Can "ĉi" be used as a postposition?

Question

One can say "ĉi tiel", or "tiel ĉi".

It's also common to use "ĉi" on its own, mentioned in this PMEG page and also on the PIV entry for "ĉi". An example of this appearing on both pages is "ĉi ne estas akvo".

I'm looking at the PIV entry for "ĉi", and I see this:

Rim. «pro belsoneco ordinare estas preferinde starigi la ĉi antaŭ la montra vorto» (Z.).

"montra vorto" here is not specified as being a table word, though maybe that's what montra vorto refers to and I'm unaware.

But doesn't this mean ĉi could potentially appear after a non-table word as a postposition, perhaps in poetry since it would likely sound odd and perhaps be confusing in everyday speech?

An example might be:

Mi ŝatas la domon ĉi!

Which might mean either: Mi ŝatas ĉi domon or Mi ŝatas la domon ĉi tie.

Mia frato estas la viro ĉi.

Again, this could be: Mia frato estas ĉi viro or Mia frato estas la viro ĉi tie.

These examples carry some ambiguity, but in poetry that can be desirable, and it's not always a problem in day to day conversation, either. To me both statements seem easily clarified by context. So, is this possible? Is there any precedent for this?

Answer 1

One thing we can say for sure is what vorto montra means. The Ekzercaro de la Fundamento de Esperanto also mentions vortojn montrajn.

Se ni aldonas la literon “t”, ni ricevas vortojn montrajn: tia, tial, tiam, tie, tiel, ties, tio, tiom, tiu. [...] Aldonante al la vortoj montraj la vorton “ĉi”, ni ricevas montron pli proksiman

For several reasons, you'll never see ĉi by itself after a word. The biggest reason is hinted at in the PMEG article you referenced.

En tia uzo ĉi transprenis la rolon de tiu(j), kaj fariĝis mem difinilo.

We discussed the concept of difinilo in NASK this summer and Bertilo confirmed my understanding of the matter, which is that difiniloj (such as la, tiu, and in this case ĉi) always come before the word they're making definite. When a word that usually acts like a difinilo is moved to a different position, we no longer sense the expression as definite.

• mia amiko = my friend (the specific friend)
• amiko mia = a friend of mine

Not every speaker makes this distinction, but it happens because mia is a difinilo and every other difinilo in the language comes before the rest of the noun phrase.

I also checked Tekstaro and found 100 sentences that end with ĉi -- every one of them was with a form of ĉio or a ti-correlative.

As for sentences like Mi ŝatas la domon ĉi! these are really exceptions found in poetry or old texts - and as explained in PIV and PMEG ĉi in this case means ĉi tie and never ĉi tiu.