Japanese (was Re: French)

On 24 May 02, at 22:29, Nik Taylor wrote:

> However, pronouns are often avoided.  When addressing or referring to a
> superior, for example, it's more common to use their name and/or title.
Similarly with members of the family -- an older sister might be
addressed with "older sister" as the 2nd person pronoun, and she might
reply back with "older sister" as the 1st person pronoun!

I remember reading a dissertation about the use of family relationships
in Japanese, which also touched on the use of them as personal pronoun
substitutes. Interesting how the use depends, for example, on the
relative age of speaker, listener, and referent. (For example, if an
adult speaks to a child, he generally uses family relationship terms
from the child's perspective -- for example, "older sister" will mean
"*your* older sister not "*my* older sister", in general.)

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>

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