Tiri (Ciri, Tĩrĩ), or Mea (''Ha Mea''), is an

Oceanic language The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

Grammar

Pronouns and person marking

Tîrî has two types of

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...

s: personal pronouns, which make reference to

person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

and

case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...

, and impersonal pronouns, which only have one respective form and are more restricted in their use (Osumi, 1995, p. 38). Like all other nominals in Tîrî, pronouns can occupy various positions throughout the

clause In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...

(Osumi, 1995, p. 37). They may appear as the nominal subject of the verb, marked by the subject marker ''nrâ'' and agreeing in person and number with the subject pronoun in the

predicate Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...

; the

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...

of a verb; the object of a preposition; or the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

of a predicate (Osumi, 1995, pp. 37–38). When they appear within the verb

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

, personal pronouns show agreement in person and number with the nominal subject that optionally follows the predicate (Osumi, 1995, p. 38). Personal pronouns in Tîrî also mark listener

clusivity In linguistics, clusivity is a grammatical distinction between ''inclusive'' and ''exclusive'' first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called ''inclusive " we"'' and ''exclusive "we"''. Inclusive "we" specifically includes the address ...

in the first person non-singular, and are generally used for human referents (Osumi, 1995, p. 39). The below example shows appropriate usage of the third person singular nrâ (not to be confused with the latter nrâ, which is acting as a subject marker for the optional nominal subject toni). Although the third person pronoun can be used for non-human entities (while the first and second person pronouns generally only refer to humans), speakers tend to use it in its singular form even when there is more than one referent, as seen below (Osumi, 1995, p. 39). As indicated in the table above, Tîrî pronouns change form depending on whether they are being used as subjective, objective or free forms, the latter encompassing a variety of other pronoun usages, such as pronouns that have been topicalized and occur sentence-initially, as seen below (Osumi, 1995, pp. 39–40). While they are classified as pronouns as they fill the subject pronoun slot, Tîrî's two impersonal pronouns show less flexibility than personal pronouns. They do not show any distinction for person or number and occur only in their respective forms of ''hêrrê'' and ''va'', are unable to appear anywhere other than the subject pronoun position (the first element in the verb phrase), and are never followed by a nominal subject (Osumi, 1995, p. 41). Speakers use ''hêrrê'' to refer to any number of unspecified entities when they do not wish to or are not concerned with specifying a referent as the

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

of an action (Osumi, 1995, p. 41), as in the example below. This contrasts with the below example, which is more likely to be used by a speaker who wishes to imply that a particular person has committed the same act (Osumi, 1995, p. 42). While ''hêrrê'' is typically used to refer to humans, the impersonal pronoun ''va'' is used similarly to refer to non-human referents, though this is not always the case (Osumi, 1995, p. 43). ''Va'' behaves much as the English pronouns ''it'' and ''that'' insofar as they can refer to both particular things (e.g. ''Did it bite you?''; ''What's that over there?'') as well as propositions (e.g. ''It's the truth.''; ''That's a lie.''), as demonstrated below (Osumi, 1995, p. 43). Subject pronouns may be used in conjunction with the tense- aspect markers ''ei'' 'future' and ''a'' 'perfect, actual, definite', in which case a number of pronouns may change their phonological form (see the below example, in which the second person singular ''ke'' has been combined with ''a'') (Osumi, 1995, p. 170).

Possession

Tîrî, like most

Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

, exhibits many types of

possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...

constructions, including possessive

prepositions Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...

, possessive classifiers and bound-form

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

s (Osumi, 1995, pp. 144). Classic possessive constructions involve two nominals that indicate the

referent A referent ( ) is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken o ...

of one is possessed by the other. Tîrî has two types of possessive relationships,

inalienable possession In linguistics, inalienable possession ( abbreviated ) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal affixes in an inalienable possession relationship cannot exist independently or be "al ...

and alienable possession (Osumi, 1995, pp. 145). Inalienable possession describes an inherent relationship between two referents such as

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

, while alienable possession describes a non-inherent relationship such as temporary ownership or voluntary association (Osumi, 1995, pp. 145).

Alienable possession

In Tîrî, alienable possession can occur in two ways. The first is when the noun possessed is followed by a possessive preposition and then by a

pronominal In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not con ...

or nominal processor (Osumi, 1995, pp. 145). The second is when the

possessed occurs in

apposition Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side so one element identifies the other in a different way. The two elements are said to be ''in apposition'', and the element identifyi ...

with a possessive classifier (Osumi, 1995, pp. 145).

