Song, Kyung-An & Heine, Bernd. (2016). On the Role of Indirect Personal Reference in the Development of Personal Pronouns. The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal 24(1), 1-20. Based on an overview of a number of languages in different parts of the world, the paper argues that there is a widespread mechanism that accounts for some regularities in the development of markers of personal deixis. The mechanism includes (a) preference for indirect personal reference, (b) generalization and devaluation of highly valued expressions, and (c) the politeness principle. It has various implications for the structure of the languages concerned. It can be held responsible for the emergence of new grammatical forms and con- structions, for the loss of others, and for the fact that existing categories and systems of personal deixis are redefined. Another implication is that the mechanism can give rise to polysemous coding, in that the forms used for expressing functions involving indirect personal reference may serve simultaneously both in their old and their new functions.