L’espace déictique dans la langue mwan

Abstract

The article deals with a rather complicated system of demonstratives in Mwan (South Mande). The research was based on the experimental data obtained while using the methodology elaborated by de Max Planck Research group of Cognitive linguistics. Morphological, syntactic and functional proprieties of the Mwan demonstratives are analysed. It is shown that the Mwan system of demonstratives consists of five elements which can be: 1) Speaker, Adressee or Third Person anchored; 2) within or out of sight of Speaker or Adressee; 3) in or out of contact with Speaker’s body.

Keywords

• System of Demonstratives
• Deixis
• Mwan
• Word Classes