Anna Siewierska is Professor of Linguistics and Human Communication at Lancaster University.

'Any naive expectation that person is a straightforward category of grammar, with few differences among languages, is quickly dispelled by the immense complexity of the data presented. … [it contains] an enormous amount of information collated over years of painstaking consultation of grammars and presented for the first time. … a goldmine of inspiration. … Siewierska is to be congratulated on establishing the study of person as a unified, if highly complex, field within linguistics.' Folia Linguistica

• 1. Introduction; 2. The typology of person forms; 3. The structure of person paradigms; 4. Person agreement; 5. The function of person forms; 6. Person forms and social deixis; 7. Person forms in a diachronic perspective.

Anna Siewierska is Professor of Linguistics and Human Communication at Lancaster University.

'Any naive expectation that person is a straightforward category of grammar, with few differences among languages, is quickly dispelled by the immense complexity of the data presented. … [it contains] an enormous amount of information collated over years of painstaking consultation of grammars and presented for the first time. … a goldmine of inspiration. … Siewierska is to be congratulated on establishing the study of person as a unified, if highly complex, field within linguistics.' Folia Linguistica

• 1. Introduction; 2. The typology of person forms; 3. The structure of person paradigms; 4. Person agreement; 5. The function of person forms; 6. Person forms and social deixis; 7. Person forms in a diachronic perspective.