15 Focus Pronouns and Answering Questions
Now study the following:
| nətálə. | ‘It is my money.’ |
| nəskʷáʔ nətálə. | ‘It is my money.’ |
| níɬ nətálə. | ‘It is my money. |
| níɬ nəskʷáʔ nətálə. | ‘It is my money.’ |
► 1 Each of the models has basically the same meaning. The difference is a matter of focus. In English we indicate focus by stressing the word. In Klallam focus is indicated by putting the word first in the sentence.
► 2 The first model, nətálə, focuses on ‘money.’ The second model has the emphatic possession (§5.2), nəskʷáʔ nətálə, and focuses on possession itself, ‘my.’
► 3 The third and fourth models begin with the word níɬ, which can be translated ‘it is,’ ‘there are,’ ‘that is,’ ‘those are,’ ‘they are,’ or ‘he or she is.’ A speaker uses níɬ to focus on an item or items around him or her.
The word níɬ is a focus pronoun. níɬ is the focus pronoun corresponding to ‘he/she/it/they.’ There are others corresponding to ‘I,’ ‘you,’ ‘we,’ and ‘you folks.’ Here is the complete set:
| ʔə́c | ‘It is I.’ | ||
| ɬníŋɬ | ‘It is we.’ | ||
| nə́kʷ | ‘It is you.’ | ||
| nə́kʷ hay | ‘It is you folks.’ | ||
| níɬ | ‘It is he/she/it/they.’ |
► 5 The most common use is in questions and in answers to questions.