The Use of Second Person Pronouns in Private and Official Letters in Early Modern English

Bachelor Thesis , 2014 , 209 Pages , Grade: 1,0

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

This thesis includes 171 pages of detailed linguistic corpus analysis as well as 36 pages of running text examining the use of thou, thee, ye and you in Early Modern English. The corpus I will use is the diachronic multi-genre Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, which consists of 1 572 800 words. For my investigation of the subjective and objective second person pronouns, I will consider all 2977 occurrences of thou, thee, ye and you (including their alternative spellings) in the 126 Early Modern English text samples of private and official correspondence.

For this research, I will use private and official letters, since they are essentially the only surviving text samples in which an individual is consistently addressed. I will first analyze the use of the subjective and objective second person pronouns in private correspondence. More precisely, I will determine how thou, thee, ye and you (and their alternative spellings) were used in the period of Early Modern English and in which context they appeared. Next, I will investigate the same four pronouns in non-private Early Modern English letters. Finally, I will compare the use of the subjective and objective second person pronouns in private and non-private correspondence from the first Early Modern English period (1500 to 1570) through the second one (1570 to 1640) up to the third and last one (1640 to 1710). I will explore to what extent a status distinction or an emotional marking is made within these private and official letters and how each of the four pronouns developed until only you remained.

Initially, the usage of certain second person pronouns related to social status as well. In Middle English, ye and you were generally used by inferiors for addressing their superiors, while thou and thee were employed by superiors for speaking with their inferiors (cf. Adamson et al 2001: 206, 227-228; Barber 1976: 208; Baugh and Cable 1978: 242; Brown and Gilman 1960: 255-257 ; Byrne 1936: xix-xx, xxiii-xxiv, xxvii; Görlach 1991: 85). In Early Modern English, the use of the more polite pronouns ye and you was favored, and, as a result, the status distinction became less common until it was eventually dropped in Modern English.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The use of second person pronouns in private and official letters in Early Modern English
  • The use of second person pronouns in Early Modern English
  • Corpus and method
  • The use of second person pronouns in private letters
    • First Early Modern English period
    • Second Early Modern English period
    • Third Early Modern English period
  • The use of second person pronouns in official letters
    • First Early Modern English period
    • Second Early Modern English period
    • Third Early Modern English period
  • A comparison of second person pronouns in private and official letters
    • First Early Modern English period
    • Second Early Modern English period
    • Third Early Modern English period

Objectives and Key Themes

This paper examines the use of the second person pronouns thou, thee, ye and you in Early Modern English private and official letters. The study explores the development of pronoun usage within the Early Modern English period and examines the relationship between social status and emotional marking and pronoun choice. This analysis also seeks to investigate the reasons behind the eventual shift in pronoun usage from a variety of forms to the single form you in Modern English.

• The development and eventual disappearance of the second person pronouns thou, thee, and ye
• The establishment of you as the dominant second person pronoun by the end of the Early Modern English period
• The relationship between social status and pronoun usage in both private and official letters
• The potential use of pronouns as an emotional marker in Early Modern English letters
• The impact of spoken language influences on written correspondence in the Early Modern English period

Chapter Summaries

The introduction details the history of the second person pronoun system in English, outlining the development from a complex system with multiple forms in Old and Middle English to the simplification with four forms of address in Early Modern English. It then introduces the primary focus of the study, the use of these pronouns in private and official letters, and highlights the importance of these forms of correspondence for studying social status and emotional marking. Chapter 2 delves into the use of the four pronouns thou, thee, ye, and you within the Early Modern English period. It outlines the conventional grammar rules of pronoun usage at the start of this period, explains the social status distinction that existed in the Middle English period, and explores the possible connection between emotional marking and pronoun choice. It then presents a detailed analysis of pronoun usage in both private and official letters during each of the three sub-periods of Early Modern English. This analysis includes examples from the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts. Chapter 2.5 provides a comparison of pronoun usage in private and official letters during the Early Modern English period. It examines the similarities and differences in pronoun usage between the two types of correspondence and investigates whether there is any clear trend in the dominance of one form over the other. This section further explores the potential social and emotional motivations behind pronoun choice and examines whether there are any noticeable inconsistencies in grammar rules.

Keywords

This study focuses on the history of second person pronoun usage in Early Modern English, exploring the decline of thou, thee, and ye and the rise of you as the dominant form. It uses the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts as its primary source and examines the relationship between social status, emotional marking, and pronoun choice in both private and official letters from this period. The research seeks to shed light on the reasons behind the simplification of the pronoun system in English.

• College: University of Heidelberg (Anglistisches Seminar)
• Grade: 1,0
• Author: Julie Dillenkofer (Author)
• Publication Year: 2014
• Pages: 209
• Catalog Number: V313782
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668129023
• ISBN (Book): 9783668129030
• Language: English
• Tags: second, person, pronouns, private, official, letters, early, modern, english