Universal #1445

Legacy number: 1445

 Number  1441
 Original  In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'speaker'.
 Standardized  In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'speaker'.
 Keywords  pronoun, personal pronoun, person, 1st
 Domain  inflection, syntax, lexicon
 Type  unconditional
 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: 90, U 3

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Kawi [=Old Javanese], Javanese (both Sundic, W. Malayo-Polynesian), Nimboran (Trans-New Guinea) (Sokolovskaja 1980); Aymara, Jaqaru (Andean) . In all these languages, personal pronominal forms are not specified for number, i.e. the form X can be used referring to a single speaker as well as to a group including the speaker. E.g. Aymaran naya (na) means ‘I, we but not you’. (For details see Hardman-de-Bautista 1974: 32-3, Hardman 1966).
Notes
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).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
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).