Deixis

Deixis

"Deixis" is defined by the SIL linguistics glossary as a "reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the (usually) extralinguistic context of the utterance, such as who is speaking, the time or place of speaking, the gestures of the speaker, or the current location in the discourse." The default deixis of Asha'ille is not unusual. The speaker is the center, the one who uses -(e)ni self; the time is the present.

However, when telling a story it is very common for the deixis to be shifted for convenience. Typically, the main character of a story becomes the center of the personal network and all others become relative to that character. (This means that relationships for personal conjugations or pronouns are relative to this new center.) To mark the change in deixis, any or all of the following may be employed:

ayana

changes subjects used in the story

neyane

changes objects used in the story

keyanu

changes time of the story

The basic pattern for usage is:

   ayana ne <ring> jho <person> [, te ne <ring> jho <person>
   neyane ne <object> [, te ne <object>
   keyanu ne <time>

Ayana shifts who belongs to each ring relative to the self en̤i, which can also be redefined via ayana. Keyanu shifts the time frame of the story, to which all others times are relative.

Neyane defines special, "temporary" pronouns that are much like outer-ring empath pronouns. For each object listed after neyane, the pronoun no, it, plus a numbered suffix is defined to refer to that object. So, for example, if a story began with:

Neyane ne chîlsan, te ne fo feilán.

then nosa would refer to chîlsan, girl, and noda would refer to fo feilán, red house. These temporary pronouns can be used anywhere one would use the full phrases the pronouns describe, excepting verbal conjugations. To be the subject of a verb, these pronouns fill the subject slot as normal, and no person conjugation is marked on the verb itself.

Deixis shift is "cancelled" by yanú, which means end of story or the end.