Alia Jaeger
Senior Thesis | 2024
Alia
Jaeger
01.18.24
The Use of Formal Versus Informal Pronouns in Standard German
Generational differences are visible in our everyday life, from slang to manners. We often see older generations claiming that young people don’t have manners, but is this really true, and does it apply to language too? I am interested in how people of different age groups decide where to draw the line between the use of formal and informal language, particularly when using pronouns, the use of which has particular social significance. Are the younger generations quicker to use informal pronouns, and how does someone decide who to address formally?
The German language possesses a feature which makes it possible to differentiate between formal and informal pronouns. In the second person singular, the pronouns du and Sie are used, and in the second person plural, ihr and Sie are used. The following information about these pronouns comes from what I was taught when learning and practicing the language, and what my intuitions are as a fluent speaker of the language. The terms ‘formal context’ and ‘informal context’ will simply be used to describe events in when each formal vs. informal pronoun would be used respectively. Du is used in more informal contexts while Sie is used in formal contexts. Using du in formal contexts is considered rude, while using Sie when one isn’t sure which pronoun is best is the best choice. In the third person, this mostly translates into ihr being the informal pronoun, and Sie being the formal. What my intuitions are, however, is that while it is considered very rude to use du in formal settings, it is not considered as rude to use ihr in these contexts.
What kinds of situations fall under the ‘formal’ and which fall under the ‘informal’ context? Traditionally, ‘formal’ contexts
would constitute something like a work or school environment, when the person being addressed is in a position of authority, or any situation in which a person of authority is being addressed, for that matter, and if the addresser is younger, typically more than just one to two years, than the addressee, or if the addressee is a stranger and not of a similar age group to the addresser. What falls into the category of an ‘informal’ context is when the addresser and addressee have a personal relationship, they are of similar age, or the addressee is younger than the addresser. Michael Clyne, in The German Language in Changing Europe, describes the use of du as a way to mark familiarity, and even claims that ‘Siezen’ (A German word which refers to the action of addressing someone as Sie) can be used to exclude people from certain situations because du “may give the impression of favoritism” (131). He also lists a “‘traditional’ pattern of pronoun selection” which states several rules. A couple of patterns which I find applicable to my research are as follows: “Du is used to children under the age of fifteen,” and “Older people may asymmetrically address younger people, i.e. the older person uses du, the younger one Sie.” (130-31)
When investigating the theme of forms of address, the way in which people’s attention can be grabbed must also be investigated. Typically, when attempting to grab someone’s attention in a formal context, ‘Entschuldigung/ Entschuldigen Sie,’ basically ‘Excuse me,’ would be used, whereas in informal contexts something like ‘Hallo/Hey,’ ‘Hello/Hey,’ or the person’s name would be used.
So, is there actually a generational shift occurring?
According to Dr. Christiane Kaden of the BU German department, a shift in where the line between the use of formal and informal is used might be occurring in younger generations. She, as a middle aged woman, has reported noticing that, in Germany, younger strangers or employees have started addressing her with the informal pronouns at a larger rate than what she observed growing
up in the country. I also asked friends of my age who are currently living in Germany if they have noticed this, and they confirmed they have. Clyne concurs with this, stating that younger generations are “using du more widely than did previous generations” (131). He cites a study by the Institut für Demoskopie at Allensbach, which shows that 59% of 16-29 year olds used du quickly with someone they are getting to know, as opposed to the 14% of people 60 and older. This showed a jump from 1974, when only 25% of people said they use du quickly as opposed to the time of the study, 1993, which showed that now 34% of people do. This would support the notion that younger generations are becoming increasingly less formal. Upon further investigation, I found a competing study by the same institute published in 2003, which claims that now the percentage of people that use du quickly is declining, with now only 48% of 16-29 year olds use du quickly, as opposed to the previous 59%. Figure 1 shows each age range and the percentages from 1993 versus 2003. Some limits I noticed about this study, though, were that the question they seemingly asked was simply along these lines: “When do you start using du with someone, fast or slower?” This doesn’t really observe natural language and relies on the self reflection of the people asked, which can be tricky. This study, however, poses an interesting question: Why do people seem to be reverting back to using du more strictly now than in the 90s? Although my research does not focus on this, it is important to note the political climate in Germany at the time, with the recent opening of the border between East and West Germany, and the boom in awareness for human rights movements, and anti-authoritarian movements in general. My research is focused on second person singular pronouns and forms of address in general, but specifically aims to answer the questions of whether or not the younger generation is becoming less formal, where the line between formal and informal is drawn, and what factors influence this.
1
To attempt to answer these questions, I decided to conduct a fieldwork study. Since I needed responses from native German speakers, preferably who currently live in Germany, or, for the older generations, people who grew up there, I decided to make the format a google form to make it more accessible. The instructions I gave at the beginning were as follows:
ANWEISUNGEN: Please translate each of the sentences into German, as if you were talking to each of the people pictured in real life; don't worry about being unnaturally formal.
Figure
Übersetzungen können in die Zeilen unter den Bildern eingegeben werden.
