pronouns

[jwg2 at CORNELL.EDU]

I had replied to Susan individually concerning deixis and pronouns, but
since there seems to be some general interest, I am it here. The
Dravidian languages characteristically form pronouns by combining a deictic
 element with a nominal element (or, for some sdverbials with an
adverbial one)  sometimes referred to as "appellatives". Thus Tamil itu 'it
(here)' from i- proximal, + -tu inanimate(or non-rational) 3rd person
nominal, atu 'it (there)' from a- 'distal', etc. Similarly, avan,
ivan'he' etc.  Older Tamil included a form with u- 'near hearer'but that is
 obsolete in mainland Tamil, at  least in the reported varieties,  though
retained in Jaffna Sri Lankan Tamil. A fourth distal form in *ee(H) has
also been reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian. A brief account, with
references, can be found in Kamil Zvelibil's Dravidian Linguistics: an
Introduction, Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture,
1990.Interestingly, these form a set with the Wh interrogatives, formed
in parallel fashion with the Wh interrogative element; characteristically
e- for most forms in the current Southern languages (reconstructed as
*yaH/*eH).
	The Indo-Aryan language Sinhala has a similar system, but with
four deictic elements: M- 'First person proximal', O- 'second person
proximal', A- 'distal' and E- 'anaphoric (discourse referentially
dependent)'. This system is described in a paper of mine which has been
reprinted in a recent (1998) Oxford University Press volume (Studies in
South Asian Linguistics: Sinhala and Other Languages)
	It should be mentioned here that the North Indian Indo-Aryan
language third person pronouns are characteristically deictics. In Hindi,
for example, they are ye 's/he, it proximal' and wo s/he, it distal, and
identical to the demonstratives (setting aside the question as to
whether this is identity or homonymity).
	Summary descriptions of the pronominal forms in most of the major
modern South Asian languages and detailed descriptions of their use,
especially the reflexive and anaphoric forms, are included in the volume
Lexical Anaphors and Pronouns in Selected South Asian Languages: A Principled
 Typology, edited by Barbara Lust, Kashi Wali,James W. Gair and K,V.
Subbarao, currently in press with Mouton de Gruyter.