Since the topic seems to have been opened in other threads, I am fascinated with the particularities of the 2nd and 3rd person forms of addresses in various cultures. Back in not-so-ancient times, English delimited the difference with the "thee" vs. "thou" address; one formal, the other informal. This seems to be common among most cultures, and it's only in recent times that I think this particular convention seems to have been relaxed. "Thee" and "thou" became the informal "you," regardless of whether you are talking to a family member or a mere acquaintance.
In German, there is the familiar "du" and the impersonal "de", and in Spanish, there is the familiar "tu'" and the impersonal "usted". I'm not familiar with French or Italian, but I'm sure that they use a similar convention. (I know the French familiar "vous" but that's about as far as it goes for me.)
Having grown up in the American culture, I find the use of the formal 3rd person address distasteful, and slightly disrespectful...to speak to a human being directly in the 3rd person as if they were a chair, or a pizza. Perhaps I have got the wrong end of the stick here, as it were, but that's how it seems to me, and that may be due to my particular cultural heritage, which thrives on familiarity. In my historical and literary studies, I have read instances in which, for example, two friends who had been so for over forty years broke company because one dared to address the other with the "du" form of address rather than the "de" form. (In Denmark, and it was the 19th century, to give you the time perspective.) I don't think I would want to be friends with someone who took that degree of umbrage over what seems to me to be a mere trifle of semantics.
To the European members of IW: is it the same way there now? Have these conventions been relaxed in recent years, or do they still hold to tradition? If tradition still holds, what factors would cause someone to use the familiar form vs. the formal form of the address? I'm really interested to know.
Thanks!
