Abstract
Tapiete is a Southern Tupi-Guarani language spoken by about 2,800 people in the region of the Western Gran Chaco, in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, South America. Like other languages in this linguistic family, Tapiete does not show definite or indefinite articles. Speakers express different degrees of definiteness using other grammar resources such as bare nouns, demonstratives, numerals, and an alienable/inalienable possession system. The aim of this article is to provide an initial study of definiteness in Tapiete based on the analysis of semantic and pragmatic functions of demonstratives in contrast with other definiteness strategies available in the language. The research is based on representative oral textual data collected from long-term field work. In Tapiete, bare nouns and nouns from the inalienably possessed group express mostly unique or weak definite values while adnominal demonstratives signal strong definite referents by way of anaphoric and exophoric referential relations. Demonstratives are very productive for marking discourse topics and indexing speech event facts (spatial and time deixis, speech participants, discourse genre), as well as identifying and reintroducing a referent within discourse.
Abbreviations
- 1
-
first person
- 2
-
second person
- 3
-
third person
- ac
-
active
- adv
-
adverbial
- cl
-
clause
- dem
-
demonstrative
- des
-
desiderative
- dim
-
diminutive
- dir
-
directional
- evd
-
evidential
- excl
-
exclusive
- frq
-
frequentative
- fut
-
future
- imm
-
immediate
- imp
-
imperative
- impers
-
impersonal
- in
-
inactive
- incl
-
inclusive
- inho
-
incorporated non-human object
- inst
-
instrumental
- iter
-
iterative
- loc
-
locative
- n
-
noun
- neg
-
negative
- nomz
-
nominalizer
- np
-
noun phrase
- obj
-
object
- obl
-
oblique
- pl
-
plural
- poss
-
possessive
- postp
-
postposition
- psr
-
possessors
- pur
-
purpose
- q
-
question marker
- quant
-
quantifiers
- res
-
resultative
- sg
-
singular
- sp
-
Spanish
- sup
-
superlative
- tg
-
Tupi-Guarani
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Determination and the expression of definiteness in indigenous languages of the Americas – an introduction
- The intangible demonstrative yu- in Hup
- Definiteness and the domain of demonstratives in Mapuzungun (Andean peripheral). A text-approach to the neutral demonstrative fey
- Individuation and definiteness in Santiago del Estero Quichua: implications for the structure of the nominal phrase
- Demonstratives and the expression of definiteness in Tapiete (Tupi-Guarani)
- Strategies for individuation within and beyond the noun phrase in Wichi (Mataguayan, South America)
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Determination and the expression of definiteness in indigenous languages of the Americas – an introduction
- The intangible demonstrative yu- in Hup
- Definiteness and the domain of demonstratives in Mapuzungun (Andean peripheral). A text-approach to the neutral demonstrative fey
- Individuation and definiteness in Santiago del Estero Quichua: implications for the structure of the nominal phrase
- Demonstratives and the expression of definiteness in Tapiete (Tupi-Guarani)
- Strategies for individuation within and beyond the noun phrase in Wichi (Mataguayan, South America)