Re: Fourth Person
| From: | Sylvia Sotomayor <sylvia1@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, October 4, 1998, 23:24 |
|---|
At 01:36 PM 10/4/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I've been wondering about something recently: is it possible for languages
>to have a fourth person? I heard that some native American language
somewhere
>like in New York State or something had one (Haida?), but don't remember the
>details. In any event, I wonder whether that would be something
equivalent to
>the use of "one" in English or "man" in German.
>
I remember reading about fourth person somewhere. The explanation is
generally that 4th person refers to a different 3rd person in a sentence.
According to Foley and Van Valin (Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar,
Cambridge Linguistics Series, 1984), the classical example of fourth person
comes from the Algonquian languages. Here there are two forms of third
person, the proximate (which is obligatory) and the obviate (or the fourth
person).
Example:
pimohte-w napew-0
walk-3prox man-prox
vs.
wapam-e-w napew-0 atim-wa
see-suffix-3prox man-prox dog-obv
It's so good to have reference books!
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
http://pw2.netcom.com/~sylvia1/