Usages non déictiques et impersonnels de la deuxième personne du singulier en hébreu moderne parlé : trois approches

Abstract

As in a range of other languages, 2nd person singular pronouns are used in Modern Hebrew not only to refer to a specific addressee but also as a generic or impersonal form that invites the addressee to imagine him/herself in the situation or event expressed by the speaker. We analyze natural examples from 40 monologue‑like texts of 22 women and 18 men to detect how this process occurs in Modern Hebrew. 2nd person singular pronouns in Hebrew are gender‑marked (at/ata), and in general, masculine forms are interpreted as having general meaning on various levels of generalization. However, 2nd person singular feminine pronouns can also be interpreted in the same way. These uses are not fully anticipatable according to the speaker or the addressee’s gender.

Keywords

• Modern Hebrew
• second person singular pronoun
• impersonal
• generalization
• grammatical gender