Difference between revisions of "Person and number"

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(Created page with "(intro) ==From the Nouns article== ''This information has been copied from the subsection ==Pronouns== of the Nouns article. It has not been deleted from there, although ide...")
 
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(intro)
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Person and number are two ways of determining who exactly is participating in a certain action. '''Person''' is a way of keeping track of the ''relations'' between people involved - for example, who is speaking, who is listening, and who (or what) else is being talked about. '''Number''' is a way of keeping track of ''how many'' of each person are involved - for example, if there are one or two or more of each person. In Mi'gmaq, there are 5 different persons and 3 numbers.
  
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==From the Nouns article==
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=Person=
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''This information has been copied from the subsection ==Pronouns== of the [[Nouns]] article. It has not been deleted from there, although ideally this section could be shortened once this article is complete''
 
  
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A pronoun is a word that can substitute for a noun that is already known from the context of the conversation.  
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As stated above, '''person''' refers to the relations between those who participate in an action. In Mi'gmaq there are 5 such persons, listed below:
  
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* Q: What did Mary do with the book?
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{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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** A: Mary gave the book to Peter. (all nouns - sounds too long)
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** A: She gave it to him. (all pronouns - we don't know who "him" is)
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! Person||Term||Examples
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** A: She gave it to Peter. (pronouns for known information, nouns for new information - sounds more natural)
 
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** A: She gave it to me. (ok as long as we know who is talking so we know who "me" is)
 
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Some examples of pronouns in English are I, me, you, he, she, her, him, it, we, us, they, and them. Pronouns can be classified in several ways. First of all, just like nouns, there are '''singular''' and '''plural''' pronouns in Mi'gmaq. Secondly, pronouns are different depending on the situation that they refer to, which is referred to as '''person'''. So if the person or group who is speaking is talking about themself, then this is the '''first person''' (English "I/me/we/us"). The person or group that the speaker is talking to is the '''second person''' (English "you"), and an additional person or group is the '''third person''' (English "she/he/him/her/they/them"). Unlike English, Mi'gmaq also makes a distinction when talking about yet another person or group in addition to the third: the [[Obviative|'''obviative''']], also sometimes called the fourth person.
 
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Below we can see a table of Mi'gmaq pronouns, organized according to number and person. An additional thing to notice is that Mi'gmaq makes a distinction between when someone is talking on behalf of a group that includes the listener (first person inclusive) and when the group does not include the listener (first person exclusive).
 
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{| class="wikitable"
 
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! ||Singular||Dual/Plural
 
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|-
 
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| 13 (excl)
 
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| ni'n
 
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| ninen
 
 
|-
 
|-
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| 12 (incl)
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| 1
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| ''n/a''
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| first person; speaker
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| ginu
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| 'I' or 'me'
 
|-
 
|-
 
| 2
 
| 2
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| gi'l
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| second person; listener
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| gilew
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| 'you'
 
|-
 
|-
 
| 3
 
| 3
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| negm
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| third person ([[Animacy|animate]]); neither speaker nor listener
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| negmow
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| 'she' or 'her'; 'he' or 'him'; 'it'
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|-
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| 4
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| fourth person (or [[Obviation|obviate]])
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| 'her ''daughter'' '; 'his ''son'' '
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|-
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| 0
 +
| third person (inanimate)
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| 'it'
 
|}
 
|}
  
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Mi'gmaq uses pronouns in somewhat different contexts compared to how English does. In English, you can't tell from a verb by itself who is doing the action or who has the action being done to them. For example, "see" doesn't tell us anything about who is seeing or being seen, so the only way to know this is by having nouns or pronouns. Mi'gmaq verbs do give you this information. For example, ''nemi'g'' can only mean that "I see an animate thing," and if we want to change who/what is seeing or being seen we have change parts of the verb (''much'' more information about this in the [[Verbs]] section). This means that it isn't necessary to use pronouns to express this information again, since we already know it. Saying ''ni'n nemitu negm'' is therefore not quite like saying "I see him/her". Since we didn't have to use ''ni'n'' or ''negm'', the fact that we're choosing to say them means that we want to emphasize these particular people. For example, if someone asked you "Did she see you?" you might want to emphasize the opposite by saying "No, it was ''me'' that saw ''her''", but in a normal sentence you probably wouldn't bother to do this.
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In English there are only 3 persons: first (''I'', ''me''), second (''you''), and third (''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Mi'gmaq has these, but also the '''obviate''', or 4th person, and the 0th person. The 4th person is a way of referring to a participant that is neither the speaker, listener, or some previously mentioned third person. So, for example, if two people are having a conversation about Robin and Robin's brother, Robin would be the 3rd person and the brother would be the 4th person. The 0th person is a way of referring to participants that are '''inanimate''', like doors, chairs, or books.
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=Number=
  
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==From the Verbs article==
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'''Number''' refers to how many of each person are involved in an action. Mi'gmaq has three numbers, listed below:
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''This information has been taken from the ==Person & number== section of the [[Verbs]] article. It is no longer present there.''
 
