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--- en:grammar:pronouns [2022-12-15 11:57] – [Possessive pronouns] 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.
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 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'.
-===== The reflexive and intensifying pronoun “sem” =====
+//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.
-The pronoun **sem** roughly corresponds to English '-self'. It is never used as subject, but it's used as object and after prepositions to refer back to the subject.
+===== The reflexive pronouns “sin” and “sini” =====
-**Ya [like] miru sem ni mira.** – He/She likes to watch himself/herself in the mirror.\\
+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.
-**Ya sun to rabit xvo a sem, "Oi No!"** – She hears the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear!"\\
-**Sem** is never used as possessive pronoun. Instead, the regular pronouns are used in such cases.
+**Mi miru mi ni mis mira** – I see myself in my mirror.\\
+**Tum ga laki tumi yo hain ta ples.** – You will find your possessions over there.
-**Man nomu bir ya.** – The man drinks his beer.\\
+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.
-**Mi no bisa laki [key] mi.** – I can't find my key.\\
-If used after a noun phrase or another pronoun, **sem** instead functions as an //intensifier//, stressing the fact 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.
+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:
-**Mi sem ga fa it.** – I'll do it myself.\\
+**Alisa sun to rabit xvo a sin, "Oi no!"** – Alice hears the rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear!"
-**[President] sem li [visit] nas!** – The president herself/himself has paid us a visit!\\
-**Nas li miru maraji sem!** – We have seen the king himself!
-//Note: Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are identical in a majority of languages (WALS 47).//
+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:
-When combined with a possessive pronoun or a possessive noun phrase (**sem de ...** or **... ki sem**), **sem** stresses the importance of the possessive relationship, also indicating that it is exclusive rather than shared. In such cases, it is typically translated as 'own'.
+**Alisa sun to rabit xvo a ya, "Oi no!"** – Alice hears the rabbit say to her, "Oh dear!"
-**Mi yau ruma sem mi!** – I want my own house! (I don't want to share a house.)\\
+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**.
-**Ta xi [car] sem de [boss] mi. / Ta xi [boss] mi ki sem [car].** – That's my boss's own car.
+**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.