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| Grammatical features |
|---|
Syntax relationships |
Inlinguistics,grammatical person is the grammatical distinction betweendeictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically, the distinction is between the speaker (first person), the addressee (second person), and others (third person). A language's set ofpronouns is typically defined by grammatical person.First person includes the speaker (English:I,we),second person is the person or people spoken to (English:your oryou), andthird person includes all that are not listed above (English:he,she,it,they).[1] It also frequently affectsverbs, and sometimesnouns orpossessive relationships.
InIndo-European languages, first-, second-, and third-person pronouns are typically also marked forsingular andplural forms, and sometimesdual form as well (grammatical number).
Some other languages use different classifying systems, especially in the plural pronouns. One frequently found difference not present in most Indo-European languages is a contrast betweeninclusive and exclusive "we": a distinction of first-person plural pronouns between including or excluding the addressee.[2]
Many languages express person with differentmorphemes in order to distinguish degrees of formality and informality. A simple honorific system common among European languages is theT–V distinction. Some other languages have much more elaborate systems of formality that go well beyond the T–V distinction, and use many different pronouns and verb forms that express the speaker's relationship with the people they are addressing. ManyMalayo-Polynesian languages, such asJavanese andBalinese, are well known for their complex systems ofhonorifics;Japanese,[3]Korean,[4] andChinese also have similar systems to a lesser extent.
In many languages, theverb takes a form dependent on the person of the subject and whether it is singular or plural. InEnglish, this happens with the verbto be as follows:
Other verbs in English take the suffix-s to mark the present tense third person singular, excluding singular 'they'.
In many languages, such asFrench, the verb in any given tense takes a different suffix for any of the various combinations of person and number of the subject.
The grammar of some languages divide the semantic space into more than three persons. The extra categories may be termedfourth person,fifth person, etc. Such terms are not absolute but can refer, depending on context, to any of several phenomena.
SomeAlgonquian languages andSalishan languages divide the category of third person into two parts:proximate for a moretopical third person, andobviative for a less topical third person.[5] The obviative is sometimes called the fourth person. In this manner,Hindi andBangla may also categorize pronouns in the fourth, and with the latter a fifth person.[clarification needed][6]
The termfourth person is also sometimes used for the category of indefinite or generic referents, which work likeone in English phrases such as "one should be prepared" orpeople inpeople say that..., when the grammar treats them differently from ordinary third-person forms.[citation needed] The so-called "zero person"[7][8] inFinnish and related languages, in addition to passivevoice, may serve to leave the subject-referent open. Zero person subjects are sometimes translated as "one", although in tone it is similar to English'sgeneric you "Ei saa koskettaa" ("Not allowed to touch", "You should not touch").
| Pronoun | Person and number | Gender |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | ||
| I | First-person singular | |
| we | First-person plural | |
| you | Second-person singular or second-person plural | |
| he | Third-personmasculine singular | masculine |
| she | Third-personfeminine singular | feminine |
| it | Third-personneuter (and inanimate) singular | neuter |
| they | Third-personplural orgender-neutralsingular | epicene |
| Dialectal | ||
| me | First-person singular, dialectalCaribbean English and colloquial special uses | |
| thee | Second-person singular, literary, dialectal Yorkshire, and occasional use byQuakers | |
| allyuh | Second-person plural, manyEnglish-based creole languages, dialectalCaribbean English | |
| unu | Second-person plural, manyEnglish-based creole languages, dialectalCaribbean English | |
| y'all | Second-person plural, dialectalSouthern American,Texan English, andAfrican-American English | |
| ye | Second-person plural, dialectalHiberno-English andNewfoundland English | |
| yinz | Second-person plural,Scots, dialectalScottish English,Pittsburgh English | |
| you guys | Second-person plural, dialectalAmerican English andCanadian English | |
| you(r) lot | Second-person plural, dialectalBritish English | |
| yous(e) | Second-person plural,Australian English, many urban American dialects likeNew York City English andChicago English, as well asOttawa Valley English. Sporadic usage in some British English dialects, such asMancunian. Also used by some speakers of Hiberno-English. | |
| yourse | Second-person plural,Scots, dialectCentral Scottish Lowlands,Scouse,Cumbrian,Tyneside, Hiberno English. | |
| us | First-person plural subject, as in,us guys are going... | |
| them | Third-person plural subject, as in,them girls drove... | |
| Archaic | ||
| thou | Second-person singular informal subject | |
| ye | Second-person plural | |
