[Lingtyp] Pronouns, politeness, political correctness

[Sebastian Nordhoff]

On 5/10/23 21:28, Peter Slomanson wrote:
> Difficult for me to resist responding to the last parenthetical comment 
> in an interesting discussion. In certain heavily Sri Lankan 
> Malay-speaking communities, /se/ is understood, but only very rarely 
> used, whereas /go/ is used in all social contexts. The split you 
> describe is basically no longer there, though it remains in other parts 
> of the country. I'm not contradicting the accuracy of your observation 
> or its relevance, only adding the dialect variation.

Hi Peter,
I was thinking about adding a parenthetical remark about the Kirinda 
dialect, but then thought, nah, rather leave it out. Well, you caught me 
there...
Best
Sebastian


> 
> Best,
> Peter Slomanson
> 
> On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 7:30 PM Sebastian Nordhoff 
> <sebastian.nordhoff at glottotopia.de 
> <mailto:sebastian.nordhoff at glottotopia.de>> wrote:
> 
>     On 5/10/23 18:11, PONSONNET Maia wrote:
>      > Hello,
>      >
>      >
>      > This is very interesting indeed!
>      >
>      > I hope someone has studied this or will.
>      >
>      >
>      > I'm not sure I agree that ownership of 2nd person alternations
>     are not
>      > contested.
>      >
>      > I think I'd say (following Silverstein and many others since) that
>      > contestation IS - along with its converse, imposition  - /the/ whole
>      > point of having this sort of alternation in a language?
> 
>     I meant that the fact that the choice of second person pronouns has
>     implications for politeness/rudeness is universally accepted. You
>     cannot
>     feign ignorance. You can seriously offend people with a particular
>     choice for 2sg, and everybody knows that (and can willfully make use of
>     it in particular situations).
> 
>     What is currently not universally accepted yet (as per this thread, and
>     at least in Europe) is that the choice of particular **third person**
>     pronoun can also have implications on politeness/rudeness. Some people
>     will deny any intentions to be rude with their choice of 3rd person
>     pronouns.
> 
>     (Obviously, there are languages where you can be rude with first person
>     pronouns as well. Sri Lanka Malay has /se/ and /go/ for 1sg, and the
>     latter is considered really vulgar.)
> 
>     Best
>     Sebastian
> 
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