Pronouns: temporal paradigms

[Paul J Hopper]

An interesting paradigm. In a very defective way, Indonesian has an
adverb/demonstrative tadi that can be used to refer to something just
mentioned or from the recent (?) past. I've often been struck with the use
of the English past tense in expressions like "Was this my plate?" (i.e.
the one you intended me to have.)
- Paul

-------------------

Paul Hopper
Paul Mellon Distinguished Professor of the Humanities
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Tel. (412)-683-1109
Fax (412)-268-7989


On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Daniel Everett wrote:

> In the Wari' language of Rondonia Brazil, there are two paradigms of
> demonstrative pronouns, distinguished by spatial vs. temporal
> orientation.
>
> So, one series is, roughly, 'proximate to speaker', 'proximate to
> hearer', and 'distal'. The other is, roughly' currently present',
> 'recently absent', 'long absent'. (These are discussed in Everett &
> Kern 1996, 306ff.)
>
> Does anyone on this list know of similar paradigms, specifically the
> temporal paradigm, in other languages?
>
> One more point: Wari' lacks personal pronouns, e.g. he, she, it, etc.
>
> -- Dan Everett
>
>
>
>
> ********************
> Daniel L. Everett
> Professor of Phonetics and Phonology
> Department of Linguistics
> University of Manchester
> Manchester, UK
> M13 9PL
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> Department Fax: 44-161-275-3187
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>