Languages without pronouns?

Volker Gast gast at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE
Sun Apr 1 10:23:50 UTC 2001


Chalcatongo Mixtec (Otomanguean) has no ANAPHORIC pronouns (in the
traditional sense of 'anaphoric' as opposed to 'deictic').
It uses semantically very general nouns instead (man, woman etc.).
These 'pronominal nouns' or 'nominal pronouns' show gender agreement with
the verb. Mixtec has  (deictic) pronouns for the first and second
person. I doubt whether there are any languages without such deictic
reference devices at all.

Tzotzil (Maya) has no (phonological non-empty) anaphoric pronouns. If you
want to put into focus an argument which is anaphorically referred to, you
can use the relational noun -tuk ('(s)he alone, her/himself').

Volker Gast



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