Saturday, August 14, 2010

Pronouns

English pronouns generally have different forms between subject & object:

Subject

Object

I

Me

Thou

Thee

He

Him

She

Her

It

It

We

Us

You

You

They

Them


Notes:
The second person singular (thou/thee) is now outdated in English but still very common in other languages.
Third person singular distinguishes between masculine, feminine & neutral, whereas the plural does not.
"We" is ambiguous - it includes "I", but does it include or exclude "You"?
"It" & "You" manage perfectly without specific object forms.
French & German complicate things even more.

I think a super-simple language can get by with only four pronouns, for example:

Lingo Pronoun

Replaces English

mii

I - Me

yii

Thou - Thee - You

zii

He - Him - She - Her - It - They - Them

wii

We - Us

Genetives, datives, reflexives etc can be handled by affixes, to be dealt with separately.

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