3.11 Demonstratives as referring expressions in discourse
Demonstratives act as referring expressions in their own right without being part of an NP. In this study, demonstratives are used in situational deixis, tracking
of participants and discourse deixis.
In situational deixis, a demonstrative points to something outside the text, but present in the speech setting Himmelmann 1996, such as a speaker pointing to
a body part on their own body to explain what is happening in the story, as shown in 94. The speaker points to her own waist to show where the knife was
held, and uses the immediate proximal demonstrative pronoun ɡii this one to indicate this.
94 Bear.037 ɡəə
3sgm ɡɑj
but_then tɔɔtɕ
draw_out miit
knife dɑʔ
at ɡuɑŋ
waist dɑʔ
at ɡii
this_one
But then he drew out a knife at his waist here.
An example of a demonstrative used in tracking a discourse referent is shown in 95. The main participant, the thief, is introduced in the first clause, and
referred to in the second clause using just the near proximal demonstrative pronoun ɡɨˈniʔ, thus signalling his identifiability and also his salience as a
participant in the ongoing narrative.
95Thief.001 ʔɑh
have mooj
one ɡon
Clf_people hɨˈʔɨh
PRT ɡɨˈniʔ
that_one nɔɔŋ
yet məh
be ɡon
person wɑjˈlun
teenager niʔ
this
lɛʔ PRT
ˀnɨɨ naughty
ˀnɨɨ naughty
wɑj ABIL
ləətɕ steal
There was a person ok, that one was still a teenager, he was very badly behaved, and he was adept at stealing.
In their discourse deictic function, demonstratives point to a previous segment in the text, referring to an identifiable event or state of affairs Himmelmann
1996. An example of this is shown in 96. In Tan.007 she describes how she ate too much jujube fruit. In Tan.008 she refers to this event using the near proximal
demonstrative pronoun ɡɨˈniʔ that one.
96Tan.007
74
ʔoʔ 1sg
mɑh eat
pleʔˈtʰɑn jujube
niʔ this
mɑɑk many
pʰoot too_much
ləəj directly
tɛɛŋ ʔɑn cause
ʔoʔ 1sg
sɨrˈmɑʔ have_fever
I ate too much jujube fruit then that caused me to have a fever. Tan.008
kɨnˈniʔ behind
ɡɨˈniʔ that_one
lɛɛw already
ʔoʔ 1sg
ɡɔʔ so_then
sɨrˈmɑʔ have_fever
jɛt located
dɑʔ at
kuŋ village
tɕii IRR
bɨɑn achieve
ɡrɑɑw approximately
mooj one
ʔɑˈtʰit Clf_weeks
bɑɑr two
ʔɑˈtʰit Clf_weeks
After that then I had a fever located at the village lasting about one week [or] two weeks.
3.12 Sɨŋ constructions in discourse