Probing the evolution of the grammar, semantic and pragmatic functions of pronominal systems, this volume opens a window on societies in transition.
It draws together analyses of empirical research, policy-driven change and practical usage to consider the socio-cultural and grammatical consequences of pronominal changes across nine Indo-European and Finno-Ugric languages. Contributors examine how address and reference norms are changing with respect to social relationships governed by rules of politeness and propriety, and how grammatical and natural genders collide when ideologies or policies interfere with long-established grammatical norms that are irrelevant to biological categories.
Featuring contributions from thirteen leading scholars, Pronominal Systems opens a comparative vista on patterns of change across Danish, Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Slovenian and Spanish, shining a light on languages previously overlooked in pronominal scholarship. From the evolution of dual pronouns in Slovenian and Sorbian, and pronominal forms of address in Greek political debates, to ideology and phenomenology in Italian pronominal use, and the changing practice of Hungarian T–V and its social acceptance, the chapters offer both detailed investigations of the specificities of pronominal usage across individual European languages, while also tracing systems and patterns across our socio-cultural evolution.
A rich source of information on the dynamics of pronominal systems in the contemporary context, Pronominal Systems is an essential complement to existing scholarship on pronouns and their linguistic, social and cultural significance.