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Universal 1453:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1453:

Original
In an overwhelming majority of languages, if the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the non-singular (and consequently, the metaperson ‘hearer(s) + non-participant'(s); see ) are not the only meanings of a certain pronominal form, then the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the singular is also among its meanings.
Standardized
IF the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the non-singular (and consequently, the metaperson ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’) are not the only meanings of a pronominal form, THEN the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the singular is also among its meanings.
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: 92, U 15
Counterexamples
Haitian (Creole, French-based), Navajo (Athabaskan) (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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