Demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo

Abstract

This study explores demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo, focusing on morphosyntactic, semantic classes and pragmatic aspects. It also examines that the choice of demonstratives is determined not solely by the speaker’s desired attention, but also by morphosyntactic features. Data were collected for two years, from 2021-22, from Afaan Oromoo textbooks (grades 9-12), native speakers (mainly Western variety) and introspection. The findings show that the language has demonstratives which are categorized into four classes: demonstrative pronouns, determiners/adjectives, identifiers, and adverbs. Pronouns indicate referent position, while determiners regulate noun phrases. Identifiers draw attention to referents in non-verbal clauses. Adverbs denote referent location, with complex forms involving adpositions and interrogative pronouns. Concerning the semantic features, speakers use demonstratives to show deictic features such as proximity of referents to them. The conversational situations indicate whether referents are human or nonhuman by qualitative features such as ontology and animacy. The language also employs demonstratives for three pragmatic functions: exophoric, recognitional, and endophoric. Exophoric uses direct the listener’s attention, recognitional uses recall shared information, and endophoric uses help interlocutors to focus on a discourse referent. Anaphors denote entities, while discourse-deictic uses focus on expression meaning. Generally, demonstratives have complex linguistic features to show the encyclopedic knowledge of Afaan Oromoo speakers.

Keywords:

• Afaan Oromoo
• demonstratives
• deictic features
• endophoric functions
• exophoric functions

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Jeroen van de Weijer, College of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

SUBJECTS:

• Education - Social Sciences; Language & Linguistics; Pragmatics; Morphology; Semantics; Language Teaching & Learning

1. Introduction

Afaan Oromoo (often called Oromo) is a lowland east Cushitic language spoken mainly in Ethiopia and the neighboring countries, such as Kenya, Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti. Despite inconsistent classifications of previous works, such as, Cerulli (1922), Gragg (1976, 1982), Heine (1981), Hordofa (2009) and Stroomer (1987), Negesse (2015) proposed six geographical dialects for the language: Western (Maccaa), Central (Tuulamaa), Northern (Walloo-Raayyaa), Eastern (Haragree), South-eastern (Arsii-Baalee) and Southern (Gujii-Booranaa). The dialects have phonological and lexical variations as fundamental distinguishing features. However, these variations do not affect the mutual intelligibility between the speakers.

The number of Afaan Oromoo speakers in Ethiopia is estimated to be more than 40 million (one-third of the Ethiopian population) (CSA, 2013). This number ranks the language among the top five indigenous African languages (Swahili, Hawusa, Igbo, Yoruba and Afaan Oromoo)¹. It is widely used in commercial, religious, social, political and educational sectors, and in the mass media though there is no officially assigned dialect to be the representative standard form. Nonetheless, the regional administrations are currently using the code dominated by the Western/Maccaa dialect, which has the largest number of speakers (Appleyard, 2009, p. 809; Goshu, 2011, pp. 4-6; Hordofa, 2009, pp. 1-5; Negesse, 2015, p. 7).

Afaan Oromoo has a writing system called Qubee (k’ubee), which is a Latin-based orthography. In this system, gemination and vowel length are indicated by doubling consonants and vowels. With few exceptions, the writing system is similar with phonemic transcription (Fufa, 2009, p. 6; Garoma, 2020, p. 1; Goshu, 2011, p. 3; Griefenow-Mewis, 2001, p. 9; Hordofa, 2009, p. 1).

This study aims to provide detailed descriptions of the demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo, mainly the Western variety. The data for this study were obtained from grades 9-12 textbooks, native speakers of the western dialect, and introspection. These sources ensure the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the findings and conclusions. Accordingly, the study addressed the morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects of demonstratives.

2. Literature review

Afaan Oromoo is a well-studied language, especially in terms of its syntax. Some of the studies are Gragg (1976), Griefenow-Mewis (2001), Owens (1985) and Yimam (1986, 1988). The language is known for its rich morphology, involving multiple inflectional processes. In simple clauses, the subject (S) appears first, followed by the object (O) or complement in the middle, and the verb (V) at the end, i.e. an SOV word-order typology. This word order applies to all types of simple clauses: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory. However, there may be variations in the order of arguments. Additionally, consecutive events can be expressed through a series of verbs in a clause, with only the last verb indicating the aspect/tense, and affirmative or negative marking of all coordinated verbs.

Demonstratives, which are among spatial deictic elements, are widely studied in various disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy. They serve as a connection between linguistic forms and the referents in the surrounding environment. Many languages have been examined from cross-linguistic, typological, and historical perspectives to describe spatial deixis (Fillmore, 1971, 1997). However, there has been limited comprehensive research on demonstratives in the Ethiopian languages.

Although there are few studies on the spatial deixis of Afaan Oromoo, including investigations into the semantics of motion events, adpositions, and demonstratives, it is important to note that not all relevant works have been reviewed here due to possible inaccessibility. The works considered for this review are Adola (2007), Goshu (2006, 2007, 2011), Goshu and Meyer (2008), Gragg (1976), Griefenow-Mewis (2001), Kumssa (2019), Owens (1985), Stroomer (1987, 1995), Tahir (2008), Yaachis et al. (2012) and Yimam (1986).

Afaan Oromoo has complex verbs of motion that conflate path, manner, and/or referent/ground in their events. Whereas ɗuf- ‘come’ shows locomotion, referring to the action of moving towards the speaker or the place being referred to, deem- ‘go’ refers only to locomotion of a referent from one place to another. Other verbs, such as fig- ‘run’ and tirat- ‘walk slowly’ incorporate manner, path, or deictic center. Preverbs and particles are used as adverbs to show path/direction or location of the motion. Adpositions, which are controversially classified as either subcategories of nouns or independent elements, have inseparable connection with space. Spatial adverbs denote proximal and distal objects using a two-way distinction between ‘here’ and ‘there’, with the deictic center being the speaker. The Raayyaa variety uses arma instead of as(i)² for ‘here’ (Adola, 2007; Goshu, 2006, 2007; Goshu & Meyer, 2008).

Demonstratives convey a distinction between proximal and distal referents, mainly from the speaker’s point of view, i.e. deictic center. The subject (nominative) forms of demonstratives include kun(i) (m) ‘this’, tun(i) (f) ‘this’, sun(i) ‘that’, sanneen ‘those’, and kunniin ‘these’. The basic (accusative) forms of demonstratives include kana (m) ‘this’, tana (f) ‘this’, kanneen ‘these’, and san(a) ‘that’. The proximal forms are kun(i), tun(i)³, kunniin, kana, tana and kanneen while the distal forms are sun(i), san(a) and sanneen. The plural forms kunniin, kanneen and sanneen are only used in certain clusters and in written forms. Gender distinction is also observed in the use of demonstratives, with different forms used for masculine and feminine genders in different clusters (such as Gragg, 1976, p. 178; Griefenow-Mewis, 2001, p.35; Kumssa, 2019, p. 108; Owens, 1985, pp. 88-89; Stroomer, 1987. pp. 111-118, 1995, pp. 62-65).

