Re: Fourth Person

Christopher Palmer wrote:

> On Sun, 4 Oct 1998, Frank George Valoczy wrote:
>
> > 3p = anyone else who is present
> > 4p = anyone else who is not present
>
> 'Presence', like 'animacy' or any other semantic feature, relates only
> arbitrarily to 'person-ness' (function as a speaker/hearer in the
> discourse).
But presence is the means by which we define what kind of person it
is.  Personness is, after all, only a matter of deixis:  just like you can have
more than two or three levels of physical deixis (this, that, yonder, etc.)
you can have more than three of personal deixis (I, you, it, one, etc.).
As you move further away from the identity of speaker and person
being spoken of (first person), you can have any number of others.
In practice this would only work with integers, but there's still no
reason why there should not be some sort of metaphysical infinitely
far personal deixis.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"Ille se profecisse sciat cui Cicero valde placebit."
   - poster found on professor's door.
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