Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction

 --- Dirk Elzinga <Dirk_Elzinga@...> wrote:
>
> At the risk of getting lost in the crowd, here's a
> sketch of
> Shoshoni's rather complex but pretty nifty deixis
> system.
>
might as well jump on the bandwagon and do bac :

demonstrative/deictics are marked with a suffix :

|-is| this here
|-es| this
|-as|*
|-os| that
|-us| that there

*not used for physical location, but often used to
refer to a subject recently talked about. also used in
grammatical constructions  to form correlatives

where english would use a demonstrative adjective, bac
uses the suffix on the noun :

|lnirayes| this sheep
|knerasus| that bee over there

both of these are marked as definite ( notice the |n|
after the initial consonant ). you can also use the
suffix on indefinite nouns, with a meaning something
like english 'one of these Xs', or 'an X here' ( you
can also do this with possessives )

to give what in english would be a pronoun, bac adds
the suffix to a 'neuter pronoun' word. the most common
is |tat| :

|tnates| this
|tnatus| that over there

you can also use derived stems :

|tnattes| here
|tnattus| over there
|tnartes| this way, (thus)
|tnaltes| like this, of this sort, this type of . . .

you can also use 'affective pronouns' :

|jehkates| this **** ( supply expletive )

finally, it bears stressing that these suffixes can be
applied to amost anything. personal pronouns can take
them ( where they have a combination of focusing and
affective force ), verbs can take them ( where they
act as demonstrative adverbs, altho they often end up
having greater syntactic than semantic value ), and
adjectival nouns can take them too. much of this sits
ill with english idiom, but would be natural in bac :

|snotis Ranp Ghanpas|
/zOtIs ra~p Ga~pas/
I-thishere doesn't think-so
_I_ don't think so < personally >

|licacus Tenr Linr rhici|
/lItSatSUs tE~4 lI~4 r\ItSI/
s/he-male-thatthere comes desiring what-?
what's _he_ here for? < scornfully >

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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