POV Count

Well, I thought I had it all figured out. First there were five significant POVs:

 

Subject Tells

DirObject Tells

Player Acts

Witness Sees

Witness Tells

 

This looked like a complete set, until I encountered a problem: there is no POV to handle the case where a character narrates his actions to the player. In other words, there is no POV for the case where the player is DirObject.

 

OK, so I added another POV for that case. But now it occurs to me that I might have some degeneracy here, if only I can come up with algorithms for first-person and second-person pronoun substitution. Consider the following sample menu:

 

I'll punch his lights out.

I smile and say, "Let me buy you a drink, son."

"Oh yeah? Well, the same to you, buddy!"

One swift karate kick to his groin and...

 

Could not this be generalized to a form that would work in both directions? Here's what the same sentences would say in reverse order:

 

"I'll punch your lights out."

He smiles and says, "Let me buy you a drink, son."

"Oh yeah? Well, the same to you, buddy!"

One swift karate kick to your groin and...

 

The thing that disturbs me is that phrase "smiles and says". There's no way I can conjugate those verbs. Nope, it can't be done; third person singular conjugates differently from first person singular. We'll have to use an additional POV.