Aw: Re: Thoughts on working with the Emoji Subcommittee (was Re: Thoughts on Emoji Selection Process)

[Mark E. Shoulson via Unicode]

Still, pronouns may be universal, but their features aren't... Pronouns 
in Japanese are not a closed class, and it is not uncommon to use a 
person's name/title instead of "you".  Happens in English and other 
languages too, with extremely formal speech, even down to conjugating 
with 3rd-person verb forms.  (it's really cool to see the mid-sentence 
back-and-forth shifting in Biblical Hebrew, e.g. Genesis chapter 44.)  
All of which is to say, as Asmus did, that even "I" and "you" are not 
interchangeable pieces between languages, easily symbolized by a single 
"fits-all-languages" placeholder.

~mark

On 08/23/2018 06:28 AM, "Jörg Knappen" via Unicode wrote:
> Asmus,
> I know your style of humor, but to keep it straight:
> All known human languages, even Piraha, have pronouns for "I" and "you".
> --Jörg Knappen
> *Gesendet:* Montag, 20. August 2018 um 16:20 Uhr
> *Von:* "Asmus Freytag via Unicode" <unicode at unicode.org>
> *An:* unicode at unicode.org
> *Betreff:* Re: Thoughts on working with the Emoji Subcommittee (was 
> Re: Thoughts on Emoji Selection Process)
>
> What about languages that don't have or don't use personal pronouns. 
> Their speakers might find their use odd or awkward.
>
> The same for many other grammatical concepts: they work reasonably 
> well if used by someone from a related language, or for linguists 
> trained in general concepts, but languages differ so much in what they 
> express explicitly that if any native speaker transcribes the features 
> that are exposed (and not implied) in their native language it may not 
> be what a reader used to a different language is expecting to see.
>
> A./
>

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