Summary: number in personal pronouns

[Steven Schaufele]

Re: Summary: number in personal pronounsColin Masica writes,
  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...)
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.

Best,
Steven

Steven Schaufele, Ph.D.
Asst. Prof. Linguistics, English Dept.
Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan
(886)(02)2881-9471 ext. 6504 (O)
(886)(02)2835-6966 (H)
fcosw5 at mail.scu.edu.tw
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