʔ mother joŋ father niʔ this ɡɔʔ so_then ʔɑm NEG ʔɑh have məʔ INDEF ɲɔɔn benefit məh INDEF niʔ this nɑʔ PRT They knew, the parents, and said they would not repay it, because the parents had not had anyone in their household receive anything from this son... A referent may be identifiable because it is inferrable from the text-external world, i.e. the cultural knowledge of the audience. In the Orphan narrative the first mention of the village where the orphan was born is with an NP including a demonstrative, kuŋ nɔɔ ɡɨˈniʔ that village of theirs, as shown in 58. This signals that the referent is identifiable even though it has not been mentioned previously, because everyone knows that people live in villages; thus the village is an identifiable referent. 58Orphan.006 lɛʔ and kuŋ village nɔɔ 3pl ɡɨˈniʔ that_one ɡəə 3sgn ʔɑm NEG ʔɑh have mɑɑk many lɑŋ Clf_buildings And their village, it did not have many buildings. The choice of demonstrative in tracking use depends on whether it is routine tracking, or there is a need to disambiguate a referent, and on whether the referent is being marked as salient in the narrative. For routine tracking, niʔ this is the demonstrative of choice to signal an identifiable referent. In 66 out of 99 occurrences of NPs with determiners used in tracking referents, niʔ was used, as shown in examples 56 and 57. In identifying referents that are inferrable from the text-external world, the near proximal demonstrative pronoun, ɡɨˈniʔ that one tends to be used 3 occurrences, as shown in 58. When a referent needs to be disambiguated from other plausible referents, ɡɨ ˈniʔ that one is also used 2 occurrences. According to Lambrecht 1994, this is often associated with referring expressions in right-dislocated position. An 52 example is shown in 59, where the NP bɨɨŋ tɕuʔ ɡɨˈniʔ that group identifies a group referred to previously in Bear.021 with an intervening section of text referring to other participants. The referring NP is in right-dislocated position, where the speaker seeks to ensure that the pronominal reference, nɔɔ 3pl, earlier in the sentence, is clearly identifiable. 59 Bear.027 nɔɔ 3pl jɔh DIR bɨp meet rɑŋˈkʰɔɔ civet dɑʔ at hoʔ over_there bɨɨŋˈtɕuʔ group ɡɨˈniʔ that_one They went and found the civet over there, that group. Thematic salience of the referent is another factor affecting the choice of demonstrative. When a referent is salient in the narrative either locally or globally, then ɡɨˈniʔ is often used 26 occurrences. The referent marked by ɡɨˈniʔ is given prominence because it is a significant participant in the ongoing narrative, or is highlighted as topic in the local thematic grouping or chunk of text. Thomas 1978, Filbeck 1991 and Bequette 2008 also report the use of a specific demonstrative to mark salient NPs in discourse. When a major participant is referred to after their initial introduction, the demonstrative ɡɨˈniʔ that one may be used to signal the salience of that participant in the ongoing narrative, as shown in 60. Here the orphan is referred to at his second mention using a full NP with ɡɨˈniʔ. He is the central character in the story, and thus his salience is marked with this form of the demonstrative. 60Orphan.003 kɔɔnˈrook orphan ɡon Clf_people ɡɨˈniʔ that_one lɛʔ PRT kəət be_born tɕɑɑk from kʰɔɔpkʰuɑ family tʰuk poor tʰii sut SUPERL That orphan, he was born from the poorest family. Not every such reference to a major participant is marked with this demonstrative, but every use of the demonstrative ɡɨˈniʔ in relation to a participant refers to one who is salient throughout the whole narrative, or one who is being presented as locally salient or topical in the current thematic grouping. Plurality of the referent is another factor in choice of demonstrative. In the 2 remaining occurrences, the plural demonstrative tʰɨrˈniʔ these, was used. 53 Indefinite pronouns may also act as determiner in an NP. An NP with an indefinite pronoun as determiner signals to the hearer that any one of a number of possible referents is being referred to. The type of referent is identifiable from the textual context, but not a specific referent. An example is shown in 61, where the NP nɨm ɡɨˈməʔ whichever year refers to any year in a series of years at the period of time she is describing in the narrative. The type of referent, a year, has been mentioned in the previous sentence, Tan.129, and thus is identifiable. 61 Tan.130 ʔɑn COND nɨm year ɡɨˈməʔ whichever dee unspecified bɨɑn achieve rɔɔt arrive sii four sip Clf_tens tɑŋ dee then kum cover mɑh eat If whichever year we got forty bags of rice, then we had enough to eat.

3.6.2 Recognitional use