The study of hierarchical argument indexation systems shows that
while the ranking of both 1st and 2nd person over other arguments is
robust and reliable, it is impossible to find any compelling
crosslinguistic evidence for one or the other ranking of the two
Speech Act Participants, and rare to find a consistent ranking even
within a single language. This paper assembles and reviews
historical changes in the indexation of the “local” categories (1→2
and 2→1) in a number of Tibeto-Burman languages. We see that the
fundamental deictic ranking SAP > 3 is conservative, and inverse
marking to emphasize that ranking has been reinvented several times
in the family. Changes in the marking of local categories are more
diverse, but two phenomena recur independently in different
languages and branches: a tendency for the 1→2 form to be uniquely
marked, sometimes with forms which are not synchronically relatable
to anything else in the paradigm, and a contrasting tendency for the
2→1 form to merge with the marking of 3→1. I propose that these
tendencies reflect what I call sociopragmatic effects, i.e.
the socially delicate nature of any and all natural utterances
involving both the speaker and the addressee.
Article outline
1.Introduction
2.Problems of hierarchy
2.1The structure of hierarchical paradigms
2.2Problems of local indexation
2.3Accounts of hierarchy
2.4Sociopragmatic effects in Tibeto-Burman morphological
change
3.Deictic effects in hierarchical systems
3.1The original inverse in Rgyalrongic
3.2Innovative inverses in Northern Naga
4.Sociopragmatic effects in hierarchical indexation systems
4.1Merger of 1O forms in Kiranti
4.2The “marked scenario”
5.Deictic and sociopragmatic effects
5.1Reviewing the evidence
5.2Typology, genre, and person
5.3Patterns
5.4
Sociopragmatic just-so stories: It’s always about you
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