Skip to content

Universal 636:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 636:

Original
Number is the pronominal category most widely used among different languages in alternation of reference by personal pronoun to show degrees of respect or social distance.
Standardized
If any pronominal category is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN most commonly it is the category of number.
Keywords
personal pronoun, number, respect, social distance
Domain
inflection, semantics
Type
no genuine implication; rather: provided that
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
more than one hundred languages in Head 1978
Source
Head 1978: 190,
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.