On the other hand, Mazengia (2020) identified that the Eastern (Harargee) dialect uses four types of spatial deictics- demonstrative, presentative, adverbial, and directional - to determine reference in utterances. The class of demonstrative deictics is more productive, and is classified into simple, complex, contrastive, and reduplicative. The dialect has two levels: proximal and distal. The citation masculine form kana ‘this’ is the basic form from which various sub-types of demonstrative deictics are derived. The Eastern (Harargee) dialect distinguishes gender at the proximal level, but there is no overt plural form of the demonstrative. Further research on person and time deictic expressions would provide a comprehensive study of deictics in the dialect.

In Afaan Oromoo, space can also be expressed using cases, such as ablative and locative. Ablatives indicate the source or starting point of referents or entities, and are marked by suffixes such as -ɗaa, -tii, and vowel lengthening. Locatives show the location or destination of referents or entities, and are marked by suffixes such as -tti, -rra, and vowel lengthening with the preposition gara ‘to, towards’. Different nouns attach these suffixes to designate the destination or location (Griefenow-Mewis, 2001, p. 50; Owens, 1985, p. 99; Tahir, 2008).

The above studies have touched upon the concept of spatial deixis in Afaan Oromoo. However, they have not provided comprehensive and detailed descriptions of the structural, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of demonstratives in the language. On the other hand, Mazengia (2020, 2021) primarily relied on data from Eastern/Harargee variety, which shows incredible structural difference from the Western variety. The former mainly emphasized the morphological and syntactic aspects, with slight discussion on the pragmatics; it did not touch upon the semantic and pragmatic aspects of demonstratives. On the other hand, Mazengia (2021) is about reduplication, not specific about deictics and/or demonstratives. According to him, the morphological processes of reduplication in Oromo involve copying a root or a stem, entirely or partially. Yet, it could touch some topics regarding demonstratives, with examples from the Eastern/Harargee variety. Hence, this the present study considers the Western variety and fills the gaps as far as demonstratives are concerned.

3. Methods and materials

This study spanned a period of approximately two years, i.e. 2021-22. Throughout this time, various activities were undertaken including library research, data collection trips, and elicitation of written texts through content analysis. The study is a qualitative analysis of demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo. The data were obtained from grades 9-12 Afaan Oromoo textbooks. The textbooks were purposively chosen for different reasons. First, they provide a structured and comprehensive overview of the language’s grammar, vocabulary, and usage. They also include examples of language usage, which can be analyzed and compared to other sources of language data. Furthermore, they are typically based on extensive research and analysis by language experts, making them a reliable source of linguistic information. The data from the textbooks were tested by native speaker informants and introspections, ensuring the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the findings. Though majority of the textbook data were considered valid by the native informants of Western variety of Afaan Oromoo, there are rare cases, such as the plural forms of demonstratives, which only found in written forms, not in casual speech.

As concerns sampling, the study employed purposive sampling to select relevant clauses for analysis, focusing on demonstratives. The textbooks provided grammar contents for elicitation and description. Twelve informants were selected from the Western variety of Afaan Oromoo for intelligibility judgement. The discussions with these native speakers helped in interpreting and crosschecking the sample clauses. The inclusion of both non-educated and educated native speakers minimized the influence of second/foreign language and lexical/syntactic borrowing. During the discussion, it was observed that there are differences between the educated and the non-educated ones, such in the use of plural forms of demonstratives. As the texts are elicited from the textbooks, these differences explained in 4 below. With this, effort has been made to reduce the impact of social variables, such as age, gender, social status, and conversational situation on the findings. The findings were further checked and evaluated for their intelligibility by introspection to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the demonstratives system in the language.

The data collected for the study were refined and categorized into three main thematic sections: morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects. The clauses/utterances were classified based on these domains. The results and description were done using appropriate morphological annotations, glossing, and translation suggested by The Generic Style Rules for Linguistics of Leipzig University (2014)⁴.

4. Morphosyntatic categories of demonstratives

Demonstratives are grammatical elements/expressions that refer to specific objects, entities, persons, or places. They are closely connected to the actual entities being referred to and distinguish them from other similar referents in the context of communication. They are among deictic expressions that depend on the spatial and situational context around the speaker and/or listener. They are often used along with gestural acts to help the listeners identify and differentiate the entities being discussed about. The main function of demonstratives is to draw attention to the location of the referents and establish a shared understanding between the communicators in a speech or discourse situation (Diessel, 1999, p. 2; Dixon, 2003, pp. 61-62; Levinson, 1983, pp. 61-96; Wolter, 2006, p. 1).

All languages have demonstratives which depend on the spatial and situational context, and are used to draw attention to the location of the referents. In speech contexts, proximal demonstratives refer to entities located near the speaker/hearer, while distal demonstratives refer to entities located farther away. The deictic center, or point of reference, may vary across languages. Therefore, the morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic structures and functions of demonstratives vary across languages (Diessel, 1999, p. 1, 36; Tanz, 1980).

Demonstratives are conceptually categorized into four groups: demonstrative pronouns, determiners/adjectives, adverbs and identifiers (Diessel, 1999, p. 2), and all of them exist in Afaan Oromoo. Pronouns replace noun phrases in argument positions, determiners modify or refer to noun phrases, identifiers appear with copulas and adverbs co-occur with verbs in clauses. Despite their syntactic differences, the first three demonstratives have the same stem forms, but adverbs have different structures. They all denote places, persons, things, time, location, etc., and are used in written and conversations for semantic and pragmatic purposes.

4.1. Demonstrative pronouns

These occur in the places of noun phrases, as subject or object in a clause. In the language, two relative distance points, proximal and distal, are denoted. For this purpose, demonstratives inflect for number (singular and plural) and case (nominative and accusative). Proximal demonstratives denote objects, people, or places that are close to the speaker. Illustrations of each are provided below.

Table

(1) a.	kun	kop’ee	eeɲɲu(u)-ti
	this.NOM	shoe	who-COP
	‘Whose shoe is this?’
b.	kun(n)-een	man(n)-een	tolasaa-ti
	this.NOM-PL	house-PL	Tolasa-COP
	‘These are Tolasa’s houses’.
c.	gurb-iʧʧ-i	kana	barbaad-a
	boy-SG-NOM	this.ACC	need-IMPF
	‘The boy needs this’.
d.	abbaa-n	koo	kan(n)-een	arg-e
	father- NOM	1S.POSS	this.ACC-PL	see-PFV
	‘My father saw these’.

