someone/somebody, etc.

[Johanna Wood]

>Thank you very much!  Can you give me bibliographic details on the
>R-/ K-T article?


Raumolin-Brunberg Helena and Leena Kahlas-Tarkka (1997) "Indefinite Pronouns
with singular human reference" in Matti Rissanen et al. (eds).
_Grammaticalization at Work: Studies of Long-term Developments in English_
Berlin: Mouton (17-85)

and also

Raumolin-BRunberg, Helena (1994) "The development of the compound pronouns
in -one and -body in Early Modern English" in Dieter Kastovsky (ed).
_Studies in Early Modern English_  Berlin: Mouton, (301-324).

With regards to the comments on the list today from people who
onsider  -body compounds to be less formal and -one compounds more formal,
this fits with the historical data.  Compounds in -body as they come in to
the language are found in a higher proportion in more "oral" genres
(fiction, drama, private letters and also diaries, autobiographies and trial
proceedings) and therefore have always been considered more colloquial.

There is also the question of why there was a "need" to start using -body
when -one did just fine (not an economical move?).  And of course there were
also the earlier compounds in   -man which gave way to these two.
Johanna

Johanna Wood
Teaching Associate
Department of English
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-0302