Borrowing pronouns

[maher, johnpeter]

X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, jpmaher at neiu.edu wrote:

> In Poland <Pan Pani> 'sir, Mister, Lord; lady, madame' are used as '[your]
> majesty, worship, highness' etc....  In German, ...the waiter or waitress
> addresses a group at table with <... die Herrschaften> 'the lordships'...

>  .  <<Pan Pani ...
> are used as '[your] majesty, worship, highness' etc. >> is inaccurate.  'Pan'
> does not mean majesty any more.

I didn't say it does, bu that i.e "like". I did not say that <Pan> is used LIKE
those terms.

> <... die Herrschaften> does not really mean
> 'the lordships'.

I didn't offer that as a gloss, but as a parallel archaism, a fossil. The
waiters' usage is [+restaurant], as opposed to "Meine Damen and Herren" , which
is [+podium].

[ Moderator's comment:
  In a strict sense, the meanings are as noted by Mr. Maher; the pragmatics are
  what make us say that they "do not really mean" what they seem to.  It is of
  course conceivable that these forms could develop into unmarked 2nd person
  pronouns, but such speculation is beyond the scope of the Indo-European list.
  I think we have shown that pronouns can be borrowed or created anew, as needs
  warrant, and can bring this discussion to a close.
  --rma ]