Linguistic Library (Mike Green)

This term is used to describe pronouns . A pronoun always has a referent (i.e. a noun to which it refers).

• The referent of 'I' is always the writer or speaker of a sentence and is referred to as the first person singular pronoun
• 'we' is called the first person plural pronoun
• the person or people spoken to is referred to as the second person pronoun, i.e. 'you' (both singular and plural)
• the person or people spoken about is referred to as the third person pronoun, i.e. he / she / it (third person singular) or they (third person plural).