Author Topic: Second person (Read 1922 times)

rivka · « **on:** July 03, 2005, 10:27:29 AM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2005, 10:36:25 AM »

There's so much unnecessary confusion about persons. In school they make you think that they're just writing styles, but they never teach you what the second person is. They never tell you that it's the pronouns themselves that matter and not who the author is addressing.

Oh, and that article was a little bit off in one regard: they say that some languages have more than three persons, but then they link to a page about Ojibwe, which apparently has just three persons. It simply has an inclusive and an exclusive we, which are still both first-person pronouns.

rivka · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2005, 11:10:37 AM »

I wondered about that. It does seem to have more other things (like interesting genders), but I also only counted three persons.

And there are languages with more than three, aren't there? Isn't there at least one language (I have no memory of which) that has different constructions for third-person-present and third-person-not-present (them, right here v. them, over there)?

scottneb · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2005, 02:29:08 PM »

You're so smart Jon.

Jonathon · « **Reply #4 on:** July 03, 2005, 02:52:33 PM »

Rivka: Yes. I don't remember exactly which languages, but there are some with two different third persons (depending on whether the person is close by or not, like you said) and some with a genuine fourth person, though I believe those are rare.

Scott: Thanks.

scottneb · « **Reply #5 on:** July 03, 2005, 04:06:57 PM »

I do what I can.