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apu tipanaqó akinipo `those boys (are) deaf etc.’

There are three demonstrative pronouns in Sema. These are ti, hi and hu. The function and distribution of these pronouns do not tally with the ones like proximate (this) and remote (that) etc., that are usually found in most of the languages even though the pronoun hi can be roughly equated to the distribution of proximate demonstrative pronoun. The distribution of these three pronouns are as under.
(i)   hi is used to indicate an object or person very close with the speaker and visible to him, as in:

hiye ac lakh `this is a dog’
hipaqóye ac `these are dogs’
kaku hi lulņ `take this book etc’.

(ii)   ti. Both special and temporal distance have relevance in the use of this particular demonstrative, i.e., the object referred to may be slightly away from the speaker and the listener and be visible to either of them provided it is an object that has just passed away. In both these situations the demonstrative ti is used. If there is a contradiction between the special and temporal distance, i.e, though a object like rabbit or fox that can move at a great speed, may be far away from both the speaker and the listener, the demonstrative ti is used, provided the object has just then passed that way. Another point to be noted in the use of ti/hu is that when a NP® AN, ti is used only with Nina class of nouns but ti can be used with nouns referring to the living beings also when NP®NA.
(iii)   hu is used to indicate any object or person who is away from both the speaker and the listener. This would include the objects/persons that have passed away long ago.
Determiner :

timģ hipaqóno isi iFi `these people came today’
timģ tipaqóno iFino iFi `those (slightly away) people came yesterday’
timģ hupaw qumFai `that (distant) man is tall’
timģ tipaw qumFai `that man is tall’
kaku hupaw kkz `that book’s cover’ etc.

Incidentally the proximate demonstrative pronoun hi `this’is identical with the third person personal pronoun common Singular hi `it’.
Indefinite pronouns
The indefinite pronouns in the first instance can be sub-grouped into two, viz., positive and negative indefinite pronouns, illustrative examples of both these sub-groups are given.
Positive
These sub-group includes kömsö `all’ which also everything/every one/etc. ta `little, kipha `more’ kiöla `some’ etc. as in :

kms tile śwe everyone went there’
1         2    3      1         3      2
kms phawe  `everything (is) lost
nono kukeqó kömsö iFiwe `all those you called have come
1    2      3      4 5   6 (lit. you nominative marker called plural all came)
         1          2           3       4         5      6
timģ kms `all people’
apuno kms `all the fathers’
apunohu kms `all the fathers (specific)’
niye ta lukpha nisi anģ `I want some more’
  1    2    3 4    5 6 7 `(lit. I focus marker little take more want has)
         1  2        3      4     5       6      7
ana ktla kpha ic `give me some more rice’
   1   2 3    4      5 5 4 2 3 1
ilimi kutumo `many dames (lit. many dame)’
  1      2      1      2

Negative indefinite pronouns :
This group includes a few indefinite pronouns like kumka `nothing’, mu either etc., as in :

imu momu ifo mu iFimo nanģ `neither my brother nor my sister will come’
1      2 3   4    5  6  7 8 9 `(lit. I brother or I elder sister neither come not will)’
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

 

 

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