Translation:
INSTRUCTIONS: Please translate each of the sentences into German, as if you were talking to each of the people pictured in real life, don't worry about being unnaturally formal. Translations can be put into the lines under the pictures
The purpose of this was, besides simply giving instructions on where to answer the questions and what the task was, to guide them to not worry about answering too unnaturally which can happen in written language. I phrased this in a way that avoids any pronouns addressed to the reader, so as to not set a baseline of formality or informality.
Next, I asked “First, What age range are you?” Participants could choose between: 10-18, 19-30, and 30+. The purpose of this was to be able to see whether the person answering was of a younger or older generation, or in between. This would help me notice any generational differences.
I decided to give a small preface before starting the questions because I wanted to make this questionnaire more entertaining and less boring and repetitive, which would hopefully aid in getting people to answer more naturally. If I had made the form very formal, I would have some concerns about people answering more formally than they might in real life. This preface was as follows:
“Oh nein! Ein fremdes Telefon liegt auf dem Boden! Das Ziel ist zu finden, wem es gehört. Unterwegs wird es viele Menschen geben, die befragt werden müssen.”
Translation: “Oh no! A phone is lying on the ground! The goal is to find who it belongs to. Along the way there will be several people that must be questioned.”
I asked each participant to translate a sentence into German, asking the person pictured if the phone is theirs, as though they were talking to the person in the picture that was accompanying each sentence. I phrased each question differently to make the task more engaging for the participants, and I followed each question with a quick statement about how the person responded to their question. All of the pictures included I got from a copy-write free picture website called pexels.com.
Questionnaire
Question 1: Older Male "Hi, I found this phone on the street, is it yours?"
For this question, I chose to include a picture of an older man, to see how each participant would address someone of his gender and age.
Statement 1: Er hat nein gesagt :( Weiter zum nächsten!
Translation: He said no :( On to the next!
Question 2: Younger Male "Hello, is this phone yours?"
Next, I included a picture of a young boy, probably around the same age as my teenage participants, to see how they would address someone their age.
Statement 2:
Er hat auch nein gesagt! Zum nächsten! Wir können nicht aufgeben!
Translation: He also said no! To the next! We can not give up!
Question 3: Younger/ Older Woman with child
"I love your sweatshirt and your daughter's shirt! Is this phone yours, I just found it?"
For this question, I chose to include a younger woman, but one also older than my teenage participants, but with a child, to see if that would change the way they address her. With the question, I also tried to emphasize the child, and tried to elicit multiple usages of personal pronouns.
Statement 3:
Sie sagt danke, aber leider ist es auch nicht ihrs. :( Aber zuerst kaufen wir Kaffee, vielleicht gehört es jemanden dort!
Translation: She says thanks, but sadly it is also not hers. :( But first we will buy coffee, maybe it belongs to someone there!
Question 4: Younger Woman at Coffee Shop
"Thank you! Is this phone yours?"
For this question I decided to use a picture of a young woman, about the same age as the last one, but this time in a transactional setting, the subject is buying coffee from her. I wanted to see if her being in this position would affect how she is addressed.
Statement 4:
AHH! Es gehört ihr auch nicht!
Translation: AHH! It also doesn’t belong to her!
Question 5: Elderly Woman
"Hi! Thank you for the mango! Does this phone belong to you?"
For this question, I used a picture of a friendly elderly woman. I expected everyone to use the formal pronoun since that is what is socially expected, but I also wanted to see if her perceived friendliness would change anything.
Statement 5: Sie war nett, aber leider gehört es ihr auch nicht. Translation: She was nice, but sadly it also doesn’t belong to her.
Question 6: Young Boy "Does this phone belong to you?"
I used a young male child for this one to see how they would all address someone much younger than them.
Statement 6:
Er hat nein gesagt. Es ist jetzt sehr spät, wir haben nicht viel Zeit! Translation: She said no. It is now very late, we don’t have much time!
Question 7: Older Woman
"I like your hat! Please tell me this phone is yours."
For this question I chose a picture of a slightly older woman, who would probably be perceived as middle aged, to see at what age range some people might start using the formal pronouns.
Statement 7:
Sie sagt nein! Schneller! Es wird dunkel! Translation: She says no! Faster! It is getting dark!
Question 8: Older Homeless Man "Hey, is this your phone?"
For this question I chose a picture of a homeless man, still slightly older, to see if people would address him differently.
Statement 8: Er sagt auch nein. Translation: He also says no.
Question 9: Younger/ Older Woman
"Hi! Is this phone yours, I have been looking for so long."
I chose to use a picture of a woman, maybe perceived as in her thirties, to see where the cutoff of age is, and to see if a woman that age without children might be addressed differently than the one with.
Statement 9: Sie sagt auch nein. Translation: She also says no.
Question 10: Younger/ Older Male with child "Hi. Is this your phone?"
For this question, instead of a young woman with a baby, I chose a similarly aged young man with a baby, to see if that changes their responses.
Statement 10: Er sagt auch nein :( Translation: He also says no :(
Question 11: Younger Woman as Teacher "Hi! I like your glasses! Is this phone yours?"
