Substitution

This chapter is concerned primarily with anaphora and deixis in Worrorra, involving the substitution of a set of replacement forms for other expressions. The expressions usually substituted for in Worrorra are noun phrases and sentences, the replacement forms comprising a lexical category of pronouns, including demonstrative pronouns.

Worrorra pronouns and demonstratives make primary reference to the substantive person, number and gender categories or agreement classes whose tokens, as inflexional (§5.3.1) and derivational (§6.1) NP indices, have already been encountered. The grammar treats sentences and sentential complements of all sorts as if they were celestial, or occasionally terrestrial nouns (§4.1.3 (iii)). While these person-and-number categories are evidenced widely in the morphology, this chapter is concerned primarily with their manifestation as lexical words.

Because of the small number of Worrorra speakers, I have not been able to observe much of the indexical use of person-and-number categories, that may have pertained between different classes of kin, between different age groups, between men and women, or in various social circumstances and ritual contexts. The material presented in this chapter, therefore, suffers from that deficiency. One observation, however, may be noted here, and that has to do with a function that I will refer to as diffuse reference.

Diffuse reference is found in euphemistic constructions used in referring to socially or physically dangerous things. Such reference is signalled by the use of the third person plural category, especially in situations where other categories could be expected. The use of the non-participant third person category precludes dangerous things from being represented in the speech event itself, that is to say, third person reference enables people to undertake a speech act while yet excluding unwanted things from participating in the act.