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--- en:grammar:pronouns [2022-05-18 11:48] – christian
+++ en:grammar:pronouns [2023-01-16 12:55] (current) – [The reflexive pronouns “sin” and “sini”] Mention "oni" christian
@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 Lugamun uses the following personal pronouns.
-^ Singular           ^ Plural              ^
+^ Singular                   ^ Plural              ^
 | **mi** – I, me             | **nas** – we, us    |
 | **ti** – you (sg.)         | **tum** – you (pl.) |
 | **ya** – he, she, him, her | **le** – they, them |
 | **it** – it                | :::                 |
-| **on** – one, you (impersonal, generic) ||
+| **on** – one, you (impersonal, generic)         ||
 These pronouns are used both as subjects and as objects. Just as with nouns, one can use the optional subject and object markers to make a distinction, placing **i** before a pronoun used as subject and **o** before one used as object. But if a clause uses the usual SVO order, this is never necessary.
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 **On** is used as a generic pronoun that can refer to any person or persons. In English, it is often translated as 'one' or a generic 'you' that doesn't particularly refer to the person spoken to. It may also be translated using the passive voice.
-**On xuo lugamun si ples.** – One speaks Lugamun here. / Lugamun spoken here.\\
+**On xvo lugamun si ples.** – One speaks Lugamun here. / Lugamun spoken here.\\
-**On ba no debe [judge] bina tu jidau yo [fact].** – One / You shouldn't judge without knowing the facts.
+**On no ba debe [judge] bina tu jixi yo [fact].** – One / You shouldn't judge without knowing the facts.
 //Note:// The reasons for choosing this particular set of pronouns were as follows:
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 ===== Possessive pronouns =====
-Placing **de** 'of' plus a pronoun at the end of a noun phrase creates the **possessive** form of the pronoun – it expresses that the noun does in some way belong to the entity specified by the pronoun. The preposition **de** can typically be omitted, that is, in most cases it's fine to just add the pronoun itself at the end of the noun phrase.
+The **possessive** forms of pronouns express that something belongs in some way to the entity specified by the pronoun. In Lugamun they are formed by adding **-s** if the base pronoun ends in a vowel, **-i** if it ends in a consonant. This results in the following set of possessive pronouns:
-**mama (de) mi** – my mother\\
+^ Singular                    ^ Plural                       ^
-**kat (de) ya** – her/his cat\\
+| **mis** – my, mine          | **nasi** – our, ours         |
-**ruma (de) le** – their house
+| **tis** – your, yours (sg.) | **tumi** – your, yours (pl.) |
+| **yas** – his, her          | **les** – their, theirs      |
+| **iti** – its               | :::                          |
+| **oni** – one's, your (impersonal, generic)               ||
-When a possessive pronoun is used as a //complement//, e.g. after [[verb phrases#the copula]] **xi**, the **de** cannot be omitted, since the meaning would otherwise be different.
+Possessive pronouns are always placed before the noun to which they refer.
-**Si buku xi de ti.** – This book is yours.
+**mis mama** – my mother\\
+**yas kat** – her/his cat\\
+**les ruma** – their house
-(**Si buku xi ti** would mean 'This book is your', which would be odd.)
+Instead of these separate possessive forms, one can also use the base form preceded by the preposition **de** or followed by the postposition **ki**, though this is less common.
-If a noun was mentioned just recently and one does not want to repeat it, one can use the impersonal pronoun **yan** '(the) one' as a placeholder. After this placeholder, **de** is again optional.
+**mama de mi / mi ki mama** – my mother
-**Ti habe kamar (de) ti, wa mi habe yan (de) mi.** – You have your room and I have mine.
+Possessive pronouns can also be used standalone, without a subsequent noun. This is the case when they are used as //complement// of the preceding noun:
-Sometimes noun phrases contain embedded [[prepositions|prepositional phrases]], such as **bina cien**, which means 'without delay' but also corresponds to the English adjective 'immediate, instant'. After such an embedded phrase, the preposition **de** should be included, to make it clearer that the possessive pronoun refers to the whole noun phrase rather than just the complement of the preposition.
+**Si buku (xi) tis.** – This book is yours.\\
+**Ta kuni ga ban mis!** – That country will become mine!
-**On nide [attention] bina cien de ti.** – Your immediate attention is needed.
+In such cases, the noun and the possessive pronoun are connected through [[verb phrases#the copula]] **xi** or another [[verb phrases#other_verbs_with_a_complement|verb that can take a complement]]. Note that **xi** itself can be omitted in such cases, i.e. **Si buku xi tis** and **Si buku tis** are both fine.
