CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES

The third person pronouns in Wirangu belong both to the personal and to the deictic pronoun system. They differ from the other personal pronouns not only in the use of case, but also in the fact that they can be followed by the emphatic suffix -(g)ardu, -(g)arda used only with deictics, the interrogative pronoun, and with a limited group of adjectives (§2. 1 .2(d)).

(a) The pronoun bala: case system

This pronoun, whose origin is discussed in §4.2.7 below, was more emphatic and had more of a demonstrative function that the English equivalent, since it was used only in circumstances where there was a need to single out the the third person, otherwise it was simply not expressed (§4. 1 . 1). It follows the same case system as nouns. Examples of the use of case forms are:

Absolutive bala as in: 4.33 Bala urldi-na.

he come-PAST

He has come.

4.34 Wildyurda bala miRa-na.

long.ago it hear-PAST

(I) heard it long ago (i.e. 'I've heard it all before, I don' t believe it'). Ergative balangu:

4.35 Gadyi bala-ngu yadu-ma-rn.

spear he-ERG good-make-PRES He is making a spear.

The dative-genitive-allative is balagu, as in balagu wangga 'his language' , balagu ngura

(b) The pronoun bala: use

The anaphoric use of the pronouns bala and banha clearly marks them as being third person pronouns, but at the same time they can have a deictic function. The pronoun bala is a very common deictic of general vicinity 'that' . If used adjectivally, it normally follows the noun, as in:

4.36 Gidya bala gandyi-ga!

child that keep-IMP Look after that baby ! 4.37 Gabi bala warni-na.

water that throw-PAST (1) threw that water out.

The pronoun bala only very rarely precedes the noun: 4.38 Bala nhangga ingginma-rn.

that man ask-PRES

(He) is asking that man.

The use of bala is particularly common in apposition to the main noun phrase, but separated from it:

4.39 Nhangga-ngu wiyana wayidha-rn bala.

man-ERG woman frighten-PRES that.one The man is making that woman frightened. 4.40 Buba warla bala, wangga-rn.

dog angry he bark-PRES That dog is angry, it is barking. 4.41 Warda gaRi warni-rn bala.

tree soon fall-PRES th at. one That tree is going to fall down.

Bala also serves as subject of verbless sentences, always following the complement. In

this environment it can be interpreted either as a demonstrative or as a personal pronoun:

4.42 Yadu dyudu bala.

good corroboree that (it) It is a good corroboree.

4.43 Walybala-gu ngura bala.

white.man-GEN house that (it) That (it) is a white man's house. 4.44 Nyurnigu wanyi bala?

your girl she

Is that (she) your girlfriend?

The use of bala following an adjective complement is so common that it has sometimes been interpretated as part of the adjective: this was done by Platt, ngantyapala 'bad' for

ngantya bala 'it is bad', and even yatunpala (with the clitic n, see §6.3. 1 ) for yadu-n bala

When bala is repeated in such circumstances it means that another attributive sentence is implied:

4.45 Dharl bala, bala.

true it it It lli true, it is.

Though bala follows the complement in these verbless sentences, it can precede another noun phrase in apposition:

4.46 Ngandha gidya bala, warla-marnaarda.

nasty child he row-big He is a nasty child, a real troublemaker.

(c) balaardu, balaarda

The extended forms of the pronoun, balaardu, balaarda, are practically synonymous with the simple bala and are used in much the same circumstances. They can occur as third person intransitive subject, 'he she, it' , as the circumstances determine:

4.47 Balaardu gari yaniny nyina-yi-rn.

she soon awake be (sit)-CONT -PRES She will soon be awake.

4.48 Balaardu ilanga urldi-rn.

he close.by come-PRES

He is coming close.

They may also serve as demonstrative pronouns:

4.49 Nhangga balaarda gam wadyi-wangga-rn.

man that soon begging-speak-PRES

That man will be asking us for something directly.

When however the noun is not expressed the two functions are not clearly distinguishable: 4.50 Balaardu nyurni dyirga-rn.

that.one (he) you stare. at-PRES That person (or 'he') is staring at you.

The extended forms occur occasionally with case markers, particularly in the genitive

balaardugu, but usually the simple form bala is preferred before case markers.

The extended forms can occur in apposition to the subject noun phrase: 4.5 1 Gidya wayi balaardu.

child frightened that.one That child is frightened.

Unlike bala, however, the extended forms are not common as sole subject of verbless sentences, except with interrogatives:

4.52 Ngana balaarda?

what it What is it?

4.53 Ngana-gu mardn balaarda? Nyurnigu?

who-GEN wife she yours

Whose wife is she? Yours?

The extended forms carry a little more emphasis than the simple bala, but it is difficult to render this minor semantic difference in any translation.

4.2.7 ALTERNATIVE THIRD PERSON PRONOUN banha

Very closely related to bala in form and function is banha, banhi 'this', 'that', 'the one that we are talking about' , 'he, she, it' . In the other Thura-Yura languages immediately to the east, this is the normal third person pronoun: Kuyani panha, Adnyamathanha vanha. In fact the four languages, Wirangu, Kuyani, Adnyamathanha and Parnkalla share the characteristic of having two sets of pronouns based on the stem ba-, with the respective extended stems

bala and banha; in Parnkalla (Schiirmann 1 844: 1 1 ) the two stems seem to supplement one

another.This old ba-stem has affiliations far afield, as shown for instance by Dench ( 1994). All these pronouns follow the absolutive-ergative system like nouns. The Western Desert languages including Kukata also have these two stems, but it is yet a third form, balu, based on the bal-stem, that functions as personal pronoun.

In Wirangu banha, like bala, is used as personal pronoun (nominative in this example): 4.54 Banha wildyara yuwa-na.

he yesterday stand-PAST

He (the baby we have been talking about) stood up yesterday. Just as commonly banha is used as deictic (accusative in this example):

4.55 Waliri! BaRu banha ngalgu!

hurry meat that eat Come here quickly! Eat this meat!

As with bala the two functions cannot be clearly distinguished. An example of the ergative is: 4.56 Banha-ngu gabi ngal.

that-ERG water drink He (that one) is drinking water.

As is the case with bala, when banha is the subject of an equational sentence it usually follows the complement:

4.57 Maga wayi banha.

not afraid that one He is not afraid.

The two pronouns banha and bala are so close to each other in meaning that occasionally they can be used to refer to the same person or thing in adjacent clauses:

4.58 Nhangga bala wina-rn-gadn marna maldhi-ng'

wina-rn banha.

go-PRES this.one

This man goes round walking, (even) when it is pitch dark this one walks about. The genitive of banha, banhi is banhi-gu, as in banhi-gu ngura 'that person's camp ' . The plural form of this pronoun is banhara 'they, these people' .