This paper provides a grammatical commentary on a small aspect of a text: the deictic and non-deictic senses of kin terms. There are two ways to say 'mother' in Newari: maa and maa:;mh. The second is used to forestall the inference that the speaker is referring to his or her own mother. The first form has both a deictic and non-deictic sense. In the deictic sense, maa could be glossed 'my mother' in many contexts. If the deictic form is seen as the default, the author questions what devices are used in Newari to override this default and among these devices, what is the role of -mho?