  
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Person and number distinctions refer to the specific characteristics of the subject and, if present, the object. Person refers to the relationship of the people involved, the speaker, 1st person, the listener, 2nd person, or another, 3rd person. But not only animate persons are referred to, as inanimate things, 0 person, can also be referred to.
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{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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! Number||Examples
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|-
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| Singular
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| 'I', 'you', 'she', 'it'
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|-
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| Dual
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| 'you two', 'they two'
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|-
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| Plural
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| 'you (more than two)', 'they (more than two)'
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|}
  
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In addition to the familiar singular and plural numbers, Mi'gmaq also has a dual number: that is, a way of stating that ''exactly two'' of any person participated in an action. This also means that the meaning of the plural must be changed to mean "more than two" in this case. It may also be noticed that the dual only shows up with [[VAI|animate intransitive]] verbs; all other [[Verbs#Verb Class|verb types]] only refer to the singular and plural (where the plural means "more than one").
  
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An additional distinction, shared by many Algonquian languages, is a distinction between a 3rd person, i.e. John, and a 4th person, i.e. John's brother, who is an additional 3rd person in the sentence (or even in the conversation). For more information see [[Obviation]].
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=Interactions between Person and Number=
  
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Person and number are important to know because they determine which [[Nouns#Pronouns_''pronouns'']] and [[Person & Number marking|''verb endings'']] to use. Some of the more common person and number combinations are demonstrated by the pronouns, shown below. It may be noticed that there are two pronouns for the first person non-singulars: the first person '''inclusive''' (referring to the speaker and the listener or listeners) and the first person '''exclusive''' (referring to the speaker and another or others, excluding the listener(s)).
  
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{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;  width: 400px; height: 200px;"
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{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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! scope="col" | person
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! scope="col" | term
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! ||Singular||Dual & Plural
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! scope="col" | gloss
 
 
|-
 
|-
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| 1
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! 13 (exlusive)
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| first person
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| rowspan="2" | ni'n
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| 'I/me'
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| ninen
 
|-
 
|-
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|  2
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! 12 (inclusive)
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| second person
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| ginu
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| 'you'
 
 
|-
 
|-
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|  3
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! 2
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| third person (animate)
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| gi'l
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| 'she/her' 'he/him' 'it'
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| gilew
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|-
 
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|  4
 
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| fourth person
 
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| 'her daughter'
 
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|-
 
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|  0
 
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| third person (inanimate)
 
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| 'it'
 
 
|-
 
|-
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! 3
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| negm
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| negmow
 
|}
 
|}
  
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Not all person and number combinations can be shown by the pronouns, however - the 4th and 0th persons are missing, and the dual and plural look identical. A summary of all the ''possible'' distinctions made using person and number in conjunction are listed below.
  
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In addition, the number of people involved is also important, such as singular, a single person, or plural, 2 or more people. Mi'gmaq makes an additional distinction between dual, 2 people, and plural, 3 or more people. As well, with 1st person plural 'we', Mi'gmaq makes a distinction between whether the dual and plural involve 1st person and the 2nd person, called inclusive, or the 1st person and a 3rd person, called the exclusive.
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{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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|+
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! colspan="2"| Person
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Below is a summary of the full list of distinctions made. For more information see [[Person & Number marking]].
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! Singular||Dual||Plural
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{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;  width: 600px; height: 200px;"
 
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! scope="col" colspan="2"| person
 
