number in personal pronouns

[Jeroen Wiedenhof]

Mr. Henning KLÖTER, a Ph.D. linguistics
student from Leiden who is not on the
LINGTYP list, has asked me to post the
following query. If you can help him,
please reply to him directly at

    <h.kloeter at let.leidenuniv.nl>

Thank you! I will post a summary of his
findings to this list.

----------------------------------------
Jeroen Wiedenhof +31-71-527.2525
Sinological Institute Leiden University
P.O. Box 9515 / 2300 RA Leiden / Holland
jeroen at wiedenhof.nl www.wiedenhof.nl
----------------------------------------

From: "Kloeter, H." <H.Kloeter at let.leidenuniv.nl>
To: "'Jeroen Wiedenhof'" <jeroen at wiedenhof.nl>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 21:32

The plural personal pronouns in Taiwanese Min are *guan2* 'we (exclusive)',
*lan2* 'we (inclusive)', *lin2* 'you (plural)', and *in1* 'they'. In some
cases, these forms also function as possessive pronouns, not specifying
whether the possessor is singular or plural.

Plural pronouns indicating one or more possessing persons are typically
used with family members and titles of occupations in these examples:

Guan2 | ping5-iu2 | senn3 | Ong5.
1.POS | friend | surname | PN.Ong5
(a) 'My friend is surnamed Ong5.'
(b) 'Our friend is surnamed Ong5.'

Lin2 | ca1-boo2 kiann2 |bueh4 | khi3 | bo5.
2.POS | daughter | wish | go.to | not.exist
(a) 'Is your (plural) daughter going?'
(b) 'Is your (sing.) daughter going?'

in1 | sin5-hu7
3.POS | priest
(a) 'her/his priest'
(b) 'their priest'

Similarly, *chu3* 'house' frequently occurs with unspecified number reference
for the possessor:

guan2 | chu3
1.EX | house
(a) 'my house'
(b) 'our house'

Does anyone know of comparable usages of personal pronouns in other 
languages, i.e. where inclusive, exclusive or plural pronouns can have 
singular reference when they are used as modifiers? Are there similar 
semantic restrictions with regard to the modified element?

Please reply directly to: h.kloeter at let.leidenuniv.nl