= Possessive prepositions

= Prepositions are included in a closed set of grammatical words that are placed immediately before a

noun phrase A noun phrase – or NP or nominal (phrase) – is a phrase that usually has a noun or pronoun as its head, and has the same grammatical functions as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently ...

and express a

syntactic In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency ...

relationship between the noun phrase and a predicate or another noun phrase (Osumi, 1995, pp. 145). There are three possessive prepositional markers in Tiri: ''nrâ'', ''rre/rrê'', and ''ò'' and they occur between two nominals in the following structure. NP_(possessed) nrâ, rre/rrê, ò NP_(possessor) (Osumi, 1995, p. 145). ''nrâ'' functions as both a subject and possessive marker when it precedes a noun phrase. As a possessive marker, it links the possessor to the preceding noun phrase, suggesting temporary possession (Osumi, 1995, p. 145). In Tîrî, the majority of nouns can occur with ''nrâ.'' The possessive marker variants ''rre/rrê'' are restricted to the nouns, ''mwâ'' ‘hut’, ''wâ'' ‘boat’ and ''ò'' ‘pot’ (Osumi, 1995, p. 146). The possessed noun phrases that can occur with prepositions ''ò'' are limited to ''nre'' ‘fire, firewood’ or compounds with ''nre'': ''mee-nre'' ‘habitation’, ''pwò-nre'' ‘touch’, and ''mwârrâ-nre'' ‘fire flame’ (Osumi, 1995, p. 147). The possessive relationship expressed by ò is related to fire, with the purpose of warming oneself or cooking something. In these examples, the possessive prepositions, ''nrâ'', ''rrê'' and ''ò'' are between two nominals, as in the structure above.

= Possessive Classifiers

= Another type of alienability is in constructions where the possessed nouns occur in apposition with a possessive classifier. Possessive classifiers are always either bound to pronominal or nominal possessors and they function to determine the nature of possession rather than to classify it (Osumi, 1995, p. 49). In Tîrî, unlike other languages, any noun can occur with a possessive classifier. They consist of the following: ''e-,'' ''ere-'', ''hwee-'', ''odho-'', ''hwiie-'', ''êê-'' and ''hêê-'' (Osumi, 1995, p. 49). In Tîrî, the possessive classifier can be placed before or after the noun possessed, as seen below (Osumi, 1995, p. 149). NP _(possessed) POSS.CLASSIFIER NP _(possessor) OR, POSS.CLASSIFIER NP _(possessor) NP _(possessed) Examples of the possessive classifier in between two NPs: Examples of the possessive classifier preceding two NPs:

Inalienable possession

Nouns that occur with inalienable possession are generally ones whose referents have no independent existence but are related to an entity (Osumi, 1995, p. 152). In Tiri, inalienable possession is the

juxtaposition Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two opposing elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to Comparison, compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc. Speech Juxtaposition in literary ...

of two nouns in the following structure: NP _(possessed) – NP _(possessor) (Osumi, 1995, p. 152).

= Bound-form nouns

= There are two types of bound-form nouns, bound nouns and link nouns. This class is inalienable as that the referents of the nouns are possessed in some inextricable way, for example, kinship and body parts. In most cases, the possessor has no control over the possession.

Bound nouns

Bound nouns are those that either has possessive

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

es or are bound to a nominal possessor (Osumi, 1995, p. 59). They include nouns referring to kinship, body or plants or other inanimate parts, secretions or of the body or plant, personal attributes or properties and the effects or origins of human affairs (Osumi, 1995, p. 153). They can also be bound to another

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

either noun or

verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...

, in compound constructions (Osumi, 1995, p. 59). For example of ''afiraa'' 'wife', where it is bound to the

third person singular In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically, the distinction is between the speaker ( first person), the addressee ( second person), and others ( third pe ...

possessive ''nrî'': ''An example of the body part mouth with the first person singular rò:''

Link nouns

Link nouns referents belong to similar categories of bound nouns such as kinship and body or plants or other inanimate parts. They are obligatorily linked to a pronoun or head of a pronominal phrase, where the possessive relationship is demonstrated by a link morpheme ''-nrâ-'' (Osumi, 1995, p. 62)''.'' The construction has this following form: NP _(possessed) – nrâ _(link) – NP _(possessor) (Osumi, 1995, p. 154). When the possessor is the first person singular, the link morpheme ''-nrâ-'' is often omitted as seen below. ''-nrâ-'' is also identical in form to the general possessive prepositions. Therefore, link nouns are alike to free common nouns that are followed by the possessive ''nrâ.'' Both constructions are difficult to differentiate, the link nouns depict inalienable possession and cannot be separated from their possessor by an element (Osumi, 1995, p. 154). This subclass of nouns includes some from the words in the following list. There can also be morphological complex link nouns, which involve a bound noun or a location noun in the first position, with the link noun in the second (Osumi, 1995, p. 64). Although the examples represented are not comprehensive for both bound and link nouns, they show that there is no structural distinction between the two subclasses. Analysis of a Tîrî

corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

by Midori Osumi (1995, p. 65) found that there were thirty-three bound nouns referring to external body parts compared to only five link nouns. This indicates that there are semantic differences between subclasses. For example, among the five link nouns is ''ao-'' ‘cheek’ is the only one that refers to external human body parts while others refer to external animal and insect parts (Osumi, 1995, p. 65). This shows that all external human body parts are bound nouns, except for ''ao-'' in Tîrî (Osumi, 1995, p. 65).

References

*Osumi, M. (1995). ''Tinrin Grammar''. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiri language New Caledonian languages Languages of New Caledonia Definitely endangered languages