Distance, Direction, and Relevance: How to Choose and Use a Demonstrative in Manambu

Abstract

Manambu, a Ndu language from East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea, has a complex system of demonstratives, with many typologically unusual features. Nominal demonstratives distinguish three degrees of distance: close to speaker, close to addressee, and distal from both. They can contain markers of further distance or of topographic deixis, which reflects spatial orientation frames ‘uphill’, ‘upriver’, ‘downhill’, ‘downriver’, and ‘off-river’. A special set of demonstratives marking ‘current relevance’ can express further distance and topographic deixis. Some, but not all, demonstratives have anaphoric functions. Cataphoric functions are attested just for manner demonstratives. A noun phrase may contain two demonstratives, specifying information that cannot be expressed within one word. The article concludes with a discussion of functional markedness within the Manambu demonstrative system.