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Universal 1448:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1448:

Original
In an overwhelming majority of languages, if the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the singular is not the only meaning expressed by some pronominal form, then this form includes among its meanings the metapersons:
(a) ‘hearer’ in the non-singular;
(b) ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’
Standardized
IF the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the singular is not the only meaning expressed by a pronominal form, THEN this form includes among its meanings the metapersons:
a) ‘hearer’ in the non-singular;
b) ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’
Keywords
personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, singular, non-singular, non-participant
Domain
inflection, syntax, lexicon
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
400 world-wide distributed languages, see Sokolovskaja 1980: 98-99; Sokolovskaja surveyed systems of independent personal pronouns only.
Source
Sokolovskaja 1980: 91, U 10
Counterexamples
Aleut (Eskimo-Aleut) (Sokolovskaja 1980)

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Sokolovskaja recognizes the following metapersons:’speaker’, ‘hearer’, ‘non-participant’, ‘speaker + hearer(s)’, ‘speaker + non-participant(s)’, ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, and ‘speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s).

    1. May 2020

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