Araki Language - Grammar - Nouns - Articles and Reference-Tracking Devices

Articles and Reference-Tracking Devices

Semantically speaking, a noun without an article can be specific as well as non-specific, and definite as well as indefinite. Moreover, not only is there no gender-distinction, but even number is most of the time under-specified; only the context, and partly the personal marker on the verb, help distinguish between singular and plural reference.

Several devices are available - though always optional - in Araki to help track the reference of a particular NP. These are the clitics va, di, mada, dai, re, mo hese, which appear as shown in the above list.

The pro-clitic va and the post-clitic di both mark anaphoric relations. va is placed immediately before the noun, and codes for discourse-internal anaphora (that is, reference to a term that has already been introduced in the earlier context). di immediately follows the noun, and seems to refer to the immediate context preceding it (comparable with the English anaphoric use of 'this').
The construction <va N di> does not exist. This indicates that the two clitics must have different uses.

The empty head mada can be found at the beginnings of NPs. It never occurs alone, but is always followed by an adjective or a place name. Its role is to refer to a set of human individuals defined by the next word, in a similar way to English 'one' in the small one(s). mada can be described as a personal nominalizer. It does not involve definiteness or number.

The plural marker dai makes explicit the plurality of the NP, which is otherwise never coded for, but often left implicit. As all other markers mentioned in this section, it too is optional.

The specific indefinite mo hese, a numeral quantifier meaning 'one', is very commonly, if not obligatorily, used when a referent is introduced for the first time into the discourse. mo hese may be used as a numerical predicate, contrasting with other numbers, but it is most frequently used as a kind of article following the NP in order to mark it as being indefinite, that is, newly introduced into the discourse.

The partitive-indefinite pro-clitic re is used when the NP refers to a new, non-specific instance of a notion. In order to understand this concept, compare the English sentences 'I ate a banana ' with 'I want to eat a banana '. Besides being indefinite in both cases, in the first sentence a banana is specific, because it refers to a specific banana; in the second sentence a banana is non-specific, because it can refer to any banana, not one in particular. Although this semantic difference is not grammaticalized in English, it is in Araki, using re as a marker for non-specific indefinite reference.

The function of the aforementioned reference-tracking devices can be summarized as follows: