Summary: number in personal pronouns

[Hella Olbertz]

i have recently observed in ecuadorian spanish that women talked about "my
mother" and "my father" when (one of) their sisters were present. i found
this very strange, and to me it actually sounded offensive, though obviously
it was not intended to be so.

hella.

----- Original Message -----
From: Suzanne Kemmer <kemmer at RICE.EDU>
To: <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2003 12:35 AM
Subject: Re: Summary: number in personal pronouns


> Even the most reasonable functional features are not always
> perfectly general.
>
> I have always wondered why, in 19th century British fiction,
> one sibling speaking to another will regularly refer to "my father"
> or "my mother" (in cases where they
> both have the same set of parents, and are not
> step-siblings).  Same with cousins, who refer in talking
> to each other to "my aunt"
> and "my uncle" even though both interlocutors have the
> same relationship to the person spoken of.
> It certainly sounds odd from the standpoint of
> my own intuitions. It sounds to modern ears like the speaker wants to
> exclude the sibling/cousin they are talking to from the
> relationship. But there is nothing in the context
> to suggest this; it seems to have been a normal
> mode of reference.
>
> Suzanne
>
>
> On Thursday, April 17, 2003, at 12:53  PM, Bertinetto wrote:
>
> > Relating to the recent message by:
> >
> >> From: Henning Kloeter <h.kloeter at let.leidenuniv.nl>
> >> Subject: Re: summary
> >
> > specifically where it says:
> >
> >> M. Daniel notes parallels in Russian, mentioning that "when you speak
> >> to
> >> your wife, saying 'my son' or 'your.sg sun' sounds either funny or
> >> offending. When talking to another possessor of the same item you
> >> obligatorily have to mention the same possessive relation connects the
> >> addressee to the possessed item, so that possession becomes
> >> obligatorily
> >> first person plural."
> >
> > Isn't it a general feature? This is certainly true in Italian.
> > If I said "my" (referring to something that is common property) while
> > talking to another owner of the same object, I would definitely sound
> > arrogant. This obviously extends to human beings, such as children. One
> > could say "my son" speaking to her/his mother (although this is not the
> > usual way to refer to him within the family), but certainly not while
> > speaking to her husband or his wife.
> > I always took it for granted that the same happens in any language.
> > Was I
> > wrong?
> > Best
> >
> > Pier Marco Bertinetto
> > Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
> >
>
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