-XXX Explain that possessive pronouns can be (and typically are) omitted when the context makes the situation of possession reasonably clear.
+Alternatively, standalone possessive pronoun can also refer back to the last recently used noun, sparing the need to explicitly repeat that noun.
-===== The intensifier “sem” =====
+**Ti ha tis kamar, va mi ha mis.** – You have your room and I have mine [= my room].\\
-XXX Update this section, since **sem** is now also used as reflexive pronoun and it may no longer be used for 'own'.
+XXX Explain that possessive pronouns can be (and typically are) omitted when the context makes the situation of possession reasonably clear. This is especially the case when referring to one's own relatives, body parts, cloths and similar things one wears on one's body, e.g. 'her sister, my teeth, his cloak' etc. Likewise they may be used once but are subsequently omitted in cases such as 'my car'.
-Usually pronouns aren't followed by any adjectives. An exception is the intensifier **sem** '-self, own', which can be used after both nouns and pronouns. It means that the indicated person (or thing) will handle the indicated activity in person or that (maybe surprisingly) they themselves are meant rather than anyone else.
+//Rationale:// Seven of our ten source languages have separate possessive forms of the pronouns (all except for Chinese, Japanese, and Swahili), therefore Lugamun uses such separate forms as well. And seven source languages place the possessive pronoun before the noun (all except for Arabic, Indonesian, and Swahili), therefore Lugamun uses the same placement.
-**Mi sem ga fa it.** – I'll do it myself.\\
+===== The reflexive pronouns “sin” and “sini” =====
-**[President] sem li [visit] nas!** – The president herself/himself has paid us a visit!
-XXX Probably better use a separate word for this usage?
+In the first and second person (with **mi, nas, ti, tum**, and their possessive forms), the regular pronouns are also used to refer back to the subject.
-When used in front of a possessive pronoun or a possessive noun phrase (**de ...**), it stresses the importance of the possessive relationship, also indicating that it is exclusive rather than shared.
-**Mi yau ruma sem mi!** – I want my own house! (I don't want to share a house.)\\
+**Mi miru mi ni mis mira** – I see myself in my mirror.\\
-**Ta xi [car] sem de [boss] mi.** – That's my boss's own car.
+**Tum ga laki tumi yo hain ta ples.** – You will find your possessions over there.
+In such cases, it's always clear who the person(s) in question are, so the normal pronouns can be used without any risk of confusion.
+However, the third person (**ya, it, le, on**) is used for a much wider set of people and things – for anybody and anything that's not 'me', 'we' or 'you'. Therefore in such cases it's useful to know whether an object or a possessive phrase refers back to the subject or to //another// third person. To make this contrast, Lugamun uses **sin** 'him-/her-/it-/oneself, themselves' in the object and in prepositional phrases to express that they are identical to the subject. For example:
+**Alisa sun to rabit xvo a sin, "Oi no!"** – Alice hears the rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear!"
+Here the rabbit talks to itself (**sin**). On the other hand, if a different pronoun such as **ya** is used, this indicates that the rabbit talks to someone else:
+**Alisa sun to rabit xvo a ya, "Oi no!"** – Alice hears the rabbit say to her, "Oh dear!"
+In this case, the rabbit talks not to itself, but to someone else. Only the context can reveal to whom. In the example sentence it seems likely that it's talking to Alice, since she's the least recently mentioned person matching the pronoun **ya**.
+**Sini** is the possessive form of **sin**, used in the third person to express that something belongs to the subject:
+**Man nomu sini bir.** – The man drinks his beer. //(his own beer)//
+If another third-person possessive pronoun (**yas, iti, les**, or **oni**) is used instead, this indicates that something belong to //another// third person, not to the subject themselves. For example:
+**Ona li kaixu side ni byen man va toma yas bir.** – The women sat down next to the man and took his beer.
+Here **yas** indicates that the beer doesn't belong to the subject (**ona** – the woman), but to someone else – in this case, logically to the man.
+Note: Don't confuse the pronoun **sin** with the [[adverbs#plain adverbs|adverb]] **sam**, which in English is likewise often translated as '-self', but serves a different purpose.
+//Rationale:// We use separate reflexive pronouns only in the third person, because here they allow a useful distinction (between the subject and other third persons). According to WALS (chapter 47), reflexive pronouns (**sin** in Lugamun) and intensifiers (**sam** in Lugamun) are identical in a small majority of languages. But using different words for these functions is nearly as common, and since we use the reflexive pronoun only in the third person while the intensifier can be used with any person, it would be confusing to use the same word. Therefore we prefer to use separate words for clarity.