Different sources, same path—from addressee-based deictics to markers of discourse status

Saliba-Logea, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea, has two types of spatial deictics: directionals and demonstratives, which both make a spatial distinction between speech act participants. The directional suffixes express orientation towards the speaker or the addressee; the demonstratives make a three-way distinction between speaker-proximal, addressee-proximal, and distal reference. This chapter describes the grammaticalization of the addressee-based elements of these two deictic form classes. The addressee-based directional and the addressee-proximal demonstrative show strikingly parallel developments towards markers indicating the discourse status of constituents. This brings further evidence to the fact that the semantics of the source element may be as indicative of a grammaticalization path as the form class to which it belongs.