this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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4th person pronoun? (startrek.website)
submitted 2 years ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works
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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

You can have an alternate third person pronoun I suppose in order to distinguish two third person individuals, but that doesn't mean there's a fourth person pronoun. The general definition is:

  • first person - the speaker
  • second person - the audience, whether present or not present
  • third person - someone or something other than the audience

So things like "chat" and "breaking the fourth wall" are second person pronouns. There is no fourth person pronoun, because anything other than first and second is covered under third person.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Isn't 'chat' essentially treated as a name, except that it refers to a group of people instead of an individual?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

I think you're right, and the pronoun for it would be the second person plural (you in English).

[–] lugal@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've looked it up and the official name is "obviative" and it is sometimes referred to as the "fourth person".

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

That still sounds like a special type of third person, though I guess that's just disagreeing about terminology.