Pronoun construction

Notably, pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa can all be easily can be divided into specific morphological components. For example, the second person nonsingular dual pronoun akorua (see below) is formed by combining the personal article prefix a-, the nonsingular, second person, pronominal focus infix –ko- and the dual suffix –(r)ua. (Dougherty, 1983)

The only exception to this are interrogative pronouns, whose morphological construction is more complex and variable.

Personal pronouns

Personal Pronouns are not obligatory in Futuna-Aniwa and may be omitted where context allows, as evident in example 1.

Possessive pronouns

Pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa can be used to indicate inalienable possession, exclusively for singular persons. These appear immediately before an inalienable head noun. (Dougherty, 1983)

There is also an equivalent “paradigm of personal pronoun suffixes” (Dougherty, 1983, p. 33) that occur in possessive constructions, suffixing onto nouns to indicate possession. Note that example (3) below can also be expressed using the above equivalent inalienable possessive pronouns.

Interrogative pronouns

There are 14 different interrogative pronoun forms in Futuna-Aniwa. Minimally, Futuna-Aniwa distinguishes between singular and nonsingular in all interrogative pronoun constructions. (Dougherty, 1983) Nonsingular interrogative pronouns appear in dual, trial and plural positions. (Capell, 1984)

Emphatic pronouns

Emphatic pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa are used to indicate that the designated referent in a clause is the only referent being referred to. (Dougherty, 1983)

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns in Futuna-Aniwa distinguish three positions: position near speaker, position near addressee and distant position. They are in essence a grouping of the base demonstrative form and the Futuna-Aniwa article system (Dougherty, 1983). This is further explained in the Demonstratives section below.

Pronominal clitics

Within certain constructions in Futuna-Aniwa pronominal clitics occur alongside pronouns. Pronominal clitics only occur with singular persons and serve the role of cross referencing the subject of a verb. The pronominal clitic is typically suffixed onto tense or aspect markers, negatives in preverbal position or the infinitive (Dougherty, 1983).

Pronominal clitics primarily occur within transitive constructions in Futuna-Aniwa, although not exclusively (Dougherty, 1983). This is evident through comparing example (8) (a transitive construction) with example (9) (an intransitive construction) below. The pronominal clitic is not present in (9), but is suffixed onto the preverbal negative particle in (8).

Note: In (8), the first personal singular was omitted from the original example. It has been included for clarity.

Articles

Demonstratives in Futuna-Aniwa are closely connected to the article system, as noted above in the Pronouns section. Most uses of the demonstratives in the language follow an article, typically used as optional clarifiers for the articles. While articles in Futuna-Aniwa typically go before the noun they modify, articles can also occur after that noun so they occur before a demonstrative. In this way, Futuna-Aniwa's demonstratives follow the nouns they modify, as is typical of most Austronesian languages, particularly in the Vanuatu region, according to the World Atlas of Language Structures.

As the specific articles of the language distinguish by number, we can pair these articles and demonstratives together to give us the following table, as noted in the Pronouns section:

In the above table, the sounds written correspond to the phonology of Futuna. In Aniwa, the singular would be ce nei, ce na, and ce ra respectively. The singular article in the above table could also be replaced with the singular diminutive ji article, changing in meaning from 'this thing' to 'this little thing'. (Dougherty, 1983, p 28)

The article te here is one of the three forms of the definite article. Typically, the definite article is ta, however ti is used for a restricted set of words, typically words beginning with a stressed vowel a. Te is the last form of the article and is typically restricted to a set of words that often, but not always, begins with a vowel. When combined with the article te, this vowel can sometimes be deleted. (Dougherty, 1983, p 22)7

Te can, however, be used as a demonstrative on its own. It is the only article with which this can occur. In this case, te comes after the noun, which is typical of demonstratives but untypical of articles. It’s used in this manner as an emphatic article.

According to Dougherty, pe can also be used in the article position to specify an unmentioned referent. It is often used when making an example, not dissimilar to English like in a phrase like that or like this.

The three key demonstratives can also be used in adjectival phrases, typically after the noun, although occasionally before; it is in these places that they are not bound to the article, whereas usually they would need an article of some kind. (Dougherty, 1983, p 29)

Locative constructions

Demonstratives in Futuna-Aniwa can occur in locative constructions. The constructions use either i, denoting static position, or ki, denoting a motion towards the indicated position, followed by a person marker- either ku first person, or ko non-first person, followed by the relevant demonstrative. In first-person, the demonstrative can be omitted. For example, ikunei indicates a static position, with the first-person marker and the demonstrative indicating near the speaker, meaning ‘here, in this position’; kikora indicates movement (rather than a static position), the non-first person marker, and a distant position, meaning ‘towards there (that distant location)’. In designating position near the speaker, the final element nei is optional. The full table can be found below. (Dougherty, 1983, p. 31)