Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction

At 8:54 PM -0300 9/6/02, Pablo David Flores wrote:
>Karapcik, Mike <KarapcM@...> writes:
>
>>          Japanese doesn't have articles. The dactyls kore/sore/are and
>>  kono/sono/ano are sometimes used like a definite article, though they both
>>  basically mean this/that/that over yonder. (If I remember correctly, "kore"
>>  is a non-possessed thing, and "kono" is a possessed thing.
>
>Actually, "kore" functions like a noun, and "kono"
>as an adjective. It's the difference between "this"
>in "this tree" and in "this is a tree".
>
>Also, aren't those called "deictics"?
>
>Japanese has three levels of deixis (this/that/yonder)
>as you said, same as Spanish (este/ese/aquel), where
>English has two. A more complicated system, anybody? :)
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)'

The prefixes with /s/ have definite reference and indicate old
information; the prefixes without /s/ usually have indefinite
reference or refer to new information. There is an additional prefix
ma- which overlaps si-, sai-.

For the demonstratives, there's a tidy little system which
differentiates number (singular, dual, plural) and case (nominative,
accusative; genitive is the same as the accusative with a suffixed
-n):

-ten  'place(NOM.SG)' (siten, saiten, saten, suten)
-kka  'place(ACC.SG)' (sikka, saikka, sakka, sukka)
-teweh  'place(NOM.DU)' (siteweh, saiteweh, sateweh, suteweh)
-tehi  'place(ACC.DU)' (sitehi, saitehi, satehi, sutehi)
-teen  'place(NOM.PL)' (siteen, saiteen, sateen, suteen)
-tii  'place(ACC.PL)' (sitii, saitii, satii, sutii)

The form 'suten' is also used as a 3rd person nominative singular
pronoun. There is a real 3rd person singular accusative pronoun 'u'.

Other deictic bound bases cover a range of locative and manner
adverbial meanings. They include:

-kkVh  'here/there' (V harmonizes with prefix vowel: sikkih, sukkuh, etc)
-sen  'contrastive, presentative; "this is (the one that)"' (usen 'that one')
-(i)tten "special kind of" (sitten 'this special kind of', etc)
-nni  'manner, way' (sunni 'in that way')
-wa'ih  'like' (siwa'ih 'like this')
-pai  'then, time; here/there' (supai 'then')
-paikan  'amount, much' (sapaikan 'that much')
-pun  'over this/that way' (sipun 'over this way')

Any of the prefixes may combine with these bound bases to give fairly
precise deictic information.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga                                             Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"No theory can exclude everything that is wrong, poor, or even
detestable, or include everything that is right, good, or beautiful."
- Arnold Schoenberg

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