Discourse-structuring functions of Abui demonstratives
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František Kratochvíl
Abstract
In a number of East and South-East Asian languages, certain grammatical elements such as pronouns, generic nouns, or demonstratives (e.g. one, thing, this) have acquired additional pragmatic functions. Well-documented examples of this grammaticalization process are the Mandarin de, the Malay punya/nya/mia and the Japanese no (cf. Yap, Matthews et al. 2004); the grammaticalized element occurs in the sentence-final position encoding speaker’s certainty about the proposition. A similar development has taken place in Abui (a Papuan language of Eastern Indonesia); markers describing speaker’s attitude towards a proposition (evidentiality and assertion) are recruited from two sources: (i) demonstratives and (ii) the utterance verb ba ‘say’.
Abstract
In a number of East and South-East Asian languages, certain grammatical elements such as pronouns, generic nouns, or demonstratives (e.g. one, thing, this) have acquired additional pragmatic functions. Well-documented examples of this grammaticalization process are the Mandarin de, the Malay punya/nya/mia and the Japanese no (cf. Yap, Matthews et al. 2004); the grammaticalized element occurs in the sentence-final position encoding speaker’s certainty about the proposition. A similar development has taken place in Abui (a Papuan language of Eastern Indonesia); markers describing speaker’s attitude towards a proposition (evidentiality and assertion) are recruited from two sources: (i) demonstratives and (ii) the utterance verb ba ‘say’.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface xi
- Acknowledgment to reviewers xv
- List of contributors xvii
- Introduction 1
- From light noun to nominalizer and more 61
- On the polyfunctionality and grammaticalization of the morpheme kai in the Chaozhou dialect 109
- The Cantonese ge3 125
- On gerundive nominalization in Mandarin and Cantonese 147
- Nominalization in Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayan area 163
- Aspects of the historical development of nominalizers in the Tamangic languages 195
- Innovation in nominalization in Magar 215
- Nominalization and nominalization-based constructions in Galo 255
- Nominalization in Numhpuk Singpho 289
- Nominalization in Nuosu Yi 313
- Finite structures from clausal nominalization in Tibeto-Burman 343
- Linker, relativizer, nominalizer, tense-particle 363
- Nominalization and stance marking in Korean 393
- A case of non-derived stand-alone nominalization 423
- Nominalization in Okinawan 445
- Versatility of nominalizations 473
- The functions of - an and = ay in Kavalan 499
- Clausal nominalization in Budai Rukai 523
- Nominalization in Saisiyat 561
- Rise and fall of referentiality 589
- Referential and non-referential uses of nominalization constructions in Malay 627
- Expressing exclamatives in Malagasy 659
- Nominalizations in Toqabaqita and closely related languages 685
- Exclamatives and temporal nominalizations in Austronesian 721
- Discourse-structuring functions of Abui demonstratives 757
- Index 789
- Language index 795
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface xi
- Acknowledgment to reviewers xv
- List of contributors xvii
- Introduction 1
- From light noun to nominalizer and more 61
- On the polyfunctionality and grammaticalization of the morpheme kai in the Chaozhou dialect 109
- The Cantonese ge3 125
- On gerundive nominalization in Mandarin and Cantonese 147
- Nominalization in Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayan area 163
- Aspects of the historical development of nominalizers in the Tamangic languages 195
- Innovation in nominalization in Magar 215
- Nominalization and nominalization-based constructions in Galo 255
- Nominalization in Numhpuk Singpho 289
- Nominalization in Nuosu Yi 313
- Finite structures from clausal nominalization in Tibeto-Burman 343
- Linker, relativizer, nominalizer, tense-particle 363
- Nominalization and stance marking in Korean 393
- A case of non-derived stand-alone nominalization 423
- Nominalization in Okinawan 445
- Versatility of nominalizations 473
- The functions of - an and = ay in Kavalan 499
- Clausal nominalization in Budai Rukai 523
- Nominalization in Saisiyat 561
- Rise and fall of referentiality 589
- Referential and non-referential uses of nominalization constructions in Malay 627
- Expressing exclamatives in Malagasy 659
- Nominalizations in Toqabaqita and closely related languages 685
- Exclamatives and temporal nominalizations in Austronesian 721
- Discourse-structuring functions of Abui demonstratives 757
- Index 789
- Language index 795
