Obviation is a way of marking third-person arguments in a sentence based on discourse, clarifying who does what to who.
Obviation is a tool for managing multiple third-person entities and tracking referents in a narrative or discourse, and can be incorporated in conlanging to highlight central characters or narrative perspectives.
Deep dives
Discourse Events and Announcements
The podcast begins with announcements about upcoming events in April, including a linguistic workshop in Madison and the Language Creations Conference in the UK.
Introduction to Obviation
The hosts introduce the topic of obviation, a way of marking third-person arguments in a sentence based on discourse. They explain that obviation involves marking one argument as proximate and marking all other third-person arguments as obviative. The proximate argument is more prominent in the discourse and delineates the point of view or the most important character at any given moment.
Mechanics and Features of Obviation
The hosts discuss the mechanics and features of obviation, including the use of proximate and obviative third-person pronouns, the marking of obviation on verbs and nouns, and the order of noun phrases in relation to obviation. They also mention that possessed nouns with a third-person possessor cannot be proximate, and they note the role of direct-inverse systems in relation to obviation.
Obviation and Discourse Management
The hosts highlight the connection between obviation and discourse management. They explain that obviation is a tool for managing multiple third-person entities and tracking referents in a narrative or discourse. They suggest that conlangers can incorporate obviation as a way to navigate discourse and highlight the central characters or narrative perspectives in their languages.
Support Conlangery on Patreon! Announcements: David Salo talking at WiGL on April 11, in Madison, WI, USA The Sixth Language Creation Conference will be on April 25-26 in Horsham, UK Bianca joins us today for an episode on obviation, just another option for managing discourse while clarifying who does what to who. Also, we have... Read more »
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