NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
ERIC Number: ED125259
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1975-Dec
Pages: 22
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Language and Social Class: Pronouns of Address in Swedish. Working Papers in Sociolinguistics, No. 29.
Paulston, Christina Bratt
The Swedish address system is in a state of rapid change. Consequently, Swedes are now more than ever sensitive to the seeming lack of generally accepted rules of usage. This paper attempts to codify the rules for usage of the personal pronouns "du" and "ni." In so doing, it finds that "du" may be used to express either solidarity or intimacy-familiarity, while "ni" exists in old peasant form as well as in current polite and impolite forms. Generally speaking, one can describe the Swedish address system adequately only if one recognizes that Swedish social classes have different rules due to different semantics (i.e., the covariation between the pronoun used and the objective relationship existing between speaker and addressee) of the pronouns "du" and "ni." (Author/DB)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: Social Science Research Council, New York, NY. Committee on Sociolinguistics.
Authoring Institution: Southwest Educational Development Lab., Austin, TX.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A