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A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

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6 Nominals II: Pronouns<br />

Table 6.4: Case/number suffixes for demonstrative pronouns<br />

sg pl<br />

nom -t (-h)<br />

gen -n -j<br />

acc -v -jt<br />

ill -sa -jda<br />

iness -n -jtne<br />

elat -sste -jste<br />

com -jna -j<br />

referent <strong>of</strong> a proximal demonstrative pronoun is very close to the speaker. Distal<br />

demonstrative pronouns are not as specific in indicating the location <strong>of</strong> the<br />

referent, and do not necessarily rule out a referent which is near the addressee.<br />

Indeed, distal demonstrative pronouns are the most common in the corpus and<br />

are a sort <strong>of</strong> unmarked default demonstrative pronoun. Note that demonstratives<br />

are identical in form to demonstrative pronouns, but differ syntactically because<br />

they modify the head <strong>of</strong> an NP; they are discussed in §7.8.<br />

Demonstrative pronouns typically have non-human referents, as in (1).<br />

(1) muhtin<br />

muhtin<br />

sa del vuoptin<br />

sa del vuopti-n<br />

sometimes so then sell-1du.pst<br />

‘So sometimes we sold those.’<br />

dajt<br />

d-a-jt<br />

dem-dist-acc.pl<br />

[pit080924.300]<br />

However, they can also be used to refer to third-person human referents, as in<br />

the example in (2).<br />

(2) da<br />

d-a<br />

lä jabmam,<br />

lä jabma-m<br />

dem-dist\nom.pl be\3pl.prs die-prf<br />

ber<br />

ber<br />

only<br />

muv<br />

mu-v<br />

1sg.gen<br />

äddne’l<br />

viessomin dále<br />

äddne=l<br />

viesso-min dále<br />

mother\nom.sg=be\3sg.prs live-prog now<br />

‘They have died, only my mother is living today.’<br />

[pit100310b.145]<br />

Distal demonstrative pronouns can also be used for anaphoric text deixis. For<br />

instance, dat in example (3) refers to the fact that the speaker has just dropped<br />

her ski pole.<br />

116

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