In example (1a&b), the singular subject (nominative case) form of demonstrative is kun ‘this’ while the plural form is kunneen ‘these’ (cf. FDRE MOE, 2012a, p.45, 144: FDRE MOE, 2012b, p. 10, 44). The copula -ti applies to both singular and plural forms of the demonstratives. On the other hand, the singular object (accusative case) form is kana ‘this’ whereas the plural form is kanneen ‘these’ (cf. FDRE MOE, 2012c, p.3, 7, 9: FDRE MOE, 2012d, p.2-4, 41, 60), as illustrated in (1c&d). Both plural forms are derived from the counter singular forms through affixation of -een and gemination of the last consonant (/n/). The two plural forms are typically found in the textbooks as shown above though they are rarely/not used by the native speakers of the Western variety. Regardless of the category they belong to, the demonstratives in this language are always speaker-centered.

When it comes to distal demonstratives, these are used to refer to objects, people, or places that are far away from the speaker. The singular form is sun/sana ‘that’, and the plural form is sunneen/sanneen ‘those’. These distal demonstratives are also used when the distance of the referent is unknown or unimportant to the speaker and the listener. Like the proximal demonstratives stated above, the distal demonstratives are inflected for number and case: sun ‘that’ and sunneen ‘those’ are used for subject/nominative case while sana ‘that’ and sanneen ‘those’ are used for object/accusative case.

Table

(2) a.	sun	kop’ee	eeɲɲuu-ti
	that.NOM	shoe	whose-COP
	‘Whose shoe is that?’
b.	sun(n)-een	man(n)-een	tolasaa-ti
	that.NOM-PL	house-PL	Tolasaa-COP
	‘Those are Tolasa’s houses’.
c.	gurb-iʧʧ-i	sana	barbaad-a
	boy-SG-NOM	that.ACC	need-IMPF
	‘The boy needs that’.
d.	abbaa-n	koo	san(n)-een	arg-e
	father- NOM	1S.POSS	that.ACC-PL	see-PFV
	‘My father saw those’.

As shown in (2), the forms sun ‘that’ (singular) and sunneen ‘those’ (plural) in (2a&b) express the nominative case while sana ‘that’ (singular) and sanneen ‘those’ (plural) in (2c&d) are used for the accusative case. The referents indicated by distal demonstratives are always visible in the context of discussing physical objects, either alienable or inalienable possessions. However, they can also be used to represent referents that are secretly known between the speaker and the listener. The plural forms are optional when they appear with noun phrases in sentences. One typical feature in Afaan Oromoo is that there is no structural distinction between alienable and inalienable possessions.

4.2. Demonstrative determiners

Demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo exhibit the same phonological and morphological forms across different syntactic categories. Likewise, demonstrative determiners function by following and determining noun phrases within phrase/clause structures. The examples provided below reveal the usage of these in nominative and accusative cases.

Table

(3) a.	man(n)-i	kun	koo-ti
	house-NOM	this.NOM	1S.POSS-COP
	‘This house is mine’.
b.	ʃamarr-an	kun(n)-een	heerum-an-ii-r-u [heerum-an-ii-ʤir-u]
	girl.NOM-PL	this.NOM-PL	marry-PL-CVB-EX-IMPF
	‘These girls are already married’.
c.	gurbaa	kana	rukut-i
	boy	this.ACC	hit-IMPR
	‘(You) hit this boy’.
d.	barsiisaa-n	teessoo-wwan	san(n)-een	sup’p’-e
	teacher-NOM	chair-PL	that.ACC-PL	repair-PFV
	‘The teacher repaired those chairs’.

In (3a&b), the demonstrative determiners kun ‘this’ and kunneen ‘these’ modify the subject nouns manni ‘house’ and ʃamarran ‘girls’. These determiners indicate the proximity of the subjects to the speaker (deictic center). Syntactically, they function as adjectives to form noun phrases that serve as the subject in the clause. Similarly, kana ‘this’ and sanneen ‘those’ in (3c&d) follow and modify the nouns gurbaa ‘boy’ and teessoowwan ‘chairs’, which occur in the syntactic object (accusative) position. Overall, these determiners are structurally distinct from demonstrative pronouns in their syntactic contexts, as they primarily serve as noun modifiers.

4.3. Demonstrative identifiers

These are a less common type of demonstrative in the language. They are often called predicative demonstratives as they are used along with copulas and identificational predicates to denote the location or position of objects in space. Similar to the other types of demonstratives, they have the same phonological and morphological shapes. However, they are primarily used in non-verbal clauses to draw attention to the referents.

Despite being lexically identical with demonstrative pronouns and determiners, demonstrative identifiers have phonological modification on the word final vowel, which is affected by the vowel of the first syllable in the pronoun. The demonstratives commonly occur in pre-copular positions.

Table

(4) a.	kitaab-ni	kee	kana-ɗa
	book-NOM	2S.POSS	this-COP
	‘Your book is this one’.
b.	hirmaat(t)-ot-ni	walgahii	kan(n)-een(i)-ɗa
	participant-PL-NOM	meeting	this.ACC-PL-COP
	‘The participants of the meeting are these’.
c.	konkolaataa-n	koo	sana	tur-e
	car-NOM	1S.POSS	that.ACC	be.PST-PFV
	‘My car was that one’.

The examples shown above illustrate the occurrence of demonstrative identifiers. In (4a), the demonstrative identifier is kana ‘this’; it occurs with the copula -ɗa to indicate the location or position of kitaab- ‘book’, which is the referent. Similarly, the identifier kan(n)-een(i) ‘these’ is used with the same copula, -ɗa, to locate the participants of walgahii ‘meeting’. The demonstrative determiner sana ‘that’ in (4c) is used in the same way with those in (4a&b), except the existence of past (perfective) copula tur- ‘was’, which replaced the imperfective copula -ɗa. In Afaan Oromoo, demonstrative identifiers have some peculiarities. First, only the accusative (object) forms of demonstratives are used in copular constructions. Second, they are always used with cleft constructions. Otherwise, the morphosyntactic features of demonstrative identifiers in terms of proximal-distal contrast are the same as the others.

Other demonstrative identifiers, which are probably homophonous demonstrative types, are specifically used with the copula -ti. This copula is often found in genitive and possessive constructions (possessive nouns or pronouns) (5a, b, d). There are two main forms of these demonstratives: kunoo ‘this or over here’, and kúúnnoo ‘that or over there’. These forms indicate the location of the referents in space. Hence, they are often referred to as presentative deictics in different literature, such as Mazengia (2020, pp. 25-28). Examples of these demonstratives are provided below.

