Re: English 2sg/pl
| From: | Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, May 6, 2003, 18:00 |
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>There's a Gordon Dickson novel in which the aliens exist in groups of
>three, and have separate pronouns for individual, triple, and
>larger groups.
There are some Austronesian languages which have pronouns for individual,
dual, triple, quadruple, quintuple and larger.
>The English translation of the alien lang uses -self pronouns for the
>triples, leading to lines of dialogue like "No, it is myself who is
>under complaint of yourself."
>
>The only online reference to this book is confused, and thinks it's the
>Union Club Mysteries by Asimov: it isn't.
Drat. My books are all packed, but I have that one - I remember reading it -
but the title escapes me.
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