Deixis: relative location encoded in demonstratives
| Values: | Med | Prox | Remt |
In Classical Armenian, deixis is a lexical feature of some pronouns, determiners, adpositions, adverbs, and interjections. The feature has three values typically associated with the first, second, and third person deixis: Prox, Med and Remt.
Prox: proximal
The entity is close to the reference point (e.g., to the speaker).
Examples
- proximal pronoun: սա/sa “this one (mine)”
- proximal determiner: այս/ays “this (mine)”
- proximal adposition: աստի/asti “from here”
- proximal adverbs: այսպէս/ayspēs “like this”
- proximal interjection: ահաւասիկ/ahawasik “behold”
Med: medial
The entity is neither close nor far away from the reference point (e.g., from the speaker).
Examples
- medial pronoun: դա/da “that one (your)”
- medial determiner: այդ/ayd “that (your)”
- medial adposition: այտի/ayti “from there”
- medial adverbs: այդպէս/aydpēs “like that”
- medial interjection: ահաւադիկ/ahawadik “behold”
Remt: remote, distal
The entity is far away from the reference point (e.g., from the speaker).
Examples
- distal pronoun: նա/na “that one (their)”
- distal determiner: այն/ayn “that (their)”
- distal adposition: անտի/anti “from there”
- distal adverbs: այնպէս/aynpēs “like that”
- distal interjection: ահաւանիկ/ahawanik “behold”
References
Առաքելեան, Վարագ. 2010. Գրաբարի քերականութիւն. Երևան: Վիամիր․ [Araqelian, Varag. 2010. Grammar of Grabar. Yerevan: Viamir]
Jensen, Hans. 1959. Altarmenische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.
Klein, Jared S. 1996. On Personal Deixis in Classical Armenian. A Study of the Syntax and Semantics of the n-, s-, and d-Demonstratives in Manuscripts E and M of the Old Armenian Gospels. Dettelbach: Röll, 1996.
Meillet, Antoine. 1913. Altarmenisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Winters (Internet Archive).
Deixis in other languages: [aqz] [bej] [hy] [mpu] [qpm] [u] [xcl]