Function of the independent personal pronouns in Lakota (Language)

This paper treats the two Lakota independent personal pronoun sets. Although morphologically simple, the definition of the usage of these pronouns and the choice of the particular set is quite involved. The factors involved seem to be partly distributional and partly semantic. The 3rd person set is more complex in its usage than the 1st and 2nd person set, partly because 3rd person can be morphologically unmarked in Lakota. One set can occur in company with a coreferent noun and is in a sense "deletable". The other set is less easily deletable and often constitutes a core element of the sentence.