Clusivity

We Inclusive and exclusive we form a grammatical subdivision of the majority of the first person in many languages ​​of the world. A distinction is made whether the person addressed ( the addressee ) is included or excluded. The included We is a pronoun that refers to the speaker, the person addressed, and possibly third parties. In contrast, the exclusive third party, however, we exclude the addressee, a. In all European languages, there is only a pronoun for a group that includes the speaker. It is therefore not distinguish whether the addressee is included.

• 6.1 Notes and references

Function

In English you can say, 'We both go to the movies ' It is clear that only the speaker (1) and the addressee ( 2) are meant and possible third parties (3 ) are excluded.. Many languages ​​have a dual We (abbreviated as grammatically 1 2), the ' expresses the function of, both of us. There are also in many languages ​​, a plurality of this, inclusive Wirsching ' (1 2 3 ...). This form then refers to a group, which in each case the speaker (1) and the recipient ( 2) includes, but not as many third parties.

This results in the following scheme:

The cell of 1 2 and singular can not logically be filled, as an inclusive pronoun always refers to at least two persons ( namely, me and you ').

An example from Walmajarri, which is spoken in north-western Australia:

Dissemination

The distinction of inclusive and exclusive we is detected according to a study by Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols (2005) in 40 per cent of the world's languages ​​. Although this semantic distinction is represented in languages ​​on all continents, notice Bickel and Nichols, that it can be found most clearly in the area of the Pacific ring. As a Pacific ring they call Southeast Asia, Oceania and the Pacific coast of North and South America. Most common are inclusive pronoun, however, in the Australian and to find the South American languages. Bickel and Nichols lead this distribution back to prehistoric migrations.

Examples

Chinese

In Mandarin to zánmen咱们[ ʦánmən ] always refers to all persons present ( included). The pronoun wǒmen我们[ wòmən ], however, either only refers to a group of people, to which the speaker belongs ( exclusive), or also to all present ( included); wǒmen我们is therefore ambiguous.

Malay

In Malay, the pronoun kita inclusive and kami is exclusive. One could say: "We ( kami ) go shopping, then we eat ( kita ). " This would be clear that the guest can not keep on shopping, but is invited to dinner. An ambiguity as to whether the guest is included or not, as in European languages ​​, is not possible.

Tagalog

As an Austronesian language Tagalog has both the inclusive pronoun Tayo ( Bay.: ᜆ ᜌ ᜓ ) and the exclusive kami ( Bay.: ᜃ ᜋ ᜒ ). The corresponding Possesivpronomina loud namin ( Bay.: ᜈ ᜋ ᜒ ) and Natin ( Bay.: ᜈ ᜆ ᜒ ). A singulares We, as is the case in Indo-European or Sino-Tibetan languages ​​, there is not.

Quechua

Quechua, an indigenous language or group of closely related languages ​​in South America with over 10 million speakers that knows both inclusive and exclusive we in all forms of the verb and the possessive suffixes as well as with the personal pronoun. Thus we read:

Cherokee

Cherokee, an Iroquois language, which today has about 20,000 speakers primarily in Oklahoma and North Carolina, differ consistently in the verb between two forms of Wirsching. Moreover, since it knows a dual (two numbers ) according to the German words we go four forms:

The persons specified in this language by prefixes.

Tamil

Even the Tamil, the main language of southern India, knows an inclusive (NAM ), and an exclusive ( nāṅkaḷ ) We. However, not reflected in the personal endings, although Tamil else has quite different endings for the people.

Therefore it is said Nan ceykiṟēṉ for " I make ", nī ceykiṟāy for " are you doing ", but Nam ceykiṟōm and nāṅkaḷ ceykiṟōm for " we do ".

Various types of

We distinguish absolute from relative Numerussystemen. The above scheme works with absolute Numeruskategorien, that is, all forms in the column, dual ' always talking about two people. There are also still languages ​​that have a trial form in addition to the dual (eg Wunambal, which is spoken on the coast of northwestern Australia). All forms in the Trial column then speak in any case of three people. However, there are also Pronomensysteme that determine their relative Numeruskategorien. Here the number of addressed people is determined relative to the minimum group of the appropriate category of persons ( 1, 1 2. , 2nd or 3rd person).

A schematic example of a relative Numerussystem:

In contrast to the absolute system ( the scheme by function) the first cell for the person, including (1 2 ) are filled in the relative system, namely the minimal group of inclusive person, so, you and I '. The terms singular, dual and plural are at minimum ( ' smallest group '), Unit Augmented ( ' extended by 1') and augmented ( by 1 X expanded ') replaced. The first appears illogical and unclear. The following two tables show, however, how to incorrectly parses a language with relative system (Table 1) and how to use them properly analyzed (Table 2). The language here is Ngandi. It is spoken in the southwestern Arnhem Land in northern Australia.

Table 1: Ngandi in an absolute Numerussystem:

Here it is clearly seen that the analysis is misleading. On the one hand Numeruskategorie Trial is only relevant for the inclusive person and not for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person. On the other hand, indicate the endings, whereas the forms really belong. Therefore, the ending- rni makes clear reference to Numeruskategorie Dual, although in the inclusive person with this extension, three people are meant. This means that - rni says: "increase by 1 ". So in the first person, second person and third person 2 people are meant. In the inclusive person, this ' increase by 1 ' to 3 people. Therefore, a relative Numerussystem makes sense.

Table 2: Ngandi in a relative Numerussystem:

It is apparent from the second analysis that is treated, including persons in a category relative Numerussystem just like the first person, second person and third person. So the smallest group of inclusive person ( you and I ) treated as a singular in the other people.