‘Restricted group’ and ‘group’ within the pronominal system of Western Toba (Guaicuruan, Argentina)

What is it about?

In Western Toba, person-number distinctions are encoded in independent pronouns, verbal pronominal indexes, and possessor affixes on nouns. In this paper, first-person nonsingular independent pronouns and verbal pronominal indexes, and third-person verbal pronominal indexes are analyzed. It is in these pronominal categories where a split between ‘restricted group’ and ‘group’ has been observed. It is demonstrated that, instead of a distinction in terms of clusivity, first-person nonsingular encoding is sensitive to the restricted or unrestricted number of participants, plus the speaker, involved in the situation depicted by the verbs. In addition, horizontal homophony between third-person singular and collective (‘group’) vs. plural (‘restricted group’) verbal pronominal indexes is shown.

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Why is it important?

This paper suggests the relevance of future comparative research about the incidence of number within the pronominal systems of the languages from the South American Gran Chaco region.