Morphosyntactic and functional asymmetries in Vatlongos discourse demonstratives

Abstract

Vatlongos (also known as Southeast Ambrym, Oceanic, Vanuatu) has four demonstrative categories: three person-based distance distinctions (first-person proximal, second-person proximal, and distal) and a contrastive category. In spatial situational domains, and to refer to locative referents, first-person proximal, second-person proximal and distal categories are distinguished from each other. Discourse functions are largely structured around an opposition between forms based on the first-person proximal clitic ak and the contrastive suffix -e. The wider morphosyntactic distribution of the first-person proximal is reflected in its discourse functions, as the unmarked forms for anaphora and recognitional uses. The more restricted contrastive -e forms also occur in contexts of negative affect. In the verbal forms this asymmetry is even more striking. The first-person proximal verbal demonstrative mak is the general manner demonstrative, occurring both as a main verb and modifying other verbs in serial verb constructions. The verbal form based on contrastive -e, mue, is only used in hesitation, a specialisation that could arise from the role of contrastive -e forms in discourse repair to modify placeholders.