40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



"inclusive" and "exclusive first person plural," by which is meant 

 the first person plural, including or excluding the person addressed. 

 The second and third persons form true plurals. Thus the principle 

 of division of the pronouns is carried through in many languages 

 more rigidly than we find it in the European group. 



On the other hand, the lack of clear distinction between singular 

 and plural may be observed also in the pronominal forms of a num- 

 ber of languages. Thus the Sioux do not know any pronominal dis- 

 tinction between the singular and plural of the second person, and 

 only a very imperfect distinction between the third person singular 

 and plural; while the first person singular and plural, according to 

 the fundamental difference in their significance, are sharply distin- 

 guished. In some Siouan dialects we may well say that the pro- 

 nominal object has only a first person singular, first person plural, 

 and a second person, and that no other pronoun for the object occurs. 

 Thus the system of pronouns may be reduced to a mere fragment 

 of what we are accustomed to find. 



Denionstrative Pronouns 



In many cases, the analogy' of the personal pronouns and of the 

 demonstrative pronouns is rigid, the demonstrative pronoun having 

 three persons in the same way as the personal pronoun. Thus the 

 Kwakiutl will say, the house near me (this house), the house near thee 

 (that house), the house near him (that house). 



But other points of view are added to the principle of division 

 corresponding to the personal pronoun. Thus, the Kwakiutl, and 

 many other American languages, add to the pronominal concept just 

 discussed that of visibility and invisibility, while the Chinook add 

 the concepts of present and past. Perhaps the most exuberant 

 development of the demonstrative idea is found among the Eskimo, 

 where not only the ideas corresponding to the three personal pro- 

 nouns occur, but also those of position in space in relation to the 

 speaker, — which are specified in seven directions; as, center, above, 

 below, in front, behind, right, left, — and expressing points of the com- 

 pass in relation to the position of the speaker. 



It must be borne in mind that the divisions which are mentioned 

 here are all necessary parts of clear expression in the languages men- 

 tioned. For instance, in Kwakiutl it would be inconceivable to use 

 an expression like our fliat house, which means in English the single 