Table

(5) a.	huiʧ’ʧ’uu-n	kee	kunoo-ti
	cloth-NOM	2S.POSS	this-COP
	‘Your cloth is this/over here’.
b.	hoolaa-n	tolaa	kunoo-ti
	sheep-NOM	Tolaa	this-COP
	‘Tola’s sheep is this/over here’.
c.	hool-ota-ttii-n		kunoo-ti
	sheep-PL-DIM-NOM		this-COP
	‘The sheep are these/over here’.
d.	harr-oot-ni	abbaa	koo	kúúnnoo-ti
	donkey-PL-NOM	father	1S.POSS	that-COP
	‘My father’s donkeys are those/over there.
e.	nam-iʧʧ-i	kúúnnoo-ti
	man-SG-NOM	that-COP
	‘The man is that/over there’.
f.	poolis-oot-ni	kúúnnoo-ti
	police-PL-NOM	that-COP
	‘The policemen are those/over there’.

The demonstratives kunoo (5a-c) and kúúnnoo (5d-f) are used in copular clauses with the copula -ti. These demonstratives are derived from the nominative case of demonstrative pronouns, with some phonological and morphological changes. While the singular and plural forms are the same, they designate different distances from the deictic centers (the speakers). Accordingly, kunoo is used to denote proximal distance, indicating ‘this/these/over here’. Phonologically, it has a short first vowel and a non-geminated second/final consonant in the stem. On the other hand, kúúnnoo expresses distal distances, representing ‘that/those/over there’. This form has a long first vowel and a geminated second/final consonant. Moreover, pitch is marked by diacritics in the word kúúnnoo. Syntactically, they appear only in the pre-verbal position of copular clauses.

4.4. Demonstrative adverbs

These denote the location or place of the referents (persons or objects). There are two lexical/simple elements: asi ‘here’ and aʧʧi ‘there’. However, a few complex demonstrative adverbs are derived from the simple forms, adpositions and interrogative pronouns, resulting in compound and blended demonstratives. Illustrations for complex forms are provided below.

Table

	Lexical elements		Compound adverb
(6) a.	sana(a) ‘that’	asi ‘here’	sanaa asi ‘from that to here’
b.	kana(a) ‘this’	aʧʧi ‘there’	kanaa aʧʧi ‘from this to there’
c.	aʧʧi(i) ‘there’	asi ‘here’	aʧʧii asi ‘from there to here’
d.	asi(i) ‘here’	aʧʧi ‘there’	asii aʧʧi ‘from here to there’

These compound adverbs are formed from two different lexical elements, i.e. pronouns and adverbs in (6a&b), and adverbs in (6c&d). All of these demonstrative adverbs denote the direction of a certain motion either to the speaker (deictic center) (6a&c) and away from the speaker (6b&d). Other complex adverbs are formed by blending adpositions, interrogative pronouns and simple adverbs, as shown below.

Table

	Lexical elements		Deep structure^5	Surface structure
(7) a.	aʧʧi(i) ‘there’	asi ‘here’	aʧʧi(i) asi	aʧʧasi ‘towards here’
b.	gama ‘side’	kana ‘this’	gama kana	gamana ‘over this side’
c.	gama ‘side’	asi ‘here’	gama asi	gamasi ‘over that side’
d.	gara ‘to’	kam ‘which’	gara kam	garam ‘where’
e.	gara ‘to’	kana ‘this’	gara kana	garana ‘over here’
f.	gara ‘to’	asi ‘here’	gara asi	garasi ‘over there’

The examples in (7a-f) above are formed by putting together two different lexical elements. Each resulting word has a syllable deleted either from the first or the second component. One can argue that the resulting complex demonstrative adverbs have already passed through the grammaticalization process as they are currently recognized as lexical elements by the native speakers. The contextual differences between these demonstrative adverbs are illustrated in §6 below.

5. Semantic features of demonstratives

Demonstratives play a significant role in discourse and grammar. Speakers of any language semantically identify referents/objects in their context using demonstratives in two ways. These are through providing information to interlocutors by locating the referents and by mentioning their properties (Anderson & Keenan, 1985, p. 301; Dixon, 2003, p. 61; Himmelmann, 1996, p. 210; Laury, 1997, p. 52; Lyons, 1977a, p. 648). Based on these, demonstratives have two kinds of semantic features: deictic and qualitative features. Whereas the first refers to the location of the referent against the deictic center, the latter denotes the properties of the referent (Diessel, 1999; Fillmore, 1982; Lyons, 1977a).

Afaan Oromoo has these features embedded in its demonstratives. As stated in §2 above, demonstratives are linguistic forms which are categorized as deictic expressions. Speakers of this language often express referents in their immediate environment differently using demonstratives on the basis of proximal-distal contrast with the assumption of being deictic center. The intention of the speakers is to attract the attention of the hearer/s, so the interpretations of demonstratives are associated with discourse situations. Hence, the semantic features are determined by the immediate context of the speech situation.

5.1. Deictic features

The deictic feature of demonstratives helps the speakers to show the location/distance of the referents from them. In this regard, the referents are denoted as proximal if they are nearer to the speaker and distal if they are far away from him/her. Proximal and distal are related expressions which depend on the interpretation of the speaker based on his/her conceptualization. In Afaan Oromoo, all types of demonstratives have deictic features. Examples are given below.

Table

(8) a.	kun	faajidaa	baajjee	k’ab-a
	this.NOM	advantage	many	catch-IMPF
	‘This has many advantages’. [The speaker was pointing at a knife.]
b.	inni	sana	k’arʃii	kuma	lama-(a)n	bit-e
	3MS.NOM	that.ACC	money	thousand	two-INST	buy-PFV
	‘He bought that for two thousand birr’. [The speaker was pointing at a sheep.]
c.	dabtar-(r)i		koo	kana-ɗa
	exercise_book-NOM		1S.POSS	this.ACC-COP
	‘My exercise book is this one’. [The speaker was carrying an exercise book.]
d.	huʧ’ʧ’uu-n	[ati	barbaad-t-u]	kunoo-ti
	cloth-NOM	[2S.NOM	find-2S-IMPF]	this-COP
	‘The cloth that you need is this/over here’.
e.	gurb-iʧʧ-i	kúúnnoo-ti
	boy-SG-NOM	that/over_there-COP
	‘The boy is that/over there’. [The speaker was pointing at a boy.]

As shown in (8), the demonstrative subject pronoun kun ‘this’ (8a), object pronoun sana ‘that’ (8b), identifiers kana ‘this’ (8c), kunoo ‘this/over here’ (8d) and kúúnnoo ‘that/over there’ (8e) are used as deictic markers in the clauses. Each of these utterances occurs between two communicators with different referents/objects, such as a knife, a sheep, an exercise book, cloth and a boy in their immediate environment.

The speakers are pointing at the referents as nearer to them (8a, c&d) or far away from them (8b&e), or they carry and show the referent to the hearer (8c). As the examples demonstrate, the relative distances or locations of the referents are indicated by the demonstratives, hence deictic features/functions. Thus, the deictic feature/function is simple and straightforward in the language. Conceptually, the demonstratives in (8d&e) are used to respond to the inquiries, such as the following.

