Chapter 7

Egophoricity in Mangghuer

Egophoricity in Mangghuer is a binary distinction expressed in finite verbal morphology and the system of copulas. In declarative contexts, egophoric forms are used with first person subjects (or predicate nominals containing first person possessors) if the subject is perceived to be in control of the action or state; non-egophoric forms are used elsewhere. In interrogative contexts, egophoric forms are used with second person subjects, while non-egophoric forms are used with non-second person subjects. Previous work on Mangghuer has reported on uses of the egophoric distinction that do not conform to this pattern expressing things such as degree of speaker certainty, mirativity, and lack of control. This paper explores further complexities in pragmatic uses of egophoric marking. Of particular interest are situations in which the pragmatically neutral use of speaker perspective is contrary to the basic pattern and situations in which the non-basic use of the speaker perspective has multiple possible meanings. In these situations, the discourse context must be taken into account to correctly interpret the pragmatic function of the egophoric marking. This paper concludes that the common thread underlying the uses of egophoric forms is the degree of “involvement in the event being reported, or in the reporting activity itself” (Slater 2003a: 194–220). While a strictly objective rubric for determining speaker involvement is elusive, this paper examines the use of egophoric marking in a broad range of pragmatic contexts and confirms that egophoric forms consistently indicate a higher degree of speaker involvement while non-egophoric forms indicate a lower degree of speaker involvement.