The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity

Abstract

Most of us in speaking and writing English use only one pronoun of address; we say "you" to many persons and "you" to one person. The pronoun "thou" is reserved, nowadays, to prayer and naive poetry, but in the past it was the form of familiar address to a single person. At that time "you" was the singular of reverence and of polite distance and, also, the invariable plural. In French, German, Italian, Spanish, and the other languages most nearly related to English there are still active two singular pronouns of address. The interesting thing about such pronouns is their close association with two dimensions fundamental to the analysis of all social life -the dimensions of power and solidarity. Semantic and stylistic analysis of these forms takes us well into psychology and sociology as well as into linguistics and the study of literature. This paper is divided into five major sections. 1 The first three of these are concerned with the semantics of the pronouns of address. By semantics we mean covariation between the pronoun used and the objective relationship existing between speaker and addressee. The first section offers a general description of the semantic evolution of the pronouns of address in certain European languages. The second section describes semantic differences existing today among the pronouns of French, German, and Italian. The third section proposes a connection between social structure, group ideology, and the semantics of the pronoun. The final two sections of the paper are concerned with expressive style by which we mean covariation between the pronoun used and characteristics of

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“…At least in the West, that social fiction in turn may be a consequence of an ongoing trend toward "informalization" (Lieberson, 2000;Wouters, 2007), in which Westerners increasingly avoid overt markers of authority relationships. (This historical phenomenon first noticed in the classic study of second-person pronouns by Roger Brown and Albert Gilman; Brown & Gilman, 1960). Once again, our counter-claim is easily testable in studies of speakers' wording choices, and of hearers' reactions, within and across cultures.…”

A Sociolinguistic Study of Husband-to-Wife Address Forms and Functions in Rural Jordanian Community

“…Parkinson, 1985;Winchatz, 2001;Farghal & Shakir, 1994;Oyetade, 1995). Brown and Gilman (1960) have presented a two-dimensional model which presents two social relations encoded in language: power and solidarity (as in T/V deictic function). Brown and Gilman define the power semantic as asymmetrical.…”

“…The solidarity semantic represents more balance between individuals and is symmetrical. Power reflects relative superior status, social distance and deference; and solidarity reflects closeness, common experiences and shared intimacies (Brown & Gilman, 1960).…”

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“…The basic framework for address theory was laid out by Brown and Gilman (1960). They cover the diachronic development of pronouns of address in Romance and Germanic as well as offer some theories into the semantics of the system such as the fact that pronouns of address can convey politeness or give insight into social hierarchies.…”