In this article, changes in the category of person are considered from the functional and pragmatic points of view, based on the analysis of the means expressing person, i.e. personal and possessive pronouns and verbal forms in the 1st-3rd person. By using particular denominative and grammatical means, denotative persons can be emphasized, backgrounded, placed in contrast, etc. he analysis shows a considerable difference between conceptual texts, where the 3rd person is rototypical, persuasive texts, in which the 2nd person is predominant, and formal addresses, in which he 2nd person plural dominates. At the same time, spoken conceptual texts, in comparison with ritten ones, express universality more often by using verbal forms in the 1st person plural.
Several immigrant generations of Czech origin currently live in the United States. They are quite well assimilated; most of them cannot speak Czech functionally, but they often know several Czech words or phrases. This is called manifestation usage of linguistic or cultural bilingualism. It is one way in which people can express their awareness of and interest in their origin (this phenomenon – known as a “new ethnicity” – first appeared several decades ago).
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