Table

(9)	inni/iʃiin/ʤarri	meerre
	3MS/3FS/3PL.NOM	where
	‘Where is/are he/it/she/they?’

Any nominative case (subject form) can replace the pronouns inni/iʃiin/ʤarri ‘he/it/she/they’ in (9). Contrarily, the object form cannot co-occur with the copula -ti in (8d&e) above. The demonstrative identifiers kunoo and kúúnnoo are used to denote referents which the speakers pick out of other similar features in the discourse context. Hence, they can be called individuating demonstratives.

Yet, there is a demonstrative that denotes showing/mimicking an action to the interlocutor so that he/she follows the demonstration, as shown below.

Table

(10)	huʧ’ʧ’uu	kee	akkana-tti [akka kana-tti] miiʧ’ʧ’-i
	cloth	2S.POSS	like_this-LOC [like this-LOC] wash-IMPF
	‘Wash your cloth like this’.

Contextually, the speaker and the listener are in a situation where clothes are being washed either by both or by one of them. Then, the speaker practically shows the listener how to wash his/her cloth, and at the same time he/she utters the above clause with the demonstrative akkanatti ‘like this’. The demonstrative akkas can also be used in the place of akkana without changing the meaning of the utterance. Therefore, one can claim that the demonstrative akkanatti/akkasitti ‘like this’ always occurs in a preverbal position together with lexical verbs in a predicate structure.

5.2. Qualitative features

Qualitative features are used to denote the classes, such as humanness or non-humanness of the referents in communication. They are listed by Diessel (1999, p. 47) as ontology, animacy, humanness, gender, number and boundedness. On the typological features of languages, qualitative features can be expressed by stems or affixes which are attached to the stems of demonstratives. In Afaan Oromoo, particularly, in the Western dialect, demonstratives do not inherently express any of these qualities, but they are used regardless of their status either as humans or non-humans. Nevertheless, they show qualitative features based on the discourse context. The examples below show number, humanness and non-humanness.

Table

(11) a.	fakkii	kana-rraa	maal	hubat-t-a
	picture	this.ACC-ABL	what	understand-2S-IMPF
	‘What do you understand from this picture?’ [Identifying a single object]
b.	loo-wwan	kun(n)-een	baajjee	t’ik’k’oo-ɗa
	cattle-PL	this.NOM-PL	very	few-COP
	‘These cattle are very few in number’. [Identifying plural objects]
c.	gurbaa-n	sun	mana-saa	iʤaar-e
	boy-NOM	that.ACC	house-3MS.POSS	build-PFV
	‘That boy built his home’. [Identifying a single person]
d.	tolaa-n	ʃamarr-an	kan(n)-een	arrab-s-e
	Tolaa-NOM	girl-PL	this.ACC-PL	tongue-CAUS-PFV
	‘Tola insulted these girls’. [Identifying plural persons]

In (11), the demonstrative pronouns are used to denote humans, non-humans/objects and numbers. Despite sameness in phonological and morphological shapes, the demonstratives indicate semantic distinctions between the referents. Whereas the demonstratives kana ‘this’ (ACC) (11a) and kunneen ‘these’ (NOM) (11b) refer to qualitative feature of non-human referents fakkii ‘picture’ and loowwan ‘cattle’ respectively, sun ‘that’ (NOM) (11c) and kanneen ‘these’ (ACC) (11d) express humans gurbaa ‘boy’ and ʃamarran ‘girls’ in that order.

The demonstratives in (11a&c) indicate singular, and those in (11b&d) show plural numbers of the referents. These features are detected only when the demonstratives co-occur with noun phrases. Apart from human vs. non-human and singular vs. plural features, demonstratives in the language do not distinguish the other qualitative features which are stated by Diessel (1999).

Qualitative features can also refer to the location of referents (Diessel, 1999). This semantic notion is denoted by the demonstrative adverbs of Afaan Oromo, which are identified in §4 above. Accordingly, the locations and directions of referents are illustrated in the examples below.

Table

(12) a.	sanaa_asi	ani	nan-k’ot-a
	from_that_to_here	1S	FOC-plow-IMPF
	‘From there to here, I plow’. (Lit. From that to here, I plow.)
b.	kanaa_aʧʧi-mmoo	ati	k’ot-i
	from_this_to_there-FOC	2S	plow-IMPF
	‘And, from here to there, you plow’. (And from this to there, you plow.)

(Context: The speaker and the listener are standing in a farmland).

In the above clauses, the speaker says (12a), sanaa asi nan k’ota ‘From that to here, I plow’, by pointing a gesture to the plot of land a little bit far from him to show where he starts plowing the land from. Then, in (12b), kanaa_aʧʧi-mmoo ati k’oti ‘From this to there, you plow’, he points the gesture to a location which is nearer to him to show where the listener starts plowing the land from.

The compound demonstrative adverbs also denote the movement (motion) of somebody or something towards or away from the speaker. The following is an illustration for such context.

Table

(13)	tolaa-n	aʧʧii_asi	deem-aa	ʤir-a
	Tolaa-NOM	there_here	go-PROG	exist-IMPF
	‘Tola is coming’. (Lit. Tolaa is going from there to here.)

In (13), the adverb basically describes the motion of the person (Tola) towards the speaker. Nonetheless, it can never be used with non-dynamic (static) verbs in a predicate.

Likewise, the other demonstrative adverbs, such as gamasi-i, garasi-i and achasi denote moving toward the speaker whereas gamana-a and garana-a denote moving away from the speaker, but garana describes a static referent which is nearer to the speakers, as described below.

Table

(14) a.	loon	gamana-a^6	jaaɁ-an-i
	cattle	over_this_side-ABL	flow-3P-PFV
	‘The cattle flew out from here’.
b.	waraabess-i	garasi-i^7	ɗuf-e
	hyena-NOM	over_there-ABL	come-PFV
	‘The hyena came from there’.
c.	kamaal	aʧʧas(i)	deem-aa	tur-e
	Kemal	towards_ here	go-PROG	be.PST-PFV
	‘Kemal was coming from there’.
d.	intal-li	ʤaraa	garana	ʤir-t-i
	girl-NOM	3PL.POSS	over_here	exist-3F-IMPF
	‘Their daughter is around here’.

In brief, speakers of Afaan Oromoo choose demonstrative pronouns and adverbs when specific properties of referents have to be denoted either with deictic, qualitative or location features. In these semantic features, the distance or location of the referents (proximal or distal) is the attention of the communicators (the speaker and the hearer). Accordingly, the speaker, as the deictic center, describes the distance and the quality of the referents from his/her perspective.

