Re: THEORY: The fourth person

Thanks everyone for the replies. Guess fourth person (third person
obviative, really) is more common than I thought. American languages get all
the interesting grammars.

From: "Henrik Theiling" <theiling@...>

> Danny Wier <dawiertx@...> writes:
> >...
> > I wonder if there could be such thing as a FIFTH person... maybe in
> > bitransitive verbs, like something translating to "he sent him to him"?
>
> I know a conlang that has it: Fukhian. :-)
>
> The system is as follows: in any subordinate structures (possessed
> nouns or subordinate clauses), the system of persons shifts by two
> persons for the persons mentioned in the matrix clause.  I.e. first
> person matrix clause becomes 3rd person subordinate, second becomes
> 4th and third becomes 5th.  By this, you can express the following
> shades in reporting one of the following situations:
[examples snipped]

After resisting the urge, I decided to include fourth (and maybe fifth)
person distinctions in Tech. Though I have so little grammar worked out, I
have some examples:

bwarg "he fought" (really perfective aspect, i.e. "he has fought me")
bwargm "he fought me"
bwargt_j "he fought thee"
bwargs "he fought him"
bwargt "he fought her"
bwargn "he fought it"
bwargmw "he fought another" (-/N/ in some dialects)

This can be done for nouns, where the same object suffixes indicate
possessors.

k'at' "cat"
k'at'm "my cat"
k'at'@t_j "thy cat"
kat'@s "his cat"
kat'@t "her cat"
kat'n "its cat"
kat'm_w "another's cat"

My next question is: can fourth person apply to subjects, or only objects?

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