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<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>In Papuan Malay, there is a curious use of 1SG pronouns to denote
the protagonist of a narrative which is actually (as I understand
it, at least) about a fictitious 3rd person protagonist. So for
example, a story about the monkey-men who live in the mountains
might go something like "So one day, I started climbing the
mountain ... and then, suddenly, I saw a group of men with tails
... and then they shouted at me and chased me away ..." etc. My
interpretation of this usage of the 1SG pronoun (though I could be
wrong) is that it's "merely" some kind of stylistic convention to
denote a prototypical unknown protagonist.<br>
</p>
<p>Unlike the other examples discussed so far in this thread, there
is nothing grammatically unusual about this kind of "dummy
discourse 1SG pronoun usage"; what's odd about the construction is
purely semantic — presumably, nobody is meant to believe that the
narrator literally did all of the things reported on themselves.
Still, the construction shares with the other examples discussed
the property of making use of a 1SG pronoun to denote a referent
other than the speaker.</p>
<p>A comparative comment: Has anybody observed a similar "dummy
discourse" usage of the 1SG pronoun in other languages of New
Guinea? Papuan Malay differs from other Malay/Indonesian dialects
in that it does not exhibit pronoun avoidance; in other
Malay/Indonesian dialects, the same story would be more likely to
be told making use of a conventionalized character name, such as,
for example, "Yong Dolah" in parts of Riau province in Sumatra.</p>
<p>David</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/11/2021 03:19, Aigul Zakirova
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CACFhYD1nDjn++6+Qm=kVfdk=70hycDSidMHueVDLsuVG4vhGKg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Dear colleagues,<br>
I am wondering whether you know of any languages in which a
finite 1SG verb form (e.g. non-past) is also used in modal
contexts (e.g. optative or deontic) with subjects which are not
1SG. I am asking because I came across such a use in languages I
work on, Meadow Mari and Hill Mari (Uralic). <br>
<br>
In the examples below a non-past 1SG form is combined with <i>əl’e</i>, a
form of the verb 'to be', to yield an optative reading. In other
types of optative utterances əl’e is also used, so
əl’e is not very interesting; what interests me is the use of
the non-past 1SG form. <br>
<br>
Meadow Mari<br>
erla jür lij-am əl’-e!<br>
tomorrow rain become-NPST.1SG be-AOR.3SG<br>
‘If only it rained tomorrow!’<br>
<br>
Meadow Mari<br>
maksim erla tol-am əl’-e<br>
Maksim tomorrow arrive-NPST.1SG be-AOR.3SG<br>
‘If only Maksim (person's name) arrived tomorrow!’<br>
<br>
To put it more broadly, if you have encountered cases where a
certain "petrified" person-number verb form is used in atypical
contexts which are distant from the original form's meaning, I
am also interested in such cases. What comes to my mind is <br>
-formal coincidence or resemblance between indicative and
imperative 2PL forms <br>
-use of imperatives in Russian to convey abruptness (А он как
побеги!) or in conditional / concessive clauses (Сделай он это,
все было бы по-другому) <br>
But maybe there is something else on the matter?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Aigul Zakirova</div>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
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