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! scope="col" | singular
 
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! scope="col" | dual
 
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! scope="col" | plural
 
 
|-
 
|-
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! scope="row" rowspan="2"| 1
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! rowspan="2" | 1
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! scope="row"| 13
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! 13
 
| rowspan="2" | I
 
| rowspan="2" | I
 
| we (me & another)
 
| we (me & another)
 
| we (me & others)
 
| we (me & others)
 
|-
 
|-
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! scope="row" | 12
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| 12
 
| we (me & you)
 
| we (me & you)
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| we (me & you-all), (me, you & another/others)
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| we (me & you all), we (me, you, & another or others)
 
|-
 
|-
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! scope="row" colspan="2" | 2
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! colspan="2" | 2
 
| you
 
| you
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| you-all
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| you two
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| you-all
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| you all
 
|-
 
|-
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! scope="row" colspan="2"| 3
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! colspan="2" | 3
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| s/he
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| he or she, it (animate)
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| they (animate)
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| they two (animate)
 
| they (animate)
 
| they (animate)
 
|-
 
|-
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! scope="row" colspan="2"| 0
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! colspan="2" | 4
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| it
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| another he or she or it (animate)
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| another two (animate)
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| others (animate)
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|-
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| colspan="0" | 0
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| it (inanimate)
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|
 
| they (inanimate)
 
| they (inanimate)
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| they (inanimate)
 
−
|-
 
 
|}
 
|}
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Not all of these distinctions may be used outside of the [[VAI]] verb class, however. It is more common to eliminate the dual and use only the plural and singular in the other verb classes (this is why the 0th person dual is blank - it is not actually found in Mi'gmaq). It is also rare to see the [[Obviation|4th person]] without also seeing the 3rd person - it is most common to see it in the [[VTA|transitive animate]] verbs with a 3rd person subject and a 4th person object.

Revision as of 11:18, 25 July 2012

Person and number are two ways of determining who exactly is participating in a certain action. Person is a way of keeping track of the relations between people involved - for example, who is speaking, who is listening, and who (or what) else is being talked about. Number is a way of keeping track of how many of each person are involved - for example, if there are one or two or more of each person. In Mi'gmaq, there are 5 different persons and 3 numbers.

Person

As stated above, person refers to the relations between those who participate in an action. In Mi'gmaq there are 5 such persons, listed below:

Person Term Examples
1 first person; speaker 'I' or 'me'
2 second person; listener 'you'
3 third person (animate); neither speaker nor listener 'she' or 'her'; 'he' or 'him'; 'it'
4 fourth person (or obviate) 'her daughter '; 'his son '
0 third person (inanimate) 'it'

In English there are only 3 persons: first (I, me), second (you), and third (he, she, it). Mi'gmaq has these, but also the obviate, or 4th person, and the 0th person. The 4th person is a way of referring to a participant that is neither the speaker, listener, or some previously mentioned third person. So, for example, if two people are having a conversation about Robin and Robin's brother, Robin would be the 3rd person and the brother would be the 4th person. The 0th person is a way of referring to participants that are inanimate, like doors, chairs, or books.

Number

Number refers to how many of each person are involved in an action. Mi'gmaq has three numbers, listed below:

Number Examples
Singular 'I', 'you', 'she', 'it'
Dual 'you two', 'they two'
Plural 'you (more than two)', 'they (more than two)'

In addition to the familiar singular and plural numbers, Mi'gmaq also has a dual number: that is, a way of stating that exactly two of any person participated in an action. This also means that the meaning of the plural must be changed to mean "more than two" in this case. It may also be noticed that the dual only shows up with animate intransitive verbs; all other verb types only refer to the singular and plural (where the plural means "more than one").

Interactions between Person and Number

Person and number are important to know because they determine which Nouns#Pronouns_''pronouns'' and verb endings to use. Some of the more common person and number combinations are demonstrated by the pronouns, shown below. It may be noticed that there are two pronouns for the first person non-singulars: the first person inclusive (referring to the speaker and the listener or listeners) and the first person exclusive (referring to the speaker and another or others, excluding the listener(s)).

Singular Dual & Plural
13 (exlusive) ni'n ninen
12 (inclusive) ginu
2 gi'l gilew
3 negm negmow

Not all person and number combinations can be shown by the pronouns, however - the 4th and 0th persons are missing, and the dual and plural look identical. A summary of all the possible distinctions made using person and number in conjunction are listed below.

Person Singular Dual Plural
1 13 I we (me & another) we (me & others)
12 we (me & you) we (me & you all), we (me, you, & another or others)
2 you you two you all
3 he or she, it (animate) they two (animate) they (animate)
4 another he or she or it (animate) another two (animate) others (animate)
0 it (inanimate) they (inanimate)

Not all of these distinctions may be used outside of the VAI verb class, however. It is more common to eliminate the dual and use only the plural and singular in the other verb classes (this is why the 0th person dual is blank - it is not actually found in Mi'gmaq). It is also rare to see the 4th person without also seeing the 3rd person - it is most common to see it in the transitive animate verbs with a 3rd person subject and a 4th person object.

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