If a language lacks a form with the meaning ‘hearer’ and/or ‘hearers’ and/or ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, then it has a special form with the meaning ‘hearers’ and/or ‘hearer(s)+ + non-participant(s)’.
Standardized
IF there is no form with the meaning ‘hearer’ and/or ‘hearers’ and/or ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, THEN there is a special form with the meaning ‘hearers’ and/or ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’.
Keywords
personal pronoun, hearer, non-participant, number, singular, non-singular
Domain
inflection, syntax, lexicon
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
400 world-wide distributed languages, see Sokolovskaja 1980: 98-99; Sokolovskaja surveyed systems of independent personal pronouns only.
Sokolovskaja differentiates between 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).