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
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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
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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.
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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