Demonstratives as free pronouns

4 .15 aku passaŋ u-tu loŋa tɕhi-taŋ ŋii thuk dep-pa bet. uncle passang that-LOC year half-COM two up.to stay-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘Uncle Passang stayed there up to a year and a half.’ Note that the fraction ‘half’ precedes the numeral ‘two’ and as a result the construction refers to a year and a half rather than to two and a half years. There are two alternative ways in Lhomi to use the fraction numeral ‘one half’. This is particularly true in telling the time of a clock. The following two examples illustrate this. 4.16 t ɕhu-tsøt tɕhi-taŋ sum lit-tuk. water-amount half-COM three arrive-PRF.VIS ‘The time is half past two.’ Lit. ‘Water-clock has reached half three.’ 4.17 t ɕhu-tsøt ŋii thaŋ tɕhikka lit-tuk. water-amount two and half arrive-PRF.VIS ‘The time is half past two.’ Lit. Water-clock has reached two and a half. 4.18 tsampa khekur sum thaŋ tɕhikka-tsøt tɕik nø-pen. flour khekur three and half-amount one buy-1PST ‘I bought three and a half khekur about three and a half litres of flour.’

4.5 Complex fractions

Fractions like 13, 15, etc. are not used that often and therefore the language employs rather complex way to express them. Lhomi requires a relative clause for that. 4 .19 ŋ-e luk khajet go ɕi-la taŋ-e go tɕik 1SG-GEN sheep plural part four-DAT send;VBZR-NMLZ;Q-GEN part one ɕi-soŋ. die-PST.VIS ‘One fourth of all my sheep died.’ Lit. ‘One part of my sheep which were divided into four parts, died.’ 5 Demonstratives and articles Lhomi has demonstrative determiners and articles that may be considered one word class.

5.1 Demonstratives

In Lhomi, demonstratives function as modifiers of a noun or a NP and also as free pronouns. In the latter function they always have a third person reference, singular or plural. In the previous function they resemble the definite article.

5.1.1 Demonstratives as free pronouns

The proximal demonstrative pronoun is hi-, which is a bound morpheme. The reference is to something or someone near the deictic center. The distal pronoun u- refers to a bit further away from the deictic center. It is these bound roots that take the case markings. These roots compound with the noun go ‘head, part’ to form hi-ko and u-ko, which are the absolutive forms of the demonstrative pronouns. These typically do not take case markings, except when the referent is animate, in which case the dative marker may occasionally combine with these pronouns, as seen in example 5.6 below. The referent of the demonstrative pronouns can be either animate or inanimate. As free pronouns they can fill any slot of a noun, third person personal pronoun, or a NP in a clause, e.g. as subject, object, or indirect object. These pronouns are very much like English demonstrative pronouns “thisthat, thesethose”. Lhomi demonstrative pronouns take the same case markings as nouns or NPs. Plural counterparts of the demonstrative pronouns are hi-pa and u-pa, ‘these’ and ‘those’. These plural forms have typically animate referents. The plural marker PL2 is the same one that marks the plural on nouns and NPs see section 3.6.2. Consider the following examples. 5.1 hi-ni hi-ko ʈhup-soŋ. TE9 this-ABL this-head end-PST.VIS ‘Now this is finished.’ The reference is to a particular fieldwork which has been talked about in previous sentences. 5.2 joŋma di-ki lama di hi-ko bet. TE8 other DEF-ERG lama DEF this-head COP ‘Other person said, “As for the lama, thishe is the one.”’ Men are looking for a certain lama and asking where he might be and he happens to be right there but they do not recognize him. Someone else tells them. 5.3 t ɕhøtnø di-ki ha hi-la la tɕik lin-na bin. TE49 shaman DEF-ERG now this-DAT vitality INDF request-NFNT2 give[IMP] ‘The shaman says, “Perform now the ‘la ritual for him.”’ The reference is to a sick man. An evil god is holding his good health, or his vitality, captive. The ritual would make the god to release it. 5.4 u-ki tiŋ-la kurik ʈap ɖo-ken bet. TE30 that-GEN after-DAT all go.away go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘All will follow that one and go.’ Lit. ‘All will go after that one.’ This is from a story which tells about the habits of sheep. The reference is to the leader sheep which goes ahead and all others follow it. 5 .5 tiŋ-laa tshar-na ni behind-ADVZR remain-NFNT1 DM u-la ni tsa ga-a mit- noŋ-ken bet. TE30 that-DAT DM grass be.pleased-COMP2 NEG-get-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘If a weak one falls behind the stronger ones, it does not get the better quality grass.’ This is about sheep. Those who go ahead will eat up all the good grass. 5.6 u-ko-la ʈhii-na that-head-DAT enquire-NFNT1 mimi tshin ʈum-ki siŋkaŋ di khan di bek=ka? TE42 resp.lama tshin ʈum-GEN house DEF which DEF COP=Q ‘I asked her, “Which one is the house of respected lama tshin ʈum?”’ 5.7 hi-pa ŋii-pu ɖas-si ɖas-si ɖik-ken bet. TE52 this-PL2 two-M1 be.alike-INTNS be.alike-INTNS harmonize-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘These two principles have exactly the same value.’ This refers to two marital principles that have equal weight in Lhomi culture. 5.8 thøm-mik-ki ʈhik-la dukpa noŋ-ken di-pa topic-NEG-GEN concerning-DAT hardship get-NMLZ;CONJ DEF-PL2 hi-pa bet. TE63 this-PL2 COP ‘Those who experience hardships for no reason, are these ones.’ Table 5.1. Proximal and distal demonstrative pronouns with case markings Case Proximal SG Proximal PL Distal SG Distal PL ABS hi-ko u-ko -pa ABS hi-pa u-pa -na IN hi-na u-na -tu LOC hi-tu u-tu -ki GEN hi-ki hi-p-e u-ki u-p-e -ki ERG hi-ki hi-p-e u-ki u-p-e -ki INS hi-ki hi-p-e u-ki u-p-e -la DAT hi-la, hi-ko-la hi-pa-la u-la, u-ko-la u-pa-la -ni ABL hi-ni hi-pa-ni u-ni u-pa-ni As can be seen from table 5.1, the compound pronouns hi-ko and u-ko occur only in absolutive case and very rarely combine with dative case, hi-ko- la, u-ko-la. Since these demonstratives are free pronouns they may function as the head of a demonstrative phrase as well. The structure of a DEMP is as follows a hyphen indicates a suffix and brackets mark optionality: DEM -PL2 ADVP QUANT =FOC DEFINDF -CASE

5.1.2 Ablative-case marked demonstratives used as locative source