The Meaning and Usage of the Pronoun 'We', and the Difference between 'We' and Its Equivalents in Jananese

Abstract

This paper treats the inclusive and the exclusive uses of the personal pronoun 'we'. Both are common uses in English. The former which includes the hearer is always used without any color in meaning. On the other hand, the letter sometimes, though not so often, has a delicate nuance in expression. For a good example 'our country' is compared with 'my country' in the 4th chapter. The exclusive use of the first person plural is found more often in Japanese than in English. The Japanese hesitate to use the singular form 'my country', 'my school', 'my classes', 'my teacher', and so on; while the singular 'my teacher' is used just as often as 'our teacher' in English. For this reason we should let our students use 'I' instead of the exclusive 'we' in our daily English classes.