6. Pragmatic aspects of demonstratives

Apart from the semantic features, demonstratives denote pragmatic aspects of referents in communicative contexts between the interlocutors. However, they have similar purpose with their semantic features in that they designate the place or location of the referents in order to direct the attention or focus of the listeners/hearers towards them (Diessel, 1999; Himmelmann, 1996). These scholars classify pragmatic functions of demonstratives into four: exophoric, recognitional, anaphoric and discourse deictic uses. Whereas the exophoric is the basic function, the rest are derived from it. On the other hand, anaphoric and discourse deictic are basically similar with slight differences, so they are treated by Diessel (2003) as the types of endophoric use.

Based on Diessel (2003), I consider three pragmatic functions of demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo: exophoric, recognitional and endophoric uses. Endophoric subsumes anaphoric and discourse deictic uses. Hence, the subsequent sections below discuss the use of demonstratives, highlighting that the language has specific mechanisms, including gestural acts, for indicating referents near or far away during oral communication. The language also has various forms for denoting the location, position, place, direction, and movement of objects in the discourse.

6.1. Exophoric uses

Exophoric use refers to the primary feature in deictic expressions. The demonstratives in this use direct the attention of the hearers in the immediate environments of the interlocutors by pointing at the referents as proximal or distal to the deictic center, which is unambiguously the speaker. This function is identified from the other functional categories, mainly by two features. First, the deictic center in the discourse context is always the speaker. The other feature is that extra-linguistic elements, such as gesture, index finger, etc. are often used along with linguistic elements.

Fillmore (1971, 1997) and Levinson (1983) propose two kinds of exophoric uses of demonstratives: gestural and symbolic. The gestural use refers to identifying the referents (persons, objects, things) in the environment of the interlocutors by pointing at them (gesture), but the symbolic use requires prior knowledge or experience about the referent and the discourse situation. In the examples below, gestural uses are illustrated.

Table

(15) a.	k’alama	sana	na-(a)f	kenn-i
	pen	that.ACC	1S.ACC-DAT	give-2S.IMPR
	‘Give me that pen’.
b.	loo-wwan	sana	gara	lagaa-tti	oof-i
	cattle	that.ACC	to	river-LOC	drive-2S.IMPR
	‘Ride those cattle to the river’.
c.	teessoo-n	kun	ʧ’abaa-ɗa
	chair-NOM	this.NOM	broken-COP
	‘This chair is broken’.

In (15), a speaker utters out the expressions by accompanying the demonstratives sana ‘that/those’ (15a&b) and kun (15c) ‘this’ in his/her speech with gestural elements, most commonly index finger, chin and moving lips to the front. The deictic centre in all of them is the speaker. Hence, the referent k’alama ‘pen’ in (15a) is distant in the vicinity of the speaker who asks the addressee (hearer) to pass it to him/her. Similarly, in (15b), loowwan ‘the cattle’ are the referents which are in the distant area around the speaker who orders the hearer to drive or ride them to the river.

In (15a&b), the speaker uses either index finger or chin or any other gestural expressions to direct the attention of the hearer towards the referent/s. The third example, (15c), indicates an entity, teessoo ‘chair’, proximal to the speaker in which he/she can touch and show it to the hearer. In short, the gestural uses illustrated above denote the physical existence of a referent in the vicinity of the speaker either in proximal or distal space or location.

Exophoric function is also detected when demonstratives refer to entities or objects which are not bounded or specified in the physical environment of the speaker. This use is classified as symbolic, as exemplified in (16) below.

Table

(16) a.	bijj-i	kun	ijjee-ttii-ɗa
	country-NOM	this.NOM	poor-FS-COP
	‘This country is poor’.
b.	akaakajjuu-n	adduɲɲaa	kana-rraa	duɁa-(a)n	bok’ot-e
	grandfather-NOM	world	this.ACC-ABL	death-INST	rest-PFV
	‘Grandfather passed away’.[Lit. Grandfather rested with death from this world.]
c.	uummata	kana-(a)f	aarsaa	kaffal-uu-n	hin-barbaa-ʧʧis-u
	people.ACC	this.ACC-BEN	sacrifice	pay-VN-NOM	NEG-find-CAUS-IMPF
	‘Paying sacrifice to this people is not necessary’.

When a speaker utters the clauses in (16) above, he/she does not require any kind of gesture because the referents are understood by the hearer as if they do not have bound scope in the immediate environment during the communication. In another word, the physical spaces or locations of the referents are far beyond the vicinity of the interlocutors.

The demonstratives kun ‘this’ (NOM) in (16a) and kana ‘this’ (ACC) in (16b&c) do not involve a pointing gesture, but they recall the knowledge of the interlocutors about the larger situational context, i.e. about bijja ‘country’, adduɲɲaa ‘world’ and uummata ‘people’. These referents involve more than what is immediately visible in the surrounding situation. Hence, the examples illustrate the symbolic use of demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo. In the context of these utterances, the hearers do not require any extra-linguistic denotations to have clear meanings; instead, they use their encyclopedic knowledge about the referents. Thus, symbolic use applies to the referents whose existence is beyond the surrounding situation of the discourse.

6.2. Recognitional uses

Recognitional use is another pragmatic function of demonstratives. It is relatively less known and studied than the others (i.e. exophoric and endophoric). This use does not have referents in the immediate physical situation (linguistic or extra-linguistic context) of the interlocutors, but it recalls shared information or knowledge only between the interlocutors (the speaker and the hearer), not the whole speech community (Diessel, 1999; Himmelmann, 1996). Linguistically, the demonstratives occur with subordinate clauses or noun phrases in order to make clear the interpretation of the utterance to hearers.

Afaan Oromoo uses only demonstrative determiners for this pragmatic function. These denote referents whose knowledge or background is shared among the speakers and the hearers. The information about the referents is already acquired prior to the conversation, illustrated below.

Table

(17) a.	t’alajaa	tolaa-n	barreess-e	sun	ʤaalala	inni
	letter	Tolaa-NOM	write-PFV	that.ACC	love	3MS.NOM
	haaɗa	isaa-tiif	k’ab-u	ibs-a
	mother	3MS-BEN	catch-IMPF	explain-IMPF
	‘The letter that he wrote to his mother explains the love he has to him mother’.
b.	intal-(l)i	miiɗag-duu-n	sun	dargagg-oota		sadan
	girl-NOM	beauty-3FS-NOM	that.ACC	male-PL		three
	sana	ʤaalat-t-e
	that.ACC	love-FS-PFV
	‘That beautiful girl loved those three adolescents’.
c.	beekumsa	kana	eessa-a	argat-t-an
	knowledge	this.ACC	where-ABL	get-2P-PFV
	‘From where did you get this knowledge?’

