number in personal pronouns

[Annie Montaut]

Anvita Abbi rightly signaled the use of we (our) for I (my) in many hindi
speeches, for polite /modest reference to self. Besides the plural form for
first person, ham (singular main), what may also occur, specially to refer
to one's village, country, is the "reflexive possessive" apna
awadh apna desh hai
Oudh "refl" country is
Oudh is my/our country
larki apni biradri ki hai
girl "refl" phratry of is
the girl is from our phratry/cast
This "apna" form, regularly used as an anaphoric form (coreference with the
subject) hence tagged as "refl", has an empathic use (in Kuno's meaning) and
when not used as a reflexive refers to the group (family, clan, etc.
Nominalised it means my people/family). It also happens to serve as an
inclusive first person pronoun in southern dialects (standard Hindi lacks
the distinction inclusive/exclusive but Dravidian speeches have it) and is
commonly used for refering to I (apan=main "I"). See Apte 1973
"Pidginization of a lingua franca, a linguistic of Hindi/Urdu spoken in
Bombay", IJDL 1-3: 21-41 (Contact and Convergence in South Asian languages),
Rajyashree 1987, "Bazari Hindi as Language of Wider Communication, a case
study of Dharavi slum in Bombay", in Pidgins and Creoles as languages of
Wider Communication, Mysore, Montaut 1997, "Pronoms, réfléchis et marqueurs
de focus dans les langues indiennes", in Zribi-Hertz Les Pronoms, PUV)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeroen Wiedenhof" <jeroen at WIEDENHOF.NL>
To: <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 9:43 PM
Subject: number in personal pronouns


> 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
>