Chapter 2. She said “I don’t like her and her don’t like me”
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Lyndon Higgs
Abstract
In the regional variety of English spoken in the Black Country (an area of central England), the object pronoun her is sometimes found in subject function. In a corpus of recorded informal conversations with Black Country dialect speakers, both the Standard English subject pronoun she and its dialect equivalent, her, regularly occurred. This pronoun exchange is not random, but depends on several factors, such as the speaker, the listener, the situational context, the topic, and, most importantly, the speaker’s relation to the referent of she or her. These social and relational concepts bear similarity to those found in the French tu/vous second person binary politeness distinction, since factors such as solidarity, respect and disrespect affect the choice of pronoun.
Abstract
In the regional variety of English spoken in the Black Country (an area of central England), the object pronoun her is sometimes found in subject function. In a corpus of recorded informal conversations with Black Country dialect speakers, both the Standard English subject pronoun she and its dialect equivalent, her, regularly occurred. This pronoun exchange is not random, but depends on several factors, such as the speaker, the listener, the situational context, the topic, and, most importantly, the speaker’s relation to the referent of she or her. These social and relational concepts bear similarity to those found in the French tu/vous second person binary politeness distinction, since factors such as solidarity, respect and disrespect affect the choice of pronoun.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Personal pronouns 1
-
PART I. Personal pronouns beyond syntax: Competing forms in context
- Chapter 2. She said “I don’t like her and her don’t like me” 27
- Chapter 3. Free self-forms in discourse-pragmatic functions 45
- Chapter 4. Sex-indefinite references to human beings in American English 69
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PART II. First and second person pronouns across genres: Advertising, TV series and literature
- Chapter 5. ‘ Loquor, ergo sum’ 95
- Chapter 6. ‘You’ and ‘I’ in charity fundraising appeals 105
- Chapter 7. Breaking the fourth wall 125
- Chapter 8. How do person deictics construct roles for the reader? 147
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PART III. Referring to the self and the addressee in context of interaction
- Chapter 9. First and second person pronouns in two mother-child dyads 173
- chapter 10. Pronouns and sociospatial ordering in conversation and fiction 195
- Chapter 11. Referring to oneself in the third person 215
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PART IV. The pragmatics of impersonal and antecedentless pronouns
- Chapter 12. Interpreting antecedentless pronouns in narrative texts 241
- Chapter 13. The infinite present 259
- Chapter 14. Pragmatic and stylistic uses of personal pronoun one 275
- Chapter 15. Impersonal uses of the second person singular and generalized empathy 311
- Index 335
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Personal pronouns 1
-
PART I. Personal pronouns beyond syntax: Competing forms in context
- Chapter 2. She said “I don’t like her and her don’t like me” 27
- Chapter 3. Free self-forms in discourse-pragmatic functions 45
- Chapter 4. Sex-indefinite references to human beings in American English 69
-
PART II. First and second person pronouns across genres: Advertising, TV series and literature
- Chapter 5. ‘ Loquor, ergo sum’ 95
- Chapter 6. ‘You’ and ‘I’ in charity fundraising appeals 105
- Chapter 7. Breaking the fourth wall 125
- Chapter 8. How do person deictics construct roles for the reader? 147
-
PART III. Referring to the self and the addressee in context of interaction
- Chapter 9. First and second person pronouns in two mother-child dyads 173
- chapter 10. Pronouns and sociospatial ordering in conversation and fiction 195
- Chapter 11. Referring to oneself in the third person 215
-
PART IV. The pragmatics of impersonal and antecedentless pronouns
- Chapter 12. Interpreting antecedentless pronouns in narrative texts 241
- Chapter 13. The infinite present 259
- Chapter 14. Pragmatic and stylistic uses of personal pronoun one 275
- Chapter 15. Impersonal uses of the second person singular and generalized empathy 311
- Index 335