GB037 - grambank/grambank GitHub Wiki
Do adnominal demonstratives show a visible-nonvisible distinction?
Summary
Is there a distinction visible vs. non-visible when referencing to items that are the same relative distance? It is not relevant that adnominal demonstratives denoting far away reference often also imply non-visibility.
Procedure
- Find 'demonstratives', which are modifiers that can modify nouns (of any type and not just a restricted set such as location nouns) to mark position.
- Code 1 if there are adnominal demonstratives that specifically communicate that something is invisible/visible to the speaker or interlocutor, rather than just near or far distance.
Examples
Southern Dong (ISO 639-3: kmc, Glottolog: sout2741)
Yang and Edmondson (2008: 521). Coded 1.
nai this (able to touch)
tca that (visible but far away)
ja that (invisible)
Wunambal (ISO 639-3: wub, Glottolog: wuna1249)
McGregor (2004: 126). Coded 0:
The demonstratives are: 'this', 'that' and 'that way over there, usually out of sight'.
Further reading
Diessel, Holger. 2013. Distance contrasts in demonstratives. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
References
McGregor, William B. 2004. The languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London: Routledge.
Yang, Tongyin & Jerold A. Edmondson. 2008. Kam. In Anthony V. N. Diller, Jerold A. Edmondson & Yongxian Luo (eds.), The Tai-Kadai languages, 509–584. London: Routledge.
Related Features
- GB036 Do demonstratives show an elevation distinction?
- GB037 Do demonstratives show a visible-nonvisible distinction?
Patron
Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins