'impersonal' second person

[Eitan Grossman]

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in uses of second person for 'generic,' 'impersonal,' or
'procedural' functions, e.g., 'you go straight and then left,' 'you never
know what you're up against,' etc. Anna Siewierska (Person, p. 212) mentions
that it occurs in Germanic, Romance, Slavonic languages, as well as
Hungarian, Estonian, Komi, Turkish, Abkhaz, and another dozen or so
non-European languages.

At the moment, I'm interested in the cross-linguistic extent of this
phenomenon. I would be grateful if people would be able to tell me in what
languages it does (or doesn't) occur. If there are any linguistic
discussions of this in particular languages or families, that would be great
too.

I will post a summary of the responses, if there are any.

Thanks!

Best wishes,
Eitan Grossman
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