Re: Person distinctions in languages?

>From: Steven Williams <feurieaux@...>
>
>Are there any languages that break the pattern of
>first-second-third-(fourth) person? I'm trying to
>model a system that doesn't use such distinctions, but
>I can't figure out how to make it coherent or
>intelligible without perhaps a model to base it on.
There are, of course, a number of languages which are more concerned with
the _relative_ position of a noun phrase on that heirarchy than the actual
position, but they still distinguish person after a fashion.  I'm pretty
sure (95%+) that a 1st-2nd-3rd person distinction is universal in natlangs.

Of course, where you make that distinction can vary a lot.  Many languages
make it only in pronouns (or their equivilant:  I'm of the school of thought
that Japanese doesn't have pronouns), and make entirely different
distinctions of verbs.  That's probably what you're looking for.
Animacy/gender/class, plurality alone, relative importance,
proximacy/obviation, definity*, deixis, whether the noun phrase is overt or
dropped, and where the noun phrase falls in the sentance are all things I've
seen or heard of being marked on the verb in natlangs, although many of
those only occur within a personal inflection structure.

ObConlang:  Þewthaj marks person on the noun, not the verb, and only when
it's an argument of the verb.  It's the normal 1-2-3 person distinction,
though, if with an inclusive/exclusive distinction**.

Athey

*I like this word.  A lot.

**In the first person plural, of course.  I've seen this somewhere in the
second person plural, but I don't remember where.  I don't even remember if
it was a natlang or a conlang, although I'm mostly sure it was the former.
Can anyone help me with that?

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