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=                                We_                                 =
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                            Introduction
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In Modern English, 'we' is a plural, first-person pronoun.


                             Morphology
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In Standard Modern English, 'we' has six distinct shapes for five word
forms:

* 'we': the nominative (subjective) form
* 'us' and ': the accusative (objective; also called the 'oblique'.)
form
* 'our:' the dependent genitive (possessive) form
*'ours:' the independent genitive (possessive) form
* 'ourselves': the reflexive form
There is also a distinct determiner 'we' as in 'we humans aren't
perfect', which some people consider to be just an extended use of the
pronoun.


                              History
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'We' has been part of English since Old English, having come from
Proto-Germanic *'wejes', from PIE *'we'-. Similarly, 'us' was used in
Old English as the accusative and dative plural of 'we', from PIE
*'nes'-. The following table shows the old English first-person plural
and dual pronouns:
Old English, first-person dual and plural
!       !Plural !Dual
!Nominative     |'wē'  |'wit'
!Accusative     |'ūs'  |'unc'
!Dative |'ūs'  |'unc'
!Genitive       |'ūre' |'uncer'
By late Middle English, the dual form was lost, and the dative and
accusative had merged. The 'ours' genitive can be seen as early as the
12th century. 'Ourselves' replaced original construction 'we selfe',
'us selfum' in the 15th century, so that, by the century's end, the
Middle English forms of 'we' had solidified into those we use today.


                               Gender
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'We' is not generally seen as participating in the system of gender.
In Old English, it did not. Only third-person pronouns had distinct
masculine, feminine, and neuter gender forms. But by the 17th century,
that old gender system, which also marked gender on common nouns and
adjectives, had disappeared, leaving only pronoun marking. At the same
time, a new relative pronoun system was developing that eventually
split between personal relative 'who' and impersonal relative 'which'.
This is seen as a new personal / non-personal (or impersonal) gender
system. As a result,


Functions
===========
'We' can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative
complement. The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct.

* Subject: 'We're there; us being there; our being there; we planned
for ourselves to be there.'
* Object: 'They saw us'; 'She pointed them to us; We thought about
ourselves.'
* Predicative complement: 'They have become us'; 'We eventually felt
we had become ourselves.'
* Dependent determiner: 'We reached our goals'; 'We humans aren't
perfect'; 'Give it to us students'.
* Independent determiner: 'This is ours.'
* Adjunct: 'We did it ourselves.'

The contracted object form ' is only possible after the special 'let'
of 'let's do that'.


Dependents
============
Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for 'we' to have
many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases.

* Relative clause modifier: 'we who arrived late'
* Determiner: 'Not a lot of people know the real us.'
* Adjective phrase modifier: 'Not a lot of people know the real us'.
* Adverb phrase external modifier: 'not even us'


                             Semantics
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'We' referents generally must include the speaker, along with other
persons. A few exceptional cases, which include nosism, are presented
below. 'We' is always definite and specific.


Royal ''we''
==============
The royal 'we', or majestic plural ('pluralis majestatis'), is
sometimes used by a person of high office, such as a monarch, earl, or
pope. It has singular semantics.


Editorial ''we''
==================
The editorial 'we' is a similar phenomenon, in which an editorial
columnist in a newspaper or a similar commentator in another medium
refers to themselves as 'we' when giving their opinion. Here, the
writer casts themselves as spokesperson: either for the media
institution who employs them or on behalf of the party or body of
citizens who agree with the commentary. The reference is not explicit
but is generally consistent with a first-person plural.


Author's ''we''
=================
The author's 'we', or 'pluralism modesties', is a practice referring
to a generic third person as 'we' (instead of 'one' or the informal
'you'):
*' By adding four and five, we obtain nine.'
*' We are led also to a definition of "time" in physics.' -- Albert
Einstein

'We' in this sense often refers to "the reader and the author" because
the author often assumes that the reader knows and agrees with certain
principles or previous theorems for the sake of brevity (or, if not,
the reader is prompted to look them up).  This practice is discouraged
by some academic style guides because it fails to distinguish between
sole authorship and co-authorship. Again, the reference is not
explicit, but is generally consistent with first-person plural.


Inclusive and exclusive ''we''
================================
Some languages distinguish between inclusive 'we', which includes both
the speaker and the addressee(s), and exclusive 'we', which excludes
the addressee(s). English does not make this distinction
grammatically, though 'we' can have both inclusive and exclusive
semantics.

Imperative 'let's' or 'let us' allows imperatives to be inclusive.
Compare:

* 'Take this outside'. (exclusive, 2nd person)
* 'Let's take this outside.' (inclusive, 1st person)


Second-person ''we''
======================
'We' is used sometimes in place of 'you' to address a second party: A
doctor may ask a patient: "And how are we feeling today?". A waiter
may ask a client: "What are we in the mood for?"


Membership ''we''
===================
The membership 'we' is a simultaneous reference to the individual, and
to the collective of which the individual is a member. If ants or hive
bees could use English, they might use the pronoun 'we' almost
exclusively. Human cultures can be categorized as communal or
individualist; the membership 'we' aligns more with a communal
culture. Thus Stephen Cottrell comments on the word "our" in English
translations of the Lord's Prayer, 'Our Father': The speaker, or
thinker, expresses ideas with awareness of both themselves and the
collective of other members. If language constrains or liberates
thinking, then using the membership 'we' may impact our ability to
understand, empathize, and bond with others. The extent of inclusion
when using the membership 'we' is loosely definite; the group may be
others of the same village, nation, species, or planet. The following
two examples show how meaning changes subtly depending on whether 'I'
or 'we' is used. When using the membership 'we', the reader or speaker
is automatically drawn into the collective, and the change in
viewpoint is significant:
*'If I consume too much, I will run out of resources.' 'If we consume
too much, we will run out of resources.'
*'The more I learn, the more I should question.' 'The more we learn,
the more we should question.'


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