Cleaning up human/animate referents with inanimate demonstratives

[fmatter]

Problematic cases:

Akawaio

(ps-duck-story-061) Akawaio (Caesar-Fox 2003)

a.. kïrö ning mïgï mörö mai'kwak manengbazai'ya mörö  
a     kïrö     ning  mïgï  **mörö** **mai'kwak** manengba-zak-i-ya     mörö 
ah    3Sg.Anim Emph  Hes   that     duck         make.angry-Perf-3-Erg A.I.?  
Prtcl Pro      Prtcl Prtcl Dem      N            Vt                    ?    
‘She had already made the duck angry’

(ra-kone-o-story-022) Akawaio (Caesar-Fox 2003)

möra'tai ji mïgï mörö kaiguji ya ji omba'pï gia'nö be imbö sa'ne ji öp.. öp.. haing... za  
möra'tai     ji    mïgï  **mörö** **kaiguji** ya  ji    omba-'pï   gia'nö pe   imbö      sa'ne ji    öp      öp      haing sa'ne
at.that.time Emph  Hes   that     jaguar      Erg Emph  taste-Past tasty  like soury.nut Emph  Emph  surpise surpise drama Emph   
Pro          Prtcl Prtcl Dem      N           P   Prtcl Vt         N      P    N         Prtcl Prtcl SW      SW      SW    Prtcl
‘Then the tiger tasted the imbö nuts and they were very sweet’

(ra-personal-narrative-137) Akawaio (Caesar-Fox 2003)

mörö ning wiik e'tane egamauya mörö mörö yago're  
mörö ning  wiik  e'tane  egama-u-ya mörö  **mörö** **yago're**   
that Emph  while however tell-1-Erg A.I.? that     brother.in.law  
Dem  Prtcl Pro   Prtcl   Vt         ?     Dem      N             
‘However, while this is so, I am telling you about yago're’

(ra-personal-narrative-263) Akawaio (Caesar-Fox 2003)

möröwenai mörö ji köik amök go'mangbödï'pï sa'ne ji prarö ji tauya mö se au ji zemo'kazak ke  
mörö wenai   **mörö** ji    **köik** amök  ko'mamï-bödï-'pï sa'ne ji    bra-rö   y-eji ta-u-ya   mörö serö yau ji    semo'ka-zak  ke   
that because that     Emph  old.man  Pl    live-Iter-Past   Emph  Emph  Neg-Emph 3-be  say-1-Erg that this Loc Emph  grow.up-Perf Instr  
Dem  P       Dem      Prtcl N        Prtcl Vi               Prtcl Prtcl Prtcl    Vi    Vt        Dem  Pro  P   Prtcl Vi           P    
‘That is why I say that the old customs of the old men is non existent, because I grew up here’

Ye'kwana

(convchur-009-1) Ye’kwana (Cáceres Arandia 2021)

aneija mödöje yadanawi chü'tajötüdü na, yadanawi mödöjemmödö  
aneija mödöje yadanawi    i-tü'tajötü-dü      na    **yadanawi** mödöje **mödö**
otro   así    no_indígena INTR.C-pensar-NZR.1 3.COP no_indígena  así    DEM2in    
n      ad     n           n                   v.i.a n            ad     pro     
‘otros criollos piensan así, el criollo es así’

[fmatter]

@SpikeGildea

[SpikeGildea]

Yeah, this is a problem and I don't see any other role that mörö could be serving. Perhaps we have sentences that would be rejected upon reflection, or perhaps this is the start of using mörö as a generalized definite article, not specific for inanimate referents. Either way, these are statistically marginal examples. I'd say count them in the DEM+N category, but be aware that they might be removed with further study (but actually, I trust them because they seem to be similar discourse contexts)

[SpikeGildea]

OK, I don't trust this third one as much as the first two, but even there, it could be argued that the mörö+N sequence is associated with some kind of topic shift, or porhaps contrast with another main character/topic of conversation?

[fmatter]

I added two more, check them out.

There were 2-3 false positives (predicate-final mərə in Ye'kwana and Akawaio), not too bad.

[SpikeGildea]

For RA 263, the mörö is probably determining the inanimate 'customs of the old men'.

mörö ji [[köik amök] go'mangbödï'pï]NPinan

[fmatter]

For RA 263, the mörö is probably determining the inanimate 'customs of the old men'.

mörö ji [[köik amök] go'mangbödï'pï]NPinan

🤦 of course. I actually caught one false positive like this.

I left the other problematic cases in, with a remark "animacy mismatch"