TNTL 116/2

A. van Leuvensteijn

 Aanspreekvormen in de Sara Burgerhart. Een inventarisatie

Abstract - This contribution is an inventory of the forms of address used in Sara Burgerhart, an 18th century epistolary novel. Two systems are used: the je-system by the working class and the lower middle class and the gy-system, historically plural forms, by the upper middle class and the nobility. The younger generation of the working class adopts the gy-system of the higher classes and sometimes the older generation of the upper middle class uses the je-system to minimize the distance to members of the same or lower classes when expressing politeness or anger. These results show that Brown and Gilman (1960) did not pay attention to classes in which one of the two systems is by far dominant.

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