pro-forms (was: Re: linguolabials)

Shreyas Sampat wrote:

> What other pro-things are there?  Pronouns, of course, are all over the
> place.  IMO this is possible because a noun tends to be used repeatedly in
> a discourse, and so methods are devised to avoid that.  On the other hand,
> verbs are usually unrepeated for reasonable periods, and so when a proverb
> is used it's going to be either in a poetic context or such that the
> antecedent's been forgotten, or possibly in a me-too construction.
Tokana has a pro-verb _omia_ "do (so)":

  Na  nelha ilohfoi, elh ma ifoi         lolhampute omia'
  she leave tomorrow and I  then(Future) week-DAT   do-so-DEP
  "She will leave tomorrow, and I will (do so) next week"

This proverb is derived from _omi_ "thus, so, like this/that, that's how", which
among other uses, functions as a pro-adverbial, and as a pro-clause:

  Na  nelha ilohfoi, su omi opama
  she leave tomorrow or so  think-I
  "She will leave tomorrow, or so I think"

In this example, _omi_ stands in for _na nelha ilohfoi_ "she will leave
tomorrow".

_Omi_ also forms the basis for a number of other pro-adverbials:

  omaun     "if so, if that's the case"
  omielh    "in order for that to happen, therefore"
  omitalh   "because of that, for that reason, that's why"
  omusna    "instead of that, instead"

Matt.

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