Demonstratives as referring expressions in discourse

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