Abstract

Algonquian languages mark discourse topicality on nouns and verbs by means of obviation morphology: the proximate marks topical participants, while the obviative marks nontopical participants. In Blackfoot, portmanteau obviation morphemes express a combination of pragmatic and semantic distinctions, including illocution, referentiality, topicality, animacy, person and number. An analysis of the proximate as the expression of grammaticalized topic within the framework of functional discourse grammar accounts for the distribution of proximates and obviatives in a narrative text.

In possessive constructions, the possessor may be proximate or obviative, while the possessed must be obviative. This restriction is explained in terms of a hierarchy alignment requirement that forbids constructions in which nonalignment is not morphologically marked.

Proximate assignment to a new entity is called a proximate shift; it signals the beginning of a new topic chain. Certain complement clauses do not allow proximate shifts: in such clauses, the proximate entity must be coreferential with the proximate entity of the matrix clause. This restriction is accounted for by assuming that such clauses do not constitute independent discourse acts. They share a pragmatic and deictic center with their matrix clause, and therefore do not allow independent topic assignment, resulting in obligatory coreferentiality of matrix and complement clause topic.