person (n.) (per, PER)

A category used in GRAMMATICAL description to indicate the number and nature of the participants in a SITUATION. The contrasts ar DEICTIC, i.e. refer directly to features of the situation of UTTERANCE. Distinctions of person are usually marked in the VERB and/or in the associated PRONOUNS (personal pronouns). Usually a three-way contrast is found: first person, in which speakers refer to themselves, or to a group usually including themselves (e.g. I, we); second person, in which speakers typically refer to the person they are addressing (e.g. you); and third person, in which other people, animals, things, etc. are referred to (e.g. he, she, it, they). Other formal distinctions may be made in languages, such as ‘inclusive’ v. ‘exclusive’ we (e.g. speaker, hearer and others v. speaker and others, but not hearer); FORMAL (or ‘honorific’) v. informal (or ‘intimate’), e.g. French vous v. tu; male v. female; definite v. indefinite (cf. one in English); and so on. There are also several stylistically restricted uses, as in the ‘royal’ and authorial uses of we. Other word-classes than personal pronouns may show person distinction, as with the REFLEXIVE and possessive pronouns in English (myself, etc., my, etc.). Verb constructions which lack person contrast, usually appearing in the third person, are called impersonal. An OBVIATIVE contrast may also be recognized.