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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] We and us
  • Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:03:01 +1100

Sure the grammaticalisation of "you" is irreversible. It has hardly reverted back to being a polite pronoun, even less to the earlier status of an accusative! Rather, the form has undergone further grammaticalisation and reduction of meaning, loosing its politeness value through overusage. This is actually the expected pathway for the grammaticalisation to progress (again, see Helmbrecht), and does not point to the reversibility of the process. Your statement betrays an ignorance of these things which further reading could help to alleviate (again, I can supply you with the references if you don't personally have access to such things).

Regards,
David Kummerow.

It certainly is a cline, or perhaps a slippery slope; maybe an irreversible one, although given the decline in use of the polite form of "you" in many European languages might suggest otherwise, with the polite form reverting to exclusive use in its previous form e.g. second or third person plural.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter at qaya.org
<http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>
Blog: http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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