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====The fourth person and obviation==== | ====The fourth person and obviation==== | ||
The fourth person ({{sc|4}}) in the Kiwi language is a third person obviative pronoun that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient, proximate or pertinent, third person referent in a given discourse context. | |||
There are a few basic rules for the Kiwi fourth person: | |||
*Where animacy is involved, animate [[w:noun phrase|noun phrase]]s tend to be proximate, while inanimate [[w:noun phrases|noun phrases]] tend to be obviative. | |||
*Possessors are obligatorily proximate and possessees are thus obligatory obviative. | |||
<!-- *Obviation is most common in [[head-marking language]]s since the obviative is useful in disambiguating otherwise unmarked nominals. --> | |||
*Proximate/Obviative assignments are preserved throughout clauses and are also often constant over longer discourse segments. | |||
===Verbs=== | ===Verbs=== | ||