Demonstrative prepositions in Lamaholot

This paper presents a description and analysis of demonstratives in the Lewotobi dialect of
Lamaholot. There are two major findings in this paper. First, demonstratives in Lamaholot
have basic, nominalized, and adverbial forms. These three forms have different functions in
different syntactic environments: locative adverbial, prepositional, prenominal, verbal,
referential, noun-modifying, and manner adverbial. Second and more importantly,
demonstratives in this language can serve as prepositions. In this function, they can be used
to mark NPs as adjuncts and add deictic spatial meanings to them. This use of
demonstratives is rarely found in other languages and is an important characteristic of this
Austronesian language of eastern Indonesia.