The System of Pronouns of Address in European Portuguese

Lara Bermejo, Víctor

This book shows the current system of pronouns and forms of address in European Portuguese, thanks to fieldwork carried out throughout continental Portugal and its archipelagos. By means of an innovative method to prompt spontaneous and quantitative data, this monograph provides the paradigm that rules nowadays, together with the geographical, sociolinguistic, pragmatic and grammatical factors that affect one of the most complex and volatile phenomena in Lusophone linguistics. The results show a country extremely sensitive to politeness and distance, undergoing multiple pragmatic changes, and creating an innovative tripartite system both in singular and plural that contradicts cross-linguistic tendencies.