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Hi, Debbie,
Well, yes, to give you a short answer. Indeed, while I don't remember ever seeing anyone discuss *all* 36 possibilities (in English) for personal reference (using 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person [3 possibilities]; singular or plural [times 2 possibilities]; for each of 'referred to' and 'form used' [in effect, times 6]), I do remember seeing at different times people detailing uses, for example, of 'we' for all 6 possibilities, on the one hand; I think I have also seen things like the use of all 6 possible forms (taking into account that the ambiguous 'you' in English *can* be disambiguated, for example by 'youse guys' or the like) to refer to, say, 'we'. Indeed, I remember being surprised at the relative naturalness of the examples listed. (Sorry, I really don't remember any concrete references; perhaps another Panelist will give you some concrete references.) Of course, all speakers are familiar with things like the 'royal we' (using 'we' to refer to 'I').
Your example, by the way, does not strike me as a particularly recent phenomenon. An Internet search might give you a better idea of just how frequent such uses have been over time. Perhaps a better search might be within a very large historical English corpus.
By the way, 3 persons and two numbers by no means exhausts the theoretical possibilities. Many languages distinguish singular, dual (exactly 2) and plural (3 or more), and a few languages have even more number distinctions. Likewise, many languages (for example, Algonquian languages) make a formal distinction between two 'first person plurals': 'you and me' versus 'him and me'). Even English can make such a distinction syntactically, or at least semantically.
Interesting question.
Jim
James L. Fidelholtz
Posgrado en Ciencias del Lenguaje
Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México
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