About persons
| From: | Tuomo Sipola <tuomosipola@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, May 22, 2001, 11:49 |
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About persons
Singulars are easy.
We all know that 'I' refers to the speaker.
We also know that 'you' refers to the listener
and that 'he' refers to someone out of the conversation.
But for the plural part I have following thoughts:
Inclusive 'we' refers to the speaker and the listener.
Exclusive 'we' refers to a group of speakers.
Thus plural 'you' refers to a group of listeners.
This form would be inclusive.
And then 'they' has to be exclusive 'you'? It excludes
the listener just like the exclusive speaker.
And you can always stick dual into this...
How should these persons be numbered? Is there some standard
for exclusive and inclusive 'we'?
You know, I - 1st singular, he 3rd singular, they 3rd plural etc.
Just some thoughts.
-Tuomo Sipola
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