Pronoun avoidance is the use of
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
terms, titles and other complex
nominal expressions instead of
personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Personal pronouns may also take different f ...
s in speech.
Linguistics
Many languages feature the
T–V distinction
The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns '' tu'' and '' vos''. The distinction takes a number of forms ...
, 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
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), h ...
s and use pronoun avoidance as a form of negative
politeness
Politeness is the practical application of good manners or etiquette so as not to offend others and to put them at ease. It is a culturally defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or ...
, instead employing expressions referring to status, relationship or title.
In these languages,
second person pronouns still exist, but are used primarily to address social equals and inferiors.
Languages with pronoun avoidance cluster in East and
South-East Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia i ...
.
For example, in
Indonesian, the standard terms of respectful forms of address are ''Bapak'' (literally "father") and ''Ibu'' ("mother") for men and women respectively, and the neologism ''Anda'' was invented in the 1950s to function as a polite second-person pronoun.
Japanese, well known for its
elaborate system of honorific speech, also exhibits pronoun avoidance, to such an extent that Maynard suggests that Japanese “lacks a pronominal system”.
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.
As well, there may be
sociolects
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acquisit ...
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." The practice is very old, dating at least to the Talmud, and has been noted in Halachic literature. 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
The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) is a database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-RO ...
characterizes the following languages as exhibiting pronoun avoidance:
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Burmese
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Indonesian
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Japanese
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Khmer
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Korean
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Thai
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Vietnamese
Autism
Children with
autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently exhibit
pronoun reversal or pronoun avoidance, using proper names instead.
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
In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes.
The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...
.
See also
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Pro-drop language
A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite ...
, where pronouns may be omitted when they can be inferred from context
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T–V distinction
The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns '' tu'' and '' vos''. The distinction takes a number of forms ...
*
Pronoun game
References
{{reflist
Linguistics
Pronouns