Re: THEORY: The fourth person

Danny Wier wrote:

>From: "Jean-François Colson" <fa597525@...>
>
>
>
>>From: "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>>Lots of languages have something like it.  I can't actually speak
>>>to how they work in Athapaskan languages, but in Algonquian languages,
>>>there are specific verb forms for an unspecified and generic entity
>>>(noted as "X").
>>>
>>>
>>Is that somewhat similar to the French pronoun "on", the German "man", the
>>Dutch "men", etc.?
>>
>>
>
>I don't think so in the case of French; don't know about German or Dutch.
>The French pronoun _on_ corresponds to third person masculine singular; the
>verb is not conjugated any differently than if the subject was an _il_ or
>_elle_. But I could be wrong. French verb grammar behaves as though it wants
>to be an Amerind language. (Or should I say, French is essentially a Romance
>language with Algonquian verb grammar?)
>
>
>

No, I don't think so.  French 'on' corresponds to the unspecific 'you'
in English.  As in 'you can do X here'.  Well, as well as 'we'.

Reply