The fourth person in Teop

Ulrike Mosel (Christian-Albrecht University, Kiel)

Teop syntax defies a description in terms of the categories S, A, and O:

1. An exceptionally high number of di-transitive verbs and productive means of deriving di-transitive verb complexes does not allow to marginalise di-transitivity.

2. In addition to the three categories of subject, primary object and secondary object, the pragmatic relation of topic figures as an independent grammaticalised category so that not only subjects, but also primary and secondary objects can function as topics.

3. The category of person (speech act participants vs. other participants) plays a significant role in Teop argument structure as shown by the rules of object marking and the inflection of the imperfective aspect marker.

The constituent order is. TOPIC - VERB COMPLEX - OTHER ARGUMENTS; the order of non-topical arguments follows the hierarchy subject < primary object < secondary object.The other means of expression are two case marking articles (the basic article and the object article) and two kinds of cross-referencing particles (the object marker and the imperfective aspect marker). The selection of either the basic or the object article is determined by the following rule:

1. Topical and non-topical Subjects take the basic article.

2. Topical objects take the basic article.

3. Non-topical primary objects take the basic article if the subject refers to a speech act participant, but the object article if the subject refers to a third participant.

4. Non-topical secondary objects only take the basic article, if both the subject and the primary object refer to speech act participants.

In accordance with this article selection rule, Teop has two pronouns that refer to participants other than the speech act participants: the 3 ^rd person and the 4 ^th person pronoun. Transitive clauses only differ from di-transitive ones in lacking the secondary object. Thus there are three types of transitive and di-transitive clauses.

This differential object marking (3 ^rd vs. 4 ^th person and basic article vs object article) cannot be explained in terms of grammatical relations, but reflects the different kinds of relationships that can hold between the speaker and the participants of the reported event. If he/she speaks about him/herself and/or the hearer and one additional participant, the additional participant is expressed by 3 ^rd pers. pronoun or basic NP, but when speaks about a third and a fourth participant or even a third, forth and fifth participant as in III, the forth and fifth participant are expressed by the 4 ^th pers. pronoun or an NP marked by the object article.