13. Pro-sumti and pro-bridi cancelling

   da'o    DAhO        cancel all pro-sumti/pro-bridi

Personal pro-sumti are stable until there is a change of speaker or listener, possibly signaled by a vocative. Assignable pro-sumti and pro-bridi last indefinitely or until rebound with ``goi'' or ``cei''. Bound variable pro-sumti and pro-bridi also generally last until re-bound; details are available in Chapter 16.

Utterance pro-sumti are stable only within the utterance in which they appear; similarly, reflexive pro-sumti are stable only within the bridi in which they appear; and ``ke'a'' is stable only within its relative clause. Anaphoric pro-sumti and pro-bridi are stable only within narrow limits depending on the rules for the particular cmavo.

Demonstrative pro-sumti, indefinite pro-sumti and pro-bridi, and sumti and bridi questions potentially change referents every time they are used.

However, there are ways to cancel all pro-sumti and pro-bridi, so that none of them have known referents. (Some, such as ``mi'', will acquire the same referent as soon as they are used again after the cancellation.) The simplest way to cancel everything is with the cmavo ``da'o'' of selma'o DAhO, which is used solely for this purpose; it may appear anywhere, and has no effect on the grammar of texts containing it. One use of ``da'o'' is when entering a conversation, to indicate that one's pro-sumti assignments have nothing to do with any assignments already made by other participants in the conversation.

In addition, the cmavo ``ni'o'' and ``no'i'' of selma'o NIhO, which are used primarily to indicate shifts in topic, may also have the effect of canceling pro-sumti and pro-bridi assignments, or of reinstating ones formerly in effect. More explanations of NIhO can be found in Chapter 19.