| Pronouns
|
| On
the basis of the ability of showing a three-way opposition in person,
viz., I, II and III persons, the pronouns could be differentiated
from the nouns and the demonstratives as in : |
| ni |
`I’ |
| no |
`you’ |
| pa |
`he’ |
| li |
`she’ |
|
|
| The
pronouns also show a three-way opposition in number viz., singular,
dual and plural, as in |
| (i) |
ni |
`I’ |
| |
nikuzo |
`We
(two)’ |
| |
ni ł |
`We
(plural)’ |
| (ii) |
no |
`you
(sg)’ |
| |
nokuzo |
`you
(dual)’ |
| |
noł |
`you(pl)’
etc. |
| (iii) |
pa |
`he’ |
| |
pama |
`they
(dual)' |
| |
panįł |
`they
(plural)' |
|
|
| whereas
the demonstratives show only a two-way opposition in number viz.,
singular vs plural as in: |
|
| The
nouns are capable of showing a three-way opposition in number, but
usually do not mark this difference: e.g. |
| timi
lakhi |
`one
man’ |
time
k ma |
`two
men’ |
| timģqó |
`men’ |
|
|
| Even
here nouns referring to non-human beings do not take the form köma
which indicates duality. |
| A
pronoun may be defined as that grammatical class which at the paradigmatic
level shows a three-way opposition in number and person and capable
of taking case markers and at the systematic level is capable of preceding
a postposition and/or particle but incapable of being modified by
an adjective and at the sentence level substitutes a noun: |
| Demonstratives
|
| Both
the nouns and the demonstratives share at the paradigmatic level the
feature of taking the case suffixes and at the systematic level, the
privilege of preceding postpositions and the plural marker. e.g. |
| hipaqóye
ackini |
`these
are two dogs’ |
| anuye
akipici |
`the
child (is) lazy’ |
| tiye
lono iclņ |
`give
me from that’ |
| anulono |
`from
the child’ |
| ti |
`that’ |
| tipaqó |
`those’ |
| kaku |
`book’ |
| kakuqó |
`books’ |
|
|
| However,
when a NP has both a demonstrative and a noun, the demonstrative takes
the case suffix/focus marker and the plural marker as in : |
| ilimģ
tipawye qhemFay |
`that
girl (is) tall’ |
| ilimģ
tipaqóye qhemFay |
`those
girls (are) tall’ |
|
|
| In
a NP1 NP2 type of sentence, both a demonstrative and noun can occur
alone in NP2 position, but only a noun or adjective can occur alone
in NP2 position and not a demonstrative as in : |
| hie
aclakhģ |
`this
(is) a dog’ |
| anuye
akipici |
`the
child (is) lazy’ |
| hie
inu |
`this
(is) my child’ |
|
|
| A
demonstrative may be formally defined as that grammatical class which
at the paradigmatic level is capable of taking case suffixes and at
the systematic level is capable of preceding a post position/plural
marker and when both a demonstrative and a noun occurs in a NP, the
demonstrative takes both the case and plural markers, if any, but
can not occur alone in a NP3 position of NP1, NP2 type of sentence. |
| Nouns
|
| The
nouns in Sema are capable of taking gender, number and case markers
including the postpositions and could also function as the nucleus
of a noun phrase as in : |
| anuye |
`the
child’ |
| amsili |
`she
buffalo’ |
|
|
