The Social Dynamics of Pronominal Systems: A comparative approach

✍ Scribed by Paul Bouissac (editor)

• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 328
• Series: Pragmatics & Beyond New Series
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Personal pronouns have a special status in languages. As indexical tools they are the means by which languages and persons intimately interface with each other within a particular social structure. Pronouns involve more than mere grammatical functions in live communication acts. They variously signal the gender of speakers as parts of utterances or in their anaphoric roles. They also prominently indicate with a range of degrees the kind of social relationships that hold between speakers from intimacy to indifference, from dominance to submission, and from solidarity to hostility. Languages greatly vary in the number of pronouns and other address terms they offer to their users with a distinct range of social values. Children learn their relative position in their family and in their society through the “correct” use of pronouns. When languages come into contact because of population migrations or through the process of translation, pronouns are the most sensitive zone of tension both psychologically and politically. This volume endeavours to probe the comparative pragmatics of pronominal systems as social processes in a representative set from different language families and cultural areas.

✦ Table of Contents

The Social Dynamics of Pronominal Systems
Editorial page
Title page
Copyright page
Table of contents
Introduction
Aim and scope of the book
The political sensitivity of pronominal systems
Contents and prospects
References
1. N-V-T, a framework for the analysis of social dynamics in address pronouns
Note
1. Introduction
2. The N dimension
3. T and V encoders: pronominal or nominal?
4. Vertical axis and horizontal mobility
4.1 Learning from the past
4.2 Moving into the future
4.2.1 N for solidarity
4.2.2 T and V ambiguities
5. English ‘you’… and the other languages
5.1 Possible misunderstandings
5.2 Delicate compromises
5.3 Solidarity or power?
6. Conclusions
References
2. When ‘we’ means ‘you’
1. Introduction
2. Literature
2.1 Stance
2.2 Clusivity, stance and the pronominal system
2.3 Control acts, compliments and criticism
3. Methodology
4. Qualitative analysis
5. Quantitative analysis
6. Discussion
7. Conclusion
References
3. A socio-semiotic approach to the personal pronominal system in Brazilian Portuguese
Overview
Subject or nominative pronouns
Person 1
Person 2, person 5 and other forms of addressing
Non-person 3 and non-person 6
Person 4
Direct object or accusative pronouns
Indirect object or dative pronouns
Reflexive pronouns
Pronouns with prepositions
Impersonal subject: ‘se’
Final remarks
References
4. Address pronouns and alternatives
Introduction
Behind today’s second-person system – English and Portuguese
Today’s second-person system in the Anglophone world
Today’s second-person system in the Lusophone world
N-V-T dynamics
Translating from Portuguese
Preparing for the job
On the job
Learning from the job
Translating from English
Preparing for the job
On the job
Learning from the job
Concluding remarks
References
5. T-V address practices in Italian
1. Introduction
2. Contemporary address practises in Italian
3. A historical survey
4. Caveats
5. Research questions and hypotheses
6. Corpora
7. Methodology
8. Presentation of the results
8.1. Diachronic analysis
8.2 Diatopic analysis
8.3 Diastratic analysis
9. Men are politer than women
10. Conclusion
Bibliography
6. Forms and functions of the French personal pronouns in social interactions and literary texts
1. Introduction
2. Pronouns as tools of sociality
3. The third person
4. Personal pronouns as speech acts
5. The creative use of pronouns in literary texts
References
7. The dynamics of Nepali pronominal distinctions in familiar, casual and formal relationships
The second person in Nepali
Growing up in a pronominal world
Talking to the in-laws
Society as one big family
The awkward self
Royal or courtly forms
Grammar and history repeat themselves
References
8. The Chinese pronominal system and identity construction via self-reference
Introduction
1. The Chinese pronominal system
2. Self-reference and identity construction
2.1 Identity foregrounding
2.2 ‘ad hoc’ identity construction
3. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References
9. Pronouns in an 18th century Chinese novel
1. Introduction
1.1 Chinese pronouns and attitudes
1.2 Data and methodology
2. First-person pronouns
2.1 First-person plural pronouns referring to single referents
2.1.1 Indicating difference
2.1.2 Indicating lower status
2.1.3 Indicating negative attitude
2.1.4 Indicating avoidance
3. Second-person pronouns
3.1. Second-person plural referring to single referents
3.2 Second-person singular pronouns referring to plural referents
4. Third-person pronouns
4.1 Third-person plural pronouns referring to single referents
4.2 Third-person singular pronouns referring to plural referents
5. Summary and conclusion
Acknowledgement
References
10. Me, myself, and ‘ako’
Introduction
Introducing the data
Locating the I and the ako in Taglish tweets
1. Codeswitching as social and structural
2. The dialogical emergence and signification of I and ako
Concluding thoughts
References
11. Address, reference and sequentiality in Indonesian conversation
1. Introduction
2. Overview of person terms in indonesian
3. Position of Address relative to sequence-initiating action
4. Explicit use of reference terms
5. Ambiguity between address and reference
6. Address does not always mean expected recipiency
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
12. Pronouns in affinal avoidance registers
Introduction
Affine avoidance in language
Aslian languages and cultures
Affines and pronouns: evidence from six speech communities
Jahai
Ceq Wong
Semaq Beri
Semelai
Mah Meri
Temiar
Discussion
Affine paradigms: similarities and diversity in categorial strategies
Systemic similarities and differences
Ritual aspects
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
Index