A typological study on person sensitivity in Ersu

Abstract Since the “conjunct vs. disjunct” distinction was employed to describe the interaction between person and other grammatical categories or functional factors in Kathmandu Newari, the linguistic phenomenon has been widely discussed and different terms such as “self person vs. other person” and “egophoric vs. non-egophoric” distinction have also been used. However, there are always widespread parameters of variations found in specific languages. Ersu, a language quite sensitive to person distinction, is a case in point. Firstly, it not only has two different sets of first person pronouns but also has two different sets of third person pronouns. Moreover, it has differentiated person-based marking strategies of prospective, prospective, imminent and perfect aspects. Ersu not only shares some similarities with those person distinction languages, but also boasts of its own uniqueness. Therefore, we proposed to use “person sensitivity” as a more general and suitable term to describe the linguistic phenomenon in cross-languages.