Demonstrative pronouns in Assamese

Demonstrative pronouns are placed under the category of central pronoun in Assamese a Neo-Indo Aryan language used in India. They are resultant from a derivational process and are derived by suffixation of a set of plural markers or classifiers to the demonstrative particles- ei ‘this’, ħei ‘that’ and ħɔʊ ‘that’ encoding proximal, distal and far distal differences respectively. The semantic differences of animacy and humanness reflected in the demonstrative pronouns emanate from the specific classifiers and plural markers suffixed to them. There is a set of unique form of demonstrative pronouns, which are derived by the suffixation of the bound morphemes -ja and -wa to the demonstrative particles ei, ħei and ħɔʊ. The methodology adopted for the study are the set of questionnaires followed by interview and the analysis of both primary and secondary data collected. The study describes the demonstrative pronouns with its complexity and unique features in Assamese and put emphasis on the morphological, syntactic and semantic properties. The study reveals that demonstrative pronouns play important role in the language. The term pronoun is used in the sense of the nominal expression and the substitution in the nominal slot only.