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A Study of the Social, Cultural Connotations of French Personal Pronouns

  • The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea
  • Abbr : 사회언어학
  • 2004, 12(2), pp.51-74
  • Publisher : The Sociolinguistic Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > Linguistics

Ye-Sug Kim 1

1중앙대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This study explores the social, cultural connotations of French personal pronouns. The second person pronoun divides into TU and VOUS. In the past, TU was used when the speaker of high standing calls a person of low birth. VOUS was used by the latter calling the former. Between persons of high rank, VOUS was used reciprocally and between persons of lower classes TU was in the reciprocal usage. At the time of the French Revolution, TU was considered as the real pronoun for the citizens whereas VOUS was rejected as flattering, causing inequality. But a few years later, VOUS began to be used again. The change was made by the way that the use of TU presents familiarity between speaker and hearer, and no more equality. So nowadays, the choice of TU/VOUS depends principally on the horizontal relationship, not on the vertical relationship. Other terms of address like 'Monsieur', 'Madame', 'Mademoiselle', the first name and the last name come join TU/VOUS and make the most appropriate mode to call or indicate persons.

Citation status

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