Naswiyan/Lessons/4

Non-personal Pronouns

All non-personal pronouns inflect like class C nouns, and their gender always depends on what they're referring to: tu "that thing with common gender" vs ti "that thing with neuter gender". Most non-personal pronouns don't distinguish their dependent and independent forms, with the exception of remu "which?", which only has an independent form, and dependent mu "what?" vs independent matu and malu "what?". The difference between the two independent pronouns is politeness: matu is used when addressing someone of a higher social status, such as a parent, or someone you have great respect for, while malu is used when addressing someone of equal or lower social status, such as friends, subordinates, or children. These rules aren't absolute, but the implications of using the 'wrong' pronoun should be obvious.

Although pronouns like tu "that" don't distinguish dependent and independent forms, they still distinguish the functions, so it still makes sense to talk about dependent and independent non-personal pronouns in general. Non-personal pronouns are used in exactly the same ways as dependent and independent personal pronouns are, so dependent non-personal pronouns are the subject of a nominal or existential sentence, and independent non-personal pronouns are the object of a nominal sentence. Additionally, dependent non-personal pronouns are clitics just like dependent personal pronouns, so they will move immediately after the first word in the sentence, and independent non-personal pronouns will always try to be the first word, though they still follow introductory words. Examples:

• lamok tu "that is a dragon", like lamok ku "I am a dragon"

• tak tu lamok "look, that is a dragon", like tak ku lamok "look, I am a dragon"

• tu lamok "the dragon is that", like 'ikku lamok "the dragon is me"

• tak tu lamok "look, the dragon is that", like tak 'ikku lamok "look, the dragon is me"

Non-personal pronouns are also used in ways which the dependent and independent personal pronouns cannot. The dependent pronouns correspond to the suffix pronouns as the subject after 'iye and as the object of a preposition, while the non-personal pronouns can't be used as possessor in the direct possessive at all - instead the indirect possessive must be used. Additionally, dependent pronouns can be a non-initial member of an apposition:

• 'iye tu lamok "that is a dragon", like 'iyeyu lamok "I am a dragon"

• lamok ne mu tu? "whose dragon is that?", like lamkoqh tu "that is his dragon"

• lamok im mi? "what's the dragon in?", like lamok imsj "the dragon's in it"

• lamok tu im "that dragon is here", like lamok tisu im "the fatherly dragon is here"

remu "which?", as stated above, only has independent forms, which means that any context which requires dependent pronouns is unavailable, and must be paraphrased. Apposition is straightforward, as a possessive phrase is used instead, with remu as the first noun, and the second noun in the plural: remu lamkan "which dragon", literally "which one of the dragons". The plural "which dragons" is then logically reman lamkan. Paraphrasing the use of dependent pronouns as subject is a bit more complex, and will be dealt with later.

Topic and Comment

All sentences can be split into two parts, the topic and the comment. The topic is prior information that the sentence is talking about, and the comment is new information being supplied about the topic. The topic generally lines up with the subject, but sometimes it's desired or necessary to make something else the topic, and when this happens, a type of sentence called the emphatic sentence must be used. The emphatic existential sentence is very simple, as it only requires changing a subject pronoun from dependent to independent: 'isjju im "*it* is here!" - naturally this can only be detected in writing with a pronominal subject. The emphatic nominal sentence is a bit more complex, as the subject and object are swapped - having the effect of putting the topic first - and the clitic lu is added, which will come before any dependent pronouns as subject: lamok lu tu ne talu "*this woman* is that dragon", lamok lu ku "*I* am the dragon"

The emphatic sentence is essential to asking questions with mu or remu, as all question pronouns are the comment, without exception. This means that whenever the question pronoun is a subject, the emphatic sentence must be used: remu im? "which one is here?", lamok lu mu? "who is the dragon?". Questions pronouns used in the non-emphatic sentences are then objects: matu lamok "the dragon is *who*?". This is also the normal way of using remu "which" in a nominal sentence: remu lamok? "which one is the dragon?", remu lamkan tisuc? "which dragon is your father?".

Summary of Simple and Emphatic Sentences