Feature GB037: Do demonstratives show a visible-nonvisible distinction?

Patrons: Jeremy Collins and Jay Latarche

Description ⇫

Summary

Is there a distinction visible vs. non-visible when referencing to items that are the same relative distance? It is not relevant that adnominal demonstratives denoting far away reference often also imply non-visibility.

Procedure

  1. Find 'demonstratives', which are modifiers that can modify nouns (of any type and not just a restricted set such as location nouns) to mark position.
  2. Code 1 if there are adnominal demonstratives that specifically communicate that something is invisible/visible to the speaker or interlocutor, rather than just near or far distance.

Examples

Southern Dong (ISO 639-3: kmc, Glottolog: sout2741)

Yang and Edmondson (2008: 521). Coded 1.

nai      this  (able to touch)
tca      that  (visible but far away)
ja       that  (invisible)

Wunambal (ISO 639-3: wub, Glottolog: wuna1249)

McGregor (2004: 126). Coded 0:

The demonstratives are: 'this', 'that' and 'that way over there, usually out of sight'.

Further reading

Diessel, Holger. 2013. Distance contrasts in demonstratives. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

McGregor, William B. 2004. The languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London: Routledge.

Yang, Tongyin & Jerold A. Edmondson. 2008. Kam. In Anthony V. N. Diller, Jerold A. Edmondson & Yongxian Luo (eds.), The Tai-Kadai languages, 509–584. London: Routledge.


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0 absent 1922
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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment