Demonstratives 191
(44) La kalonta se a-nyama Tandha Serrat jiya dha’ pong-kampong
already famous REL AV-name Tandha Serrat this to RED-village
neng seddi’-eng kampong Tonjung jiya.
at beside-DEF village Tonjung this
‘Tandha Serrat was famous in the villages near Tonjung.’
Demonstratives can serve as deictic third person inanimate pronouns, as
in (45) and (46).
(45) He, gampang jiya.
oh easy this
‘Oh, this is easy.’
(46) A: Na'kana' kamma se e-berri' pesse bi' Hasan?
RED-child which REL OV-give money by Hasan
‘Which child did Hasan give money to?’
B: Rowa.
that
‘That one.’
In (45), jiya, the subject of the sentence, refers to a hypothesized action referred
to in the immediately preceding sentence. In the dialogue in (46), rowa ‘that’
refers to a child being singled out among a group of two or more children.
And a demonstrative can serve as the head of a relative clause, as in (47).
(47) E-tanya'-agin, “Apa jiya se e-teggu' neng tanang-nga jiya?”
OV-ask-AGI what this REL OV-hold at hand-DEF this
‘She asked “What is this that you are holding in your hand?”’
In (47), jiya ‘this’ serves as the head of the relative clause se eteggu' neng ta-
nangnga jiya ‘that you are holding in your hand’. The examples in (45-47) illu-
strate that demonstratives used pronominally are able to head noun phrases.
It should be noted that speakers exercise some latitude in the selection of
the demonstrative, the proximal often being used as a kind of default, particular-
ly with proper names. For example, the sentence in (48) is one of the opening
lines of a story, a sentence which introduces the setting and one of the main
characters. Regardless, the proximal demonstrative is used.