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obviative (AHB-vee-ay-tiv) - n., (linguistics) a grammatical marker that distinguishes a non-salient referent from a salient one. adj., relating to such a referent or marker.
The salient referent is marked as being proximate, per the jargon. This is not a common grammatical feature (it's best known from Algonquian languages), but is useful in distinguishing ambiguous pronouns in phrases like "she saw her mother" -- is that her own mother or another she's mother? (Yes, in English, we can clarify this somewhat with the clunky workaround "she saw her own mother," but work with me here.) In languages with proximate-obviate distinctions, this is clear -- and furthermore it's clear whether the person of importance in the discussion saw someone else's mother or that someone else saw the person of importance's mother. Coined from obviate, to anticipate and prevent (something, such as a situation) or make (an action) unnecessary, from Latin obviāre, to block/hinder -- which makes it an interesting complete reversal of meaning.
---L.
The salient referent is marked as being proximate, per the jargon. This is not a common grammatical feature (it's best known from Algonquian languages), but is useful in distinguishing ambiguous pronouns in phrases like "she saw her mother" -- is that her own mother or another she's mother? (Yes, in English, we can clarify this somewhat with the clunky workaround "she saw her own mother," but work with me here.) In languages with proximate-obviate distinctions, this is clear -- and furthermore it's clear whether the person of importance in the discussion saw someone else's mother or that someone else saw the person of importance's mother. Coined from obviate, to anticipate and prevent (something, such as a situation) or make (an action) unnecessary, from Latin obviāre, to block/hinder -- which makes it an interesting complete reversal of meaning.
---L.
