[Lingtyp] Grammaticalization of 1SG verb forms

[Volker Gast]

Dear all,
Shifts of this type are common in many European languages. It has in 
fact been argued that the traditional description of SAP (1st/2nd 
person) pronouns as directly (exophorically) referring to the speaker or 
addressee is just wrong (e.g. Wechsler 2010). In German we use these 
pronouns in a variety of contexts where they do not refer to either the 
speaker or addressee, but have a generalizing function, or imply a shift 
in perspective. Impersonal uses of second person singular pronouns are 
well known, as they are widespread in English ('As a striker you have to 
be selfish', said to someone who is not a striker; see for instance Gast 
et al. 2015). Impersonal uses of the first person are less well-known, 
as they are unusual in English, as far as I know; in German they are 
perfectly fine, see for instance Zobel (forthcoming) (e.g. 'Ich kann 
doch nicht einfach ungeimpft in eine Kneipe gehen', lit. 'I can't just 
walk into a pub unvaccinated', said by someone who is vaccinated, 
intended as criticism of others, potentially a specific person).

Best,
Volker

Gast, V., L. Deringer, F. Haas and O. Rudolf (2015). Impersonal uses of 
the second person singular: A pragmatic analysis of generalization and 
empathy effects. /Journal of Pragmatics///88: 148-162.
Wechsler, Stephen (2010). What ‘I’ and ‘You’ mean to each other: Person 
indexicals, self-ascription, and theory of mind. /Language/ 86.2: 332–365.
Zobel, Sarah (forthcoming). The impersonal use of German 1st Person 
singular ich. /Linguistic Inquiry/.


On 14/11/2021 00:49, Aigul Zakirova wrote:
> Dear David and Anna,
> (I'm sorry, maybe I'm replying to the wrong email chain)
>
> Thank you, this is very interesting, so unexpected uses of 1SG and 2SG 
> pronouns are also attested as discourse strategies or as specific 
> constructions.
>
> The phenomenon brought up by David somehow reminds me -- functionally 
> -- of a traditional ending of Russian fairy-tales. I am not sure 
> whether they are folk tales or always literary works of writers based 
> on folk tales, but this is how it looks:
>
> "И я там был, мёд-пиво пил, по усам текло, а в рот не попало".
> I was there, / Mead and wine I drank, I swear; / Though my whiskers 
> bathed in wine, / Nothing passed these lips of mine (translation by 
> Louis Zelikoff).
>
> This looks to me as if the narrator were also insisting that they were 
> present and observed the events directly... But maybe there is 
> something else to it, at least irony, because the narrator leaves room 
> for uncertainty ("nothing passed these lips of mine). I am not a 
> specialist in Russian folklore, so this parallel is speculative. But 
> maybe in folktales of other cultures there are parallels to that.
>
> Best,
> Aigul
>
>
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