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Ash: Difference between revisions
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===Deixis=== | ===Deixis=== | ||
The language lacks true pronouns and due to its pro-drop tendencies commonly avoids alternatives as well. | The language lacks true pronouns and due to its pro-drop tendencies commonly avoids alternatives as well. One thing that does get marked is deixis: whether something is close to or far away from the speaker or a previous referent; unspecified deixis is also possible. On nominals deixis is generally spatial while on verbs it is temporal (proximal working roughly as a present tense and distal as a non-present one); adverbial deixis can be either depending on the characteristics of the adverbial in question. | ||
The deictic stems are as follows: | The deictic stems are as follows: | ||
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Deixis occurs in the form of isolated nominals ''ee'' and ''oo'' as well as verbal and possessive prefixes ''e-'' and ''o-''. Neutral deixis sometimes surfaces epenthetically as ''a-'' due to phonotactic constraints, but is not underlyingly explicitly marked. | Deixis occurs in the form of isolated nominals ''ee'' and ''oo'' as well as verbal and possessive prefixes ''e-'' and ''o-''. Neutral deixis sometimes surfaces epenthetically as ''a-'' due to phonotactic constraints, but is not underlyingly explicitly marked. | ||
===Conjunct and disjunct verbs=== | |||
While Ash lacks a set of first, second and third person pronouns, a system of so called conjunct versus disjunct verb forms can be used in combination with transitivity markers and deixis in order to more or less unambiguously cover the same ground. This concept is also known in the literature as assertor's involvement marking, which might give the reader a clearer idea of the concept: verbs are marked for whether the one making an assertion is involved in the action (conjunct) or not (disjunct). | |||
In simple statements the assertor defaults to the speaker (i.e. first person) but in questions to the addressee (second person). In reported speech the assertor defaults to the source of the quote and may therefore also take on a third person role. First and second person roles are associated with proximal deixis while third person is associated with distal deixis or an explicit nominal. | |||
Conjunct is marked by the suffix ''-s'' and disjunct is unmarked. | |||
====Simple intransitives==== | |||
In simple statements proximal deixis combined with a conjunct verb denotes a first person while combined with a disjunct verb it denotes a second person whereas in questions this is flipped. Distal deixis or an explicit nominal denotes a third person in both cases. Note that there is no number distinction and so for example first person can imply both "I" and "we" but for the sake of space only one translation is given for each example. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! rowspan="2" | | |||
! colspan="2" | Declarative | |||
! colspan="2" | Interrogative | |||
|- | |||
! Proximal | |||
! Distal | |||
! Proximal | |||
! Distal | |||
|- | |||
! Conjunct | |||
| ''(ee) oada<u>s</u>''<br />"I am pale" | |||
| - | |||
| ''(ee) oada<u>s</u> no?''<br />"are you pale?" | |||
| - | |||
|- | |||
! Disjunct | |||
| ''(ee) oada''<br />"you are pale" | |||
| ''(oo) oada''<br />"they are pale" | |||
| ''(ee) oada no?''<br />"am I pale?" | |||
| ''(oo) oada no?''<br />"are they pale?" | |||
|} | |||
====Simple transitives==== | |||
Simple transitive clauses work much the same way but the choice between a direct transitive or inverse transitive marker affects the meaning as well and is the only way to differentiate between agent and patient roles when the referents are first and second person. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! rowspan="3" | | |||
! colspan="4" | Declarative | |||
|- | |||
! colspan="2" | Proximal | |||
! colspan="2" | Distal | |||
|- | |||
! Direct | |||
! Inverse | |||
! Direct | |||
! Inverse | |||
|- | |||
! Conjunct | |||
| ''(ee) ahhea<u>s</u>''<br />"I look at you" | |||
| ''(ee) assea<u>s</u>''<br />"you look at me" | |||
| ''(oo) ahhea<u>s</u>''<br />"I look at them" | |||
| ''(oo) assea<u>s</u>''<br />"they look at me" | |||
|- | |||
! Disjunct | |||
| ''(ee) ahhea''<br />"you look at them" | |||
| ''(ee) assea''<br />"they look at you" | |||
| ''(oo) ahhea''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> look at them<sub>2</sub>" | |||
| ''(oo) assea''<br />"they<sub>2</sub> look at them<sub>1</sub>" | |||
|} | |||
The interrogative patterns the same way except for the first and second person again being flipped. As the last two examples show, the choice of transitivity marker can also serve as a proximate-obviative distinction. | |||
====Reported speech==== | |||
In quotations the conjunct versus disjunct distinction instead focuses on the source of the quote, but only in the subclause. Again this may serve as a proximate-obviative distinction. This means that it is possible to mark distal referents as conjunct in such subclauses. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! rowspan="2" | | |||
! colspan="2" | Proximal | |||
! Distal | |||
|- | |||
! Conjunct source | |||
! Disjunct source | |||
! Disjunct source | |||
|- | |||
! Conjunct target | |||
| ''(ee) oase<u>s</u> (ee) ogaa<u>s</u>''<br />"I said I am pale" | |||
| ''(ee) oase<u>s</u> (ee) ogaa''<br />"you said you are pale" | |||
| ''(oo) oase<u>s</u> (oo) ogaa''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> said they<sub>1</sub> are pale" | |||
|- | |||
! Disjunct target | |||
| ''(ee) oase (ee) ogaa<u>s</u>''<br />"I said you are pale" | |||
| ''(ee) oase (ee) ogaa''<br />"you said I am pale" | |||
| ''(oo) oase (oo) ogaa''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> said they<sub>2</sub> are pale" | |||
|} | |||
When the source is proximal the target can also be distal in which case it is always disjunct and refers to a third person. | |||
====Indirect involvement==== | |||
As the conjunct form denotes merely whether the assertor is somehow involved in the action, the assertor need not necessarily be the agent. A conjunct form would still be used to denote first person involvement as a patient in some statements. | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=emmõõ bo ao ehbadsas | |||
|IPA=[ʔɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞‿ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿je̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠] | |||
|gloss=PROX-POSS-head TOP:CRESC ao PROX-TR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ | |||
|translation=Ao is braiding my hair | |||
}} | |||
Despite a third person being the agent of the action, the focus is on the first person (the assertor) and the verb is therefore conjunct. | |||
==Syntax== | ==Syntax== | ||