Universal #651
Legacy number: 651
| Number | 648 |
| Original | In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as indefinite or least definite is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. |
| Standardized | In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as indefinite or least definite is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. |
| Keywords | personal pronoun, definite, indefinite, respect, social distance |
| Domain | inflection, semantics |
| Type | no genuine implication; rather: provided that |
| Quality | statistical |
| Basis | more than one hundred languages in Head 1978 |
| Source | Head 1978: 192, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=12"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> |
Discussion
Counterexamples
German of about 1800 poses a problem for this universal. In its system, the pronoun of identity ((allerhöchst) dieselben), rather than indefinite or least definite pronoun, used as pronoun of most respectful address (Simon 1997).
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