Re: Second person/polite pronouns (fuit Re: Another Ozymandias)

I see something similar happening in American discourse, Taliesin.
Especially on email.  If you're cool, you call everyone by their first name.
If you are being lofty, disapproving, reproachful, angry, you express that
by saying "Mr. Smith."  Instead of John, John now becomes "Mr. Smith" in an
address: "I suppose Mr. Smith would think that I was being hypocritical, but
that's his private opinion.  Perhaps Mr. Smith would conisder reading a book
on hypocrisy."

Sally

----- Original Message -----
From: "taliesin the storyteller" <taliesin-conlang@...>
> This is what happened in Norway as well, polite _De_ lost to informal
> _du_. But there is a twist: I and many with me now consider _De_ to be
> directly rude! It seems to used by (though not personal experience):
> * very old people when talking down to the lousy uncouth younger
>  generations: "De glemte å ta av dem skoene, (unge) herre/frøken"
>  Eng. You forgot to remove your shoes, (young) mister/miss
>  (This also has a very uncomfortable tone of voice, clearly meant to
>  be rude.)
> * by the clerks at the dole-office/social-security office towards their
>  unemployed/poor clients, complete with icky tone of voice.
> * by the judge when annoucing a sentence/by prosecuting attorneys
>  towards witnesses
> * when you've forgotten to pay a bill for so long it's one step from
>  going to the courts
> * etc.
>
> Basically whenever it is wished that the addressee should feel like a
> bug. I don't dare use it, might earn me a fist in the face if the other
> party is in the right (wrong) mood.
>
> Hence, I call _du_ "normal and _De_ "rude".
>
>
> t.
>