THE SPATIAL FUNCTION OF DEMONSTRATIVES IN SIDAAMA

This paper examines the spatial function of demonstratives in Sidaama, a Highland East Cushitic (HEC) language spoken in southern Ethiopia. Spatial deictics are a general term for grammatical elements that indicate various spatial relationships, including distance relative to the deictic center. In Sidaama, distance is expressed through adnominal demonstratives, pronominal demonstratives, and presentatives. Adnominal demonstratives show a four-way distance distinction (proximal, medial, mesiodistal, and distal) and are inflected only for gender. They always modify their heads and are thus dependent. Pronominal demonstratives also feature a four-way distance distinction. Unlike adnominals, they are inflected for all nominal features, including gender, number, and case. Pronominals can modify a head noun or serve as a head by replacing a noun in a clause argument position. The proximal adnominals ko ‛this’ (m) and te ‛this’ (f), along with the demonstrative roots k and t, have become grammaticalized as different grammatical elements. Like other demonstratives, presentatives also display a four-way distance distinction. However, presentatives differ from pronominals because they are rarely inflected for nominal features, with case being the only exception, and even this is limited to the nominative case.