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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Re: Summary: number in personal pronouns</TITLE>
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<DIV>Colin Masica writes,</DIV>
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<DIV>I don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but if not it is time
someone did: it is not only in Russian, African & Australian languages,
etc. that wives and husbands are referred to as "mother" and "father" by their
spouses -- but also, and quite normally, in rural American English! (I
just heard it again last night...)</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>To which my response is: What you mean *rural*??? My family isn't
exactly rural, and we've been doing this for as long as i can remember! At
least, my parents referred to each other, addressed each other, etc. as `Mom'
and `Dad' all the time i was growing up. Now that both their children are
grown, i *think* they've *started* reverting to addressing each other by their
names.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Best,</DIV>
<DIV>Steven</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Steven Schaufele, Ph.D.<BR>Asst. Prof. Linguistics, English
Dept.<BR>Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan<BR>(886)(02)2881-9471 ext. 6504
(O)<BR>(886)(02)2835-6966 (H)<BR><A
href="mailto:fcosw5@mail.scu.edu.tw">fcosw5@mail.scu.edu.tw</A></DIV></BODY></HTML>