Person

Person is a classification of people or things by their relation to the speech act. Many languages encode person in pronouns or verbal inflections.

The conventional division of persons is as follows:

• First person is the speaker, the person referred to by "I".

• Second person is the listener, the person referred to by "you".

• Third person is all other people.

Some languages go further and combine persons. The most common ways are to combine first and second person (inclusive) or first and third person (exclusive).

Some languages add an extra category, fourth person. This usually means either indefinite reference (someone shot the man) or obviative, a second third person (he₁ shot the man and he₂ ran away screaming).

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