Person

Nouns in most languages are categorized as first, second, or third person. First person nouns refer to the person speaking or signing. Second person nouns refer to the person being addressed. Third person nouns are everyone and everything else.

First person plural pronouns typically mean the person speaking or signing and people associated with them, rather than meaning that multiple people are speaking or signing (although, in rare cases, it can mean that, too). On the other hand, second person plural pronouns can either mean that you are addressing a group or that you are referring to the person you are addressing and the people who are associated with them.

Some languages make a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns. Inclusive first person pronouns include the addressee in their reference (meaning ‘us and you’), while exclusive ones do not (meaning ‘us and not you’). Niuean, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Niue, is an example of a language with inclusive and exclusive pronouns. Niuean’s pronoun paradigm is shown in Table 4.

Some languages also have an obviative, which is sometimes referred to as the fourth person. In languages that have an obviative, only one third person noun (usually the most topical one) will be marked as proximate while the remaining 3rd person nouns will be marked with the obviative, as shown below in (9). In the Oji-Cree example in (9a), the subject is in the first person, so the third person object awaasihs ‘the child (proximate)’ is marked with the proximate, not the obviative. But in (9b), there is a third person subject. Therefore, the third person object awaasihsan ‘the child (obviative)’ is marked in the obviative with the suffix -an. Oji-Cree is an Algonquian language spoken in Manitoba and Northern Ontario.

(9) Oji-Cree (Oxford 2017: 2)

a. Niwaapamaa awaasihs.

ni-waapan-aa awaasihs-∅

1-see-DIR- child-PX.SG

‘I see the child.’

b. Owaapamaan awaasihsan

O-waapam-aa-n awaasihs-an.

3-see-DIR-OBV child-OBV

‘S/he sees the child.’

Number

Number indicates how many instances of the noun there are. In English, we have two number categories: singular and plural, although singular is unmarked. In languages like English which have both a singular and plural, the singular means that there is exactly one while the plural means that there is more than one. The plural marker in English is-s, although there are also a number of nouns which take irregular plurals, such as children, feet, and cacti.

(10) a. cat singular

b. cat-s plural

Some languages also have a dual marker, which indicates that there is exactly two instances of the noun. In languages with a dual marker, singular means exactly one, dual means exactly two, and plural means three or more instances of the noun, as shown in (11).

(11) a. taalib student.M.SG ‘student’

b. taalib-een student.M.DU ‘two students’

c. taalib-iin student.M.PL ‘students’

Gulf Arabic (Holes 1990: 148, as cited in Aikhenvald 2018: 2)

A few languages have a trial, which marks exactly three, and in which case the plural would be used for four or more instances of the noun, as shown in (12).

(12) a. ngayi ‘I (singular)’

b. ngarrgu ‘we two’ (dual)

c. ngarrgunime ‘we three’ (trial)

d. ngagurr ‘we (many)’ (plural)

Ngan’gityemerri (Reid 1990: 118-118, as cited in Aikhenvald 2018: 2)

Even fewer languages go higher than three, but languages with a quadruple or a quintuple form do exist. One is American Sign Language.

Some languages also have a paucal, as shown in (13), which indicates that there are only a few.

(13) a. áine ŋára
woman that:3SG
‘that woman’ (singular)

b. áine ŋara-díaru
woman that-dual
‘those two women’ (dual)

c. áine ŋara-díato
woman that-paucal
‘those few women’ (paucal)

d. áine ŋára-di

woman that-PL

‘those women’ (plural)

Manam (Lichtenberk 1983: 67, as cited in Aikhenvald 2018: 3)

Some nouns arbitrarily take a plural marker no matter how many of the item there are, such as pants, scissors, and (eye)glasses. Often, these are items that typically come in two roughly equal or symmetrical parts, but not all items which consist of a pair require the plural marking, showing that it is an arbitrary grammatical rule that must be encoded in the lexicon. For example, bicycle, eyes, chopsticks, or socks all also typically come in pairs or two parts but have both singular and plural forms.

Check yourself!

References and further resources

Aikhenvald, Alexandra. 2018. Number systems in grammar – position paper. Langugae and Culture Research Centre 2018 Workshop. https://www.jcu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/789700/Number-systems-in-grammar-Position-paper.pdf

Oxford, Will. 2017. Proximate DP, obviative KP: Balancing the morphosyntax and pragmatics of obviation. Proceedings of the 2017 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association.

Seiter, William. 1980. Issues in Niuean syntax. New York: Garland Press.