LINGUIST List 7.1431

Sun Oct 13 1996

Sum: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Kearsy Cormier, incl/excl pronouns: summary

Many thanks to those of you who responded to my question about
inclusive and exclusive pronouns. It turns out that there many, many
languages that do have this distinction. They include most if not all
of the following language families: Algonquian, Austronesian and
Austroasiatic, among others. I can supply you with a more complete
list if you are interested.

Also, thanks to those of you who pointed out that American Sign
Language also distinguishes between incl/excl pronouns. ASL is the
language I am currently studying with regard to this topic. (I was
curious how the distinction worked in spoken languages.)

Several of you pointed out that some non-standard varieties of
American English carry this incl/excl distinction - e.g. "weuns" and
"usuns". I was not aware that these forms differed in meaning from
the standard "we" and "us". Any comments?

-Kearsy

- -----------
Kearsy Cormier
kearsymail.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin
PhD student, Department of Linguistics