The pragmatics of addressee-based Hausa demonstratives

Abstract

In this paper, I describe the pragmatic coding of addressee-deictics in Hausa. This flows from the framework proposed in Buba (1997a). I shall provide further evidence that the two-term (speaker-proximal vs. speaker-distal) system used to describe most European languages cannot fully account for the Hausa demonstratives. I shall also be claiming that the post-head -n/-r nan (≠pre-head wànnan ) demonstrative is the default strategy where the speaker wishes to indicate to the addressee that the reference object is mutually known to both of them prior to the encoding. A simple frequency count of textual occurrences is employed to provide supporting evidence for the unmarked status of the post-head -n/-r nan demonstrative strategy.