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English Human Impersonal Pronouns: Past and Present
Hardcover
Series: Topics in English Linguistics, Book 120
Foreign Language GeneralLinguistics
ISBN13: 9783119148306
Publisher: de Gruyter Mouton
Published: Apr 21 2026
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.28
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the impersonal uses of 'you', 'one', 'they', and 'people' in English. The corpus-based study examines shifts in use from the 17th century to today, discusses further impersonalization strategies, such as passives, and compares impersonal 'you' with second-person pronouns in other languages. It highlights key innovations such as the rise of simulating 'you' - where the addressee is not a member of the group generalized over - and considers language-external as well as language-internal motivations for these changes. Combining synchronic and diachronic perspectives, the book is a valuable resource for scholars in historical linguistics, pragmatics, and syntax.
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