CLIC Speaker Abstracts

Olga Yokoyama (Department of Applied Linguistics & TESL, UCLA): "Second Person Referential Expressions in Late 19th Century Peasant Letters" March 12, 2008, 5pm. Place: Haines Hall 352.

I examine the referential expressions referring to the addressees as found in letters written between 1881-1896 by members of one Russian peasant family residing in the central eastern part of European Russia. Both pronouns and nouns are considered. The usage reveals a complex interplay of social and culturally-depedent factors, affect, as well as a historical change in process. The approach is qualitative.