The role of demonstratives in the formation of Arawak pronouns and a comparison with other major South American families

Résumé fourni par la source

Pronouns in Arawak languages are similar to pronominal markers that cross-reference the arguments on verbs and the possessor on possessed nouns. This article analyses the pattern of these similarities and concludes that, in most Arawak branches, the pronouns are built with the pronominal markers plus other formatives related to demonstratives. The thesis proposed here is that the pronominal markers are used not only with verbs and nouns, but also with deictic elements such as demonstratives to build free pronouns. The sample of languages has been chosen taking into account the division in Arawak branches in the Glottolog. Since the similarity of pronouns and pronominal markers may be expected cross‑linguistically, they are compared in the largest South American families in order to determine whether this similarity is unique to the Arawak family or is a general South American feature. Finally, this similarity is found only in the Tupian and Tacanan families, and in some languages of other families. A tangential finding is that the Arawak Nihágantsi languages have borrowed their pronominal pattern from the neighbouring Quechuan languages because both patterns are identical and different from the rest of Arawak languages.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.