Pronouns and Demonstratives
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Pronoun formality, person, and gender distintions, and demonstrative sets
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 19 Jul 2018, 23:46.
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1. Dictionary Classes
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3. Feirie Kinesics
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4. Feirie Phomo
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5. Languages of Mala
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6. Orthography
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?FYI...
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Unlike English, where pronouns and demonstratives cannot be modified by adjectives, and phrases such as *little there, *tall her, and *distant that are grammatically incorrect, in Feirie this kind of construction is not only possible, but common.
The term pronoun, in Feirie, refers to any of the words historically deriving from numerals and determiners used for personal pronouns.
Feirie pronouns only cover first and second person, are separated into three levels of formality, and mark gender of not only the speaker and listener, but change based on the pairing. Two males conversing versus two females, or a mix, or with conversations between more than two participants, can use very different pronouns.
Intimate pronouns are used between spouses, lovers, and to flirt. Since marriage in Fei culture involves two females and a single male, special dual forms exist, whereas in the other two sets, pronouns do not imply plurality. The dual forms are only used to address both of one's spouses at once. Likewise, there are female to female pronouns, but no male to male pronouns. As is usual for Feirie, the intimate pronouns have multiple uses. While there are 18 combinations, only 6 intimate pronouns exist.
| 1First person (person) speaker, signer, etc; I-SUBSubject (argument)/2SSecond person singular (person) addressee (you)-OBJObject (argument) | 2DSecond person dual (person) addressee (you two)-SUBSubject (argument) | 2SSecond person singular (person) addressee (you)-SUBSubject (argument)/1First person (person) speaker, signer, etc; I-OBJObject (argument) | 2DSecond person dual (person) addressee (you two)-OBJObject (argument) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Between Females | ||||
| Female to Male | ||||
| Male to Female |
Because the pronouns' meanings is as much syntactic as well as morphological, the multipurpose use of many intimate pronouns is rarely, is ever, confusing.
Casual pronouns are used between for people within one's generation, close family, and friends. This is the only set where only the speaker's gender is marked, not the listener's. Again, while there are 8 meanings, they are filled by 4 words.
| FEMFeminine (gender) feminine or female-SUBSubject (argument)/MASCMasculine (gender) masculine or male-OBJObject (argument) | MASCMasculine (gender) masculine or male-SUBSubject (argument)/FEMFeminine (gender) feminine or female-OBJObject (argument) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1PFirst person plural (person) we (inclusive or exclusive) | ||
| 2PSecond person plural (person) addressee (plural) |
<<THIS SECTION IS INCOMPLETE AS ALL THE DEMONSTRATIVES TO BE IN FEIRIE HAVE NOT BEEN DECIDED/CREATED>>
The term demonstrative, in Feirie, refers to any of the determiners, nouns, and descriptors used as non-personal pronouns, or as markers of temporal and/or physical location.
The basic demonstratives are those that mark non-sentient objects. These can be used alone (like a traditional pronoun), or with a noun (like a determiner).
| Proximal | Distal | Unknown | Question | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feminine | ||||
| Masculine | ||||
| Locative (Pro)Noun | ||||
| Locative Descriptor |
With animals, the correct gender should be chosen, with female being the default for an unknown gender. With object without a biological sex, feminine is used. Some Fei scholars have said that this points to a Masculine/Non-masculine system, however the Feirie dispute this, saying that feminine demonstratives are not the default, and that males should use masculine words for non-gendered objects, while females should use feminine words for the same objects. In practice, this rarely happens however, and the feminine ones are nearly always used.
Locative demonstratives, unlike the previous set, do change based on part of speech, but are not gendered. However, the words are very clearly derived from the feminine pair, plus the stem for 'place'.
Question demonstratives always require the question particle to end the sentence.
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