FN + LN

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:28 AM -0700 6/6/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>On Jun 6, 2007, at 9:02 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
>>Back in the '50s there was a Bugs Bunny cartoon involving Arab anti-
>>rabbit terrorists from the _1001 Nights_. Hassan carried a scimitar
>>that he would swing at Bugs while crying, "Hassan CHOP!"
>
>i suspect that this is an instance of a different phenomenon, the use
>of FN for self-reference attributed to "primitives" ("Tarzan love
>Jane", as spoken by Tarzan), barely english-speaking foreigners (if i
>recall correctly, Manuel in "Fawlty Towers" does this), and
>toddlers.  in all of these cases, the assumption is that the speakers
>haven't mastered the pronoun system of english -- those troublesome
>shifters -- and use the easier, fixed FN instead.  so: not really
>dissociative.  rather, FN as a pronoun substitute.
>
>toddlers, of course, actually do this.  probably close to
>universally, at least for some period of time.
>
And note parents' awareness of this, as codified in their use of
"Mommy" and "Daddy" in reference to themselves, replacing the
complicated deixis of the first person ("Can Mommy help tie those
shoes?", "Daddy's just going to have a little drinky-poo now"), as
well as the use of "Baby" as a term of address in baby talk register
replacing second person.  Again, this isn't Elmo's fault.

The reporter's use of "yours truly" has a different motivation, one presumes.

LH

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