[Linganth] First person pronouns

Mon Aug 28 15:56:16 UTC 2017

It is good that the discussion as shifted from an exclusive focus on pronouns to a broader discussion of person-reference systems. In Eloquence in Trouble, I describe the presence or absence of first-person pronouns in so-called "pro-drop" languages like Bangla as marked, and coinciding with other forms of marked behavior locally referred to as 'pagal' ('mad'), full of 'amitto' (I-ness).

"Zero person" constructions in Finnish and other languages are even more interesting. In Finnish they involve replacing overt first-person forms of reference with verbs marked for third-person but lacking any overt subject. Nor is a subject NP accessible via anaphora. The construction works rather more like French "on" or English "one," with this huge caveat—every Finnish three-year-old uses 'nolla persoona' (zero person) and it has none of the elitist indexical value of English "one."

Finnish zero person is used in such contexts as 12-step meetings, which in Finland seem to be "group therapy" sessions facilitated by savvy therapists who avoid the blaming value of 'you' and the 'just me' value of 'I' and produce such utterances as "[blank] sometimes feels like having a drink" (Halonen 2008; see also Laitinen 2006 and Helasvuo and Laitinen 2006.)

Halonen, Mia

  2008  Person Reference as a Device for Constructing Experience as Typical in Group Therapy. In Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy. A. Peräkylä, C. Antaki, S. Vehviläinen, and I. Leudar, eds. Pp. 139-151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Laitinen, Lea

  2006  Zero Person in Finnish: A Grammatical Resource for Construing Human Evidence. In Grammar from the Human Perspective: Case, Space and Person in Finnish. M.-L. Helasvuo and L. Campbell, eds. Pp. 209-232 Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa, and Lea Laitinen

  2006  Person in Finnish: Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Relations in Interaction. In Grammar from the Human Perspective: Case, Space and Person in Finnish. M.-L. Helasvuo and L. Campbell, eds. Pp. 173-208. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

________________________________
From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Adam Harr <aharr at stlawu.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2017 7:53 AM
To: Jo Anne Kleifgen; Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group (LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org)
Subject: Re: [Linganth] First person pronouns

Dear all,

Michael Ewing has a terrific paper on first and second person reference in Indonesian, titled "Localizing Person Reference Among Indonesian Youth." Ewing shows that colloquial varieties of Indonesian have an open system of self-reference that hip young people (as well as unhip and not so young people, I'm sure) use to position themselves socially. You can find the paper in this collection: https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/upload/1ade6aa9-8b51-43a1-9efc-b7290a7a17bd_TPCS_162_Special%20Issue.pdf

best,

Adam Harr
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
St. Lawrence University

________________________________
From: Linganth [linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] on behalf of Jo Anne Kleifgen [kleifgen at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 3:34 PM
To: Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group (LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org)
Subject: Re: [Linganth] First person pronouns

Hello all,
I had replied to Cyndi directly to her email, but, given the interest, I'm sharing this with all of you:

I worked on the Vietnamese person-reference system in the context of workplace discourse in a California circuit board manufacturing plant. Attached are  a few references; I published an ethnography in 2013 that offers in detail the work I did with the company over several years. I also suggest a reference by Luong, which I relied on heavily as I started my work. Here's one sample of data from Luong, which got me going, and which I cited in my book:
-----
[Inline image 3]

[Inline image 1]
That day elder brother (employee) claimed illness; younger sibling (supervisor) had to work in elder brother's place the whole morning, does elder brother remember?
1990, p. 14 (underline added)

-----

Jo Anne

On Sun, Aug 27, 2017 at 1:13 PM, Gaudio, Rudolf <Rudolf.Gaudio at purchase.edu<mailto:Rudolf.Gaudio at purchase.edu>> wrote:
Hi Cyndi,

Kira Hall and Veronica O’Donovan (1996) analyze hijras’ use of feminine and masculine first-person singular pronominal forms in Hindi.

Hall, K., & V. O’Donovan (1996). Shifting gender positions among Hindi-speaking hijras. In Janet Bing, Victoria Bergvall & Alice Freed (Eds.), Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Method. London: Longman. 228-226.

Best,
Rudi

Rudolf P. Gaudio
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Media, Society & the Arts
Purchase College, State University of New York

On Aug 24, 2017, at 11:44 AM, Cynthia Dunn <cyndi.dunn at UNI.EDU<mailto:cyndi.dunn at UNI.EDU>> wrote:

Hello all.  I am writing a piece talking about the use of pronouns in self-representation and I wanted to ask if people are aware of languages besides Japanese which offer speakers a choice of more than one option for singular, first-person pronouns (based on things like gender, situational formality etc).  If you are, I would appreciate a brief grammatical outline of the system and/or direction to an appropriate reference work.  You can contact me directly off the list at: Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu<mailto:Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu>

Cyndi Dunn
Professor of Anthropology
Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls IA 50614-0513 U.S.A.

(319) 273-6251<tel:%28319%29%20273-6251>
Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu<mailto:Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu>
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