Politeness distinction in pronouns (Meadow Mari)
TwoPolit
TwoPolit: Binary politeness distinction. The language distinguishes two types of relations (pragmatic function): an intimate/familiar relation and a respectful (honorific) relation. Such a binary distinction may also be expressed by several distinct pronouns, with the choice of pronoun depending on the dialectal or grammatical circumstances.
| (1) | təj | kušeč | tol-at? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| you.SG | where.from | come‑2SG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ‘Where are you (intimate/familiar) coming from?’ (T. E.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (2) | te | kušeč | tol-əda? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| you.PL | where.from | come‑2PL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ‘Where are you (respectful/honorific) coming from?’ (T. E.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Politeness distinction in Meadow Mari is likely to be the result of Russian influence. It follows the Russian pattern even in its morphology: respectful/honorific forms (both for singular and plural addressees) are expressed using the second person plural pronoun that triggers 2Pl agreement on the verb, whereas for intimate/familiar relations second person singular forms are used (Riese et al. 2022: 135‒136).
Author: Bogáta Timár