In (17), the speaker and the hearer/listener share experience about the referents t’alajaa ‘letter’ (17a), intala miiɗagduu ‘beautiful girl’ and dargaggoota sadan ‘the three adolescents’ (17b), and beekumsa ‘knowledge’ (17c). The referents are familiar to the interlocutors prior to this communication, so they carry discourse-new information when they are accompanied with demonstrative determiners. What makes the recognitional use of the demonstratives different here from the other uses is that they are not accompanied by gestural elements as the referents are invisible to the communicators.

In (17a), the noun phrase intala miiɗagduu ‘beautiful girl’, being mentioned for the first time in the discourse, occurs in the clause with the distal demonstrative sun ‘that’. When the hearer interprets this demonstrative, he/she does not refer to any girl in the situation of the conversation. Rather, he/she understands that there is common and familiar information about the girl (referent) between them (the speaker and the hearer). Similar situations occur with the other referents in the two examples (17b-c). The proximity of the referents to the speaker (deictic center) depends on the occurrence time of the situations in the utterances. For example, the speaker assumes that the situations in (17a&b) above have no close link to the time of speech. Thus, the distal demonstrative sun in (17a&b) and sana in (17b) are used. However, if the topic has close link to speech time, the proximal demonstrative kana (17c) is used.

6.3. Endophoric uses

Demonstratives have endophoric use as the third category, apart from exophoric and recognitional uses. Such use helps the interlocutors to set up and synchronize their focus on a discourse referent or topic of conversation (Diessel, 2006; Givón, 1983; Himmelmann, 1996). In Afaan Oromoo, two subcategories of endophoric uses are identified: anaphoric and discourse-deictic. Whereas the former co-refers to an entity (object, person, etc.) which is stated in the preceding co-text (utterance), the later denotes the whole proposition or idea stated in the discourse context. Each is explained with illustrations as follow.

6.3.1. Anaphoric uses

The anaphoric use of demonstratives engages the interlocutors to focus on the preceding expression in the discourse context (Diessel, 1999). Anaphora is the term which stands for the relationship between a word or a phrase being uttered out and another word or phrase which has already been uttered in the same conversation. In a similar vein, anaphoric uses of demonstratives show co-referential link between their antecedents (nouns or noun phrases) in the previous text and themselves (Ehlich, 1982, p. 330; Lyons, 1977b, p. 660). The hearers interpret the expressions with anaphoric demonstratives based on the information provided in the preceding text.

Afaan Oromoo demonstratives are often used as anaphors to denote entities or objects which are already mentioned in the discourse context. Their forms are the same as those used as deictic and qualitative functions. The examples below reveal anaphoric uses of demonstratives in the language.

Table

(18) a.	[tolaa-n		kutaa	sagal	barat-a]	[gurbaa-n		kun
	Tolaa-NOM		grade	Nine	learn-IMPF	boy-NOM		this.NOM
	barumsa-(a)n			baajjee	ʧ’imaa-ɗa]
	education-INST			very	strong-COP
	‘[Tola learns in grade nine.] [This boy is diligent in his education.]’
b.	[finfinnee-n			magaalaa	gudd-oo	itoop’p’ijaa-ti]		[uummat-ni
	Finfinne-NOM			city	big-FS	Ethiopia-COP		people-NOM
	milijoona		ʤahaa	ol	magaalaa	sana	keessa	ʤiraat-a]
	million		six	above	city	that	in	live-IMPF
	‘[Finfinne is the capital city of Ethiopia.] [More than six million people live in that city.]’
c.	[kaangaaroo-n			awustiraalijaa	keessa-tti	arg-am-a]		[bineens-i
	kangaroo-NOM			Australia	in-LOC	see-MID-IMPF		animal-NOM
	kun	jeroo	ammaa	bijja	sana	keessaa	badaa	ʤir-a]
	this	time	Now	country	that	in-from	lose	exist-IMPF
	‘[Kangaroo is found in Australia.] [This animal is being lost from that country.]’

The utterances in (18a-c) have anaphoric demonstratives kun ‘this’ in (18a&c), sana ‘that’ in (18b&c), which refer back to the proper names tolaa ‘Tolaa’, finfinnee ‘Finfinne’, awustiraalijaa ‘Australia’ and kaangaaroo ‘Kangaroo’ in the preceding clauses/chunks. The primary use of these demonstratives is to focus the attention of the hearers on the linguistic elements (antecedents) in the discourse.

As indicated above, the utterances in the square brackets are single chunks/clauses. In each of the three examples, the first square bracket contains the antecedent, i.e. proper name, and the second contains the demonstrative with anaphoric use. The demonstratives are, thus, co-referential with the proper names in the preceding utterances. These demonstratives are often accompanied by common nouns, such as gurbaa ‘boy’ (18a), magaalaa ‘city’ (18b), bineensa ‘animal’ and bijja ‘county’ (18c); hence, they are called demonstrative determiners.

The interlocutors in (18a-c) do not require any kind of specific background or knowledge to understand the meanings in the utterances, as the referents and the anaphors are expressed in the clauses for the immediate or particular context. However, except sana, which tracks the antecedents finfinnee ‘Finfinne’ (18b) and awustiraalijaa ‘Australia’ (18c), the other demonstrative (kun) does not denote place. In all of the examples, the speakers mention the referents as if they are in their vicinity at the time of communication, either near to them (deictic center) or far away from them. However, the deictic center is shifted from place to the discourse context. Therefore, anaphoric uses of demonstratives do not necessarily describe physical places or locations of referents; instead, they denote the antecedent in a particular conversation.

6.3.2. Discourse-deictic uses

Demonstratives can also be used as discourse-deictic elements, where the preceding or the following proposition in the larger discourse context (not specific referent) is denoted (Diessel, 1999). Yet, this use indicates dominantly a part of the uttered idea to retrieve in the subsequent conversation so that the hearer can focus his/her attention and establish a referent in the immediate discourse situation. Discourse-deictic use helps the interlocutors to establish a new discourse referent on the basis of the immediate discourse context.

Linguistically, different syntactic structures, such as phrases, clauses and sentences, are employed to introduce and trigger the antecedents (Lyons 1977a,1977b; Webber, 1991). However, there is no co-referential relationship with nouns or noun phrases in the context, but the whole idea or proposition is associated to the demonstrative (Himmelmann, 1996; Lyons, 1977b). Afaan Oromoo has demonstratives with discourse-deictic uses which focus or direct the attention of the hearer to the meaning of the expression (clause, sentence, utterance, paragraph, whole story) in focus. The following are examples.

