Summary: number in personal pronouns

[Suzanne Kemmer]

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
>