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<p>Dear all,<br>
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).<br>
</p>
<p>Best,<br>
Volker<br>
</p>
<p>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. <i>Journal of Pragmatics</i><i>
</i>88: 148-162.<br>
Wechsler, Stephen (2010). What ‘I’ and ‘You’ mean to each other:
Person indexicals, self-ascription, and theory of mind. <i>Language</i>
86.2: 332–365.<br>
Zobel, Sarah (forthcoming). The impersonal use of German 1st
Person singular ich. <i>Linguistic Inquiry</i>. <br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14/11/2021 00:49, Aigul Zakirova
wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Dear David and Anna,<br>
(I'm sorry, maybe I'm replying to the wrong email chain)<br>
<br>
Thank you, this is very interesting, so unexpected uses of 1SG
and 2SG pronouns are also attested as discourse strategies or as
specific constructions.<br>
<br>
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:
<br>
<br>
"И я там был, мёд-пиво пил, по усам текло, а в рот не попало".<br>
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).<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Aigul<br>
<br>
</div>
<br>
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