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The paper [1] has an interesting discussion of european famliar/formal pronous: Many languages encode different levels of polite- ness through their use of pro
by mmastrac 5y ago
The paper [1] has an interesting discussion of european famliar/formal pronous:
Many languages encode different levels of polite-
ness through their use of pronouns. Many European
languages distinguish between “familiar” and “for-
mal” pronouns, with the “formal” pronouns often
morphologically identical to a plural. In French,
the second-person singular “tu” is used between
friends, while the second-person plural “vous” is
used when speaking to a group, or to an individual
of higher social rank (such as an employee to a
manager). These politeness systems are very heav-
ily influenced by social context, and the MASSIVE
dataset gives us a chance to see how people adapt
their language when speaking to a virtual assistant
instead of another human.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.08582.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.08582.pdf
- nicoburns 5y agoHistorically those languages have included English too. "you" and "ye" being the formal/plural form (and indeed "you" can still be used to refer to either an individual or a group) with "thou" and "thee" being the now mostly (although not entirely) disused informal version.
- Zababa 5y ago> while the second-person plural “vous” is used when speaking to a group, or to an individual of higher social rank (such as an employee to a manager). From my experience "vous" is not always about social rank, but often about "distance". If you go to a supermarket, you'll use "vous" with the employees and they'll use it with you. Most of the time when I use "vous" the other person will also use it. "vous"/"tu" cases are more rare.