Pronoun avoidance is the use of kinship terms, titles and other complex nominal expressions instead of personal pronouns in speech.[1]

Linguistics

Many languages feature the T–V distinction, where two or more different pronouns are used contextually to convey formality or familiarity. In contrast, languages with pronoun avoidance tend to feature complex systems of honorifics and use pronoun avoidance as a form of negative politeness,[2] instead employing expressions referring to status, relationship or title.[1] In these languages, second person pronouns still exist, but are used primarily to address social equals and inferiors.[1]

Languages with pronoun avoidance cluster in South-East Asia.[1] For example, in Indonesian, the standard terms of respectful forms of address are Bapak (literally "father") and Ibu ("mother") for men and women respectively,[3] and the neologism Anda was invented in the 1950s to function as a polite second-person pronoun.[4] Japanese, well known for its elaborate system of honorific speech, also exhibits pronoun avoidance,[5] to such an extent that Maynard suggests that Japanese “lacks a pronominal system”.[6]

Pronoun avoidance may extend to first and third person pronouns as well. In Vietnamese, a set of finely graded kinship terms largely replace all pronouns, but it is also common particularly for women to refer to themselves by name, and titles are often used for third parties.[7]

As well, there may be sociolects or dialects where pronoun avoidance occurs while more prevalent forms of the language lack it. Many Orthodox Jews, when addressing a rabbi, teacher, or other spiritual authority, will address him with the word "Rebbi" instead of "you."[8][9] The practice is very old, dating at least to the Talmud,[10] and has been noted in Halachic literature.[11][12] However, though some English-speaking Jews do this, this practice is absent in English as a whole.

Languages featuring pronoun avoidance

The World Atlas of Language Structures[13] characterizes the following languages as exhibiting pronoun avoidance:

Autism

Children with autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently exhibit pronoun reversal or pronoun avoidance, using proper names instead.[14] Since autistic children often have difficulty with pronouns, this phenomenon has been attributed variously to input from adults avoiding pronouns, or abnormalities in how children with ASD experience the self.[15]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Johannes Helmbrecht. 2013. Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns. In: Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://wals.info/chapter/45, Accessed on 2021-08-03.)
  2. ↑ Brown, Penelope and Levinson, Stephen C. 1987. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. ↑ Morin, Izak. ["TRANSLATING PRONOUNS, PROPER NAMES AND KINSHIP TERMS FROM INDONESIAN INTO ENGLISH AND VICE VERSA." http://journal.teflin.org/index.php/journal/article/view/73/69] TEFLIN Journal [Online], 16.2 (2005): 181–194. Web. 11 Aug. 2021
  4. ↑ "What's the Difference between 'Anda' and 'Kamu' in Indonesian?". 24 May 2018.
  5. ↑ Maynard, Senko K: "An Introduction to Japanese Grammar and Communication Strategies", page 45. The Japan Times, 4th edition, 1993. ISBN 4-7890-0542-9
  6. ↑ Maynard, Senko K. Japanese Communication: Language and Thought in Context, page 105. University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqqv1. Accessed 3 Aug. 2021.
  7. ↑ Pham, Hoa. "Gender in addressing and self-reference in Vietnamese." Gender across languages: the linguistic representation of women and men 2 (2001): 281–312.
  8. ↑ "Okay to address a rabbi with "you"?".
  9. ↑ "Speaking to a Rabbi in the Third Person".
  10. ↑ Brachos 27b et al.
  11. ↑ "[Yoreh deʻah]". Moses Maimonides, Unparalleled Editions Online. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  12. ↑ Chida, Yoreh Deah 242:6
  13. ↑ "WALS Online - Feature 45A: Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns".
  14. ↑ Jordan, R.R. (1989), An experimental comparison of the understanding and use of speaker-addressee personal pronouns in autistic children. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 24: 169–179. https://doi.org/10.3109/13682828909011954
  15. ↑ https://www.bu.edu/autism/files/2010/03/Shield___Meier_BUCLD_38_Proceedings.pdf
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