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Historical SummaryEuropean languages have not developed, or have lost, a discriminating use of personal pronouns. Sex is distinguished for "he" and "she" but not for "I," "you," and "they." We have thus an awkward situation when we wish to designate a singular person without regard to sex. On the other hand, certain languages of low culture, for example, the Hottentots, distinguish sex for all persons. And, at the other extreme, the Japanese language has no pronominal distinction of persons. Nouns are substituted for pronouns and "etiquette" determines that, for example, "contemptible worm" means "I" and "exhalted personage" means "you":
The distinction of three grammatical persons (I, thou, he) has remained foreign to the Japanese language [and the verb has no conjugational suffixes which tend to the expression of this distinction]. All persons [other] than the speaker (the I), as well as that to which or of
which he speaks (thou, he), are considered as contents of the proposition, and thus, according to our peculiarity of language, in the third person, and etiquette, having in view the meaning of words expressive of quality, has to determine which person by one of another of these words is intended. Etiquette distinguishes only between the "I" and the "not-I."1
The possessive pronouns are sometimes extraordinarily developed in primitive languages, apparently because "possession" has intimate affective implications. One of the trends is in the direction of indicating the degree of intimacy and permanence of possession, and at the same time the quality of the possession may be indicated. Thus, in the Teton dialect of the Siouan language inalienable or very intimate possession is expressed by one form of the prefix (e.g., his leg; their two hearts), while alienable of more distant possession (e.g., his horse) is expressed by another. And, according to Riggs, still another prefix is used for inalienable possessions when referring to those parts of the body which exhibit no independent action (e.g., my ears).2
1Hoffman, J.J.n/an/an/an/a, , 73.
2 Swantonn, "Siouan," 946.
Chicago: A Japanese Grammar in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed November 22, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=Z178FTU83V45RMI.
MLA: . A Japanese Grammar, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 22 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=Z178FTU83V45RMI.
Harvard: , A Japanese Grammar. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 22 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=Z178FTU83V45RMI.
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