Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction

Quoting Dirk Elzinga <Dirk_Elzinga@...>:

> At the risk of getting lost in the crowd, here's a sketch of
> Shoshoni's rather complex but pretty nifty deixis system.
>
> Deictic words are always morphologically complex. There is a prefix
> which indicates relative distance/visibility/definiteness and a
> handful of bound bases to which these prefixes attach.
>
> The prefixes are:
>
> si-, i-  'here'
> sai-, ai-  'here (but further away than si-, i-)'
> sa-, a-  'there (but in sight)'
> su-, u-  'there (out of sight)'
I wonder how frequent this is, where visibility and distance
pattern together.  I'd think quite frequent...

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