Table

(19) a.	Tolaa:	bara	ɗuf-u	konkolaataa-n		bita
		year	come-IMPF	car-NOM		buy-IMPF
		‘I will buy a car next year’.
	Daraartuu:	kun	jaada	baajjee		gaarii-ɗa
		this.NOM	Idea	very		good-COP
		‘This is a very good idea’.
b.	[nam-oot-ni	baadijjaa	harka	ʧ’aalaa-n		ʤireeɲɲa	wal-waʤʤin-(ii)f
	man-PL-NOM	rural	hand	great-NOM		life	REF-together-BEN
	iddoo	guddaa	kenn-u]	[kun	ammoo	kan	madd-e
	place	big	give-IMPF	this.NOM	now	of	emanate-PFV
	haala	ʤireeɲɲa	baadijjaa	irra-a	kan	kaɁ-e]
	situation	life	rural	on-from	of	rise-PFV
	‘[Rural people give great value for social life.] [This emanated from the situations in rural life.]’

The demonstrative kun ‘this’ in (19a&b) refers to the whole content or meaning of the preceding text, i.e. the utterance of Tolaa in (18a) and the chunk/clause in the first square bracket in (18b), in the illocutionary force. It links the two units of interpretations in the discourses as connectives. For example, in (18a), kun denotes Tolaa’s explanation about buying a car next year. This demonstrative, thus, expresses that the proposition is already stated in the preceding utterance. As regards the distance of the happening/occurrence, there is no physical space or vicinity which is proximal (near) to or distal (remote) from the speaker, but imaginative or temporal space is considered as the speaker can comment or talk about the immediate or remote state-of-affairs.

Finally, discourse-deictic and anaphoric functions are the categories of endophoric uses of demonstratives. Yet, they are highly related, in the sense that they denote the situations which are mentioned in the preceding expressions. However, they have conceptual difference, where anaphoric function refers to co-referential relations between the demonstratives and nouns/noun phrases in the discourse concepts, but discourse-deictic functions refer to the whole discourse preceding the demonstratives.

7. Conclusion

Demonstratives are the categories of deictic expressions which occur in an utterance/a clause to draw the attention of speakers and listeners to a particular referent in a conversation. In Afaan Oromoo, these elements are structurally limited, but they play significant roles in formulating meanings. This study explores demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo, with particular emphasis on the Western variety. Data were driven from textbooks, native speakers, and introspection, spanning for two years (2021-22). Purposive sampling was used to provide relevant clauses, with both non-educated and educated native speakers mainly from Western dialect involved. The study categorized the collected data into three main sections: morphosyntactic classes, semantic and pragmatic aspects, and clauses or utterances.

Demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo (Western variety) are categorized into four morphosyntacitc groups: demonstrative pronouns, determiners, identifiers and adverbs. Pronouns are used to indicate the location or position of referents in a clause. They are categorized as deictic expressions, conveying a distinction between proximal and distal referents. The language also has gender distinctions, with different forms used for masculine and feminine genders in different clusters. Determiners are used to determine noun phrases within phrase/clause structures, while identifiers are used in non-verbal clauses to draw attention to referents. Adverbs denote the location or place of referents, with simple elements like asi and aʧʧi. Complex demonstrative adverbs are formed from adpositions, interrogative pronouns, and simple adverbs. One fundamental point regarding plural demonstratives kunneen (subject/nominative) and kanneen (object/accusative) is that they are found only in written forms, not in casual speeches of the non-educated groups.

Speakers of Afaan Oromoo use demonstratives if they prefer to describe specific properties of referents either with deictic or qualitative feature. The distance or position of the referents is the attention of the interlocutors. Accordingly, the speaker considers himself/herself as the deictic center, and describes the distance and the quality of the referents from his/her perspective. In the deictic feature, the relative distances of the referents are indicated by the demonstratives. This language has no demonstratives which inherently express qualitative features, such as humans or non-humans, but the demonstratives show qualitative features based on the discourse context.

As far as pragmatic functions of demonstratives are concerned, exophoric, recognitional and endophoric uses are typically observed in the data. In exophoric use, the deictic center is always the speaker, who uses non-linguistic denotations, such as gesture, index finger, etc. along with linguistic elements. On the other hand, the language employs only demonstrative determiners for recognitional function. Here, the speakers and listeners in the discourse context share prior knowledge or information about the referents. In endophoric uses, the interlocutors set up and synchronize their focus on a discourse referent or topic of conversation. The language has demonstratives with anaphoric and discourse-deictic uses, where the former co-refers to an entity (object, person, etc.) stated in the preceding co-text (utterance), and the later denotes the whole proposition or idea stated in the discourse context.

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the structures and purposes of demonstratives in Afaan Oromoo. This study specifically aims to enhance our understanding of demonstratives in Cushitic languages, with a focus on Afaan Oromoo from a synchronic standpoint. The results, hence, serve as a foundation for future studies on the forms and uses of demonstratives across different languages. Therefore, it is imperative that future research should explore the interactive, social and cognitive functions expressed through demonstratives in a wider range of contexts.

Abbreviations
1	=	first person
2	=	second person
3	=	third person
ABL	=	ablative
ACC	=	accusative
BEN	=	benefactive
CAUS	=	causative
COP	=	copula
CVB	=	converb
DAT	=	dative
DIM	=	diminutive
EX	=	existential
F	=	feminine
FOC	=	focus
IMPF	=	imperfective
IMPR	=	imperative
INST	=	instrumental
LOC	=	locative
M	=	masculine
MID	=	middle
NEG	=	negation
NOM	=	nominative
PFV	=	perfective
PL	=	plural
POSS	=	possessive
PROG	=	progressive
PST	=	past
REF	=	reflexive
S	=	singular
SG	=	singulative
SOV	=	subject-object-verb
VN	=	verbal nominal

Acknowledgments

I thank the informants who participated throughout the period of this study. I also acknowledge the resources (grades 9-12 Afaan Oromoo textbooks) which I used as one of the data sources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eba Teresa Garoma

Eba Teresa Garoma is an Associate Professor at Jimma University, with a PhD in Theoretical and Descriptive Linguistics. He has been involved in language teaching and research, as well as serving as a journal editor and reviewer since 2005. With over 20 research articles and book chapters on Ethiopian languages, including Afaan Oromoo, Amharic, Yemsa, Me’enit, and Khimtanga, among others, his expertise in Afroasiatic Linguistics is extensive. His research interests cover various aspects of Ethiopian languages, such as Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Sociolinguistics, and stylistics. Eba Teresa Garoma’s contributions to the field of linguistics are invaluable, and his dedication to the study of Ethiopian languages is evident through his extensive experience and numerous publications.

Notes

1 https://www.alphatrad.com/news/afrikan-languages

2 The vowel i in parenthesis is often pronounced in both spoken and written forms, usually for emphatic function.

3 In the demonstratives kun(i) and tun(i), the phonemes/k/and/t/commonly denote masculine and feminine genders respectively for all varieties except the Western variety of Afaan Oromoo.

4 https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistics/past-research-resources/resources/generic-style-rules/.

5 This is not currently used by the speakers.

6 garana-a can alternatively be used in the same syntactic context.

7 gamasi-i can alternatively be used in the same syntactic context.