The Social Dynamics of Pronominal Systems: A comparative approach

Description

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. 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