For this question, I used a young woman, similarly aged, maybe a little younger, to the other young woman with a kid, but this time it seems she is maybe a teacher of the kid.
Statement 11: Sie sagt ja und ihr umarmt euch!! Endlich ist es vorbei!
Translation: She said yes and you hug each other!! Finally it is over!
Data
Here I am going to lay out each of the responses I got for each question, grouped by age. This data is copied directly so there are some spelling and grammar errors. I am going to include either (I) for informal, or (F) for formal at the end of each sentence to indicate which my respondents chose, in addition to bolding relevant pronouns. Respondent #4 often gave two options, one in parentheses, which I took to mean they favored the first one and offered the one in parentheses as an acceptable alternative.
Question 1: Older Male
10-18:
1. Guten Tag, ich habe dieses Handy auf dem Boden gefunden. Gehört es vielleicht Ihnen? (F)
2. Hallo, ich habe dieses Telefon gefunden, ist es Ihrs? (F)
3. Hallo, ich hab dieses Handy auf der Straße gefunden, gehört es ihnen? (F)
4. Entschuldigen Sie, ich habe dieses Handy auf der Straße gefunden, gehört es vielleicht Ihnen? (F)
5. Hallo ich hab dieses Telefon auf der Straße gefunden gehört das Ihnen ? (F)
6. Hallo, ich habe dieses Handy auf der Straße gefunden, gehört es Ihnen? (F)
7. Hey ich habe dieses Telefon auf der Straße gefunden, ist es deins ? (I)
8. Hallo ich hab dieses Handy auf der Straße gefunden. Ist es deins? (I)
9. Hi, ich habe dieses Handy auf der Straße gefunden, gehört es Ihnen? (F)
30+:
1. Entschuldigung, ich habe dieses Telefon auf der Straße gefunden. Gehört es vielleicht Ihnen? (F)
2. Hallo ich habe dieses Telefon auf der Straße gefunden. Gehört es Ihnen? (F)
3. Gehört das Telefon ihnen? (F)
4. Ich habe das Telefon auf der Straße gefunden, gehört es Ihnen? (F)
Question 2: Younger Male
10-18:
1. Hey, gehört das dir? (I)
2. Hallo ist dieses Telefon deins? (I)
3. Hallo tschuldigung ist das dein handy? (I)
4. Hallo ist das dein Telefon (I)
5. Hallo, ist das dein Handy? (I)
6. Hallo, ist dieses Handy deines (I)
7. Hallo ist das dein Handy? (I)
8. Hallo, ist dies ihr Handy? (F)
9. Hallo, ist das dein Handy? (I)
30+:
1. Entschuldigung, ich habe dieses Telefon auf der Straße gefunden. Gehört es vielleicht dir? (I)
2. Hallo, ist dieses Telefon deins? (I)
3. Gehört ihnen das Telefon? (F)
4. Hallo, ist das Ihr (Dein) Telefon? (F (I))
(I am assuming they favor the pronoun they put first, for the purposes of my data collection.)
Question 3: Younger/ Older Woman with child
10-18:
1. Heyy, die Sweatshirts von Ihnen und Ihrer Tochter sind echt süß! Ich wollte fragen, ob dieses Handy Ihnen gehört, ich habe es gerade gefunden. (F)
2. Ich liebe Ihr Pulli und das Shirt Ihres Babys! Gehört dieses Telefon Ihnen? (F)
3. Ich liebe ihre Pullover und ihre Tochters Hemd! Gehört ihr dieses Handy? Ich habe es gerade gefunden. (F)
4. hi sorry, ich liebe dein sweatshirt und das shirt von deiner tochter. gehört dieses handy vielleicht euch, ich habe es gerade gefunden (I)
5. Ich liebe dein Pulli und das T-Shirt deiner Tochter! Gehört das Handy dir ich habs gerade gefunden (I)
6. Ich liebe Ihr Sweatshirt und das T Shirt ihrer Tochter! Gehört das Handy Ihnen, ich habe es gerade gefunden? (F)
7. Ich mag dein Oberteil und das t-Shirt deiner Tochter, ist das dein Handy . Ich habe es gerade eben gefunden. (I)
8. Ich liebe dein Pullover und das von ihrer Tochter auch. Ist das ihr Handy ich hab es gerade gefunden. (I, F, F) (For the purposes of data collection, I am assuming they favor the pronouns they used more, so the formal.)
9. Ich liebe deinen Pullover und das T-shirt von deiner Tochter! Ist das dein Handy, ich habe es gerade gefunden? (I)
30+:
1. Mir gefällt Ihr Sweatshirt und das Shirt Ihrer Tochter. Gehört dieses Telefon vielleicht Ihnen? Ich habe es gerade auf der Straße gefunden. (F)
2. Ich mal Deinen Pulli and das Hemd Deiner Tochter. Gehört Dir dieses Telefon? Ich habe es gerade gefunden. (I)
3. Sie haben einen netten Pullover. Ist das zufällig ihr Telefon? (F)
4. Mir gefallen Dein Sweatshirt und das Kleid Deiner Tochter ganz toll. Gehört dieses Telefon Ihnen (Dir), ich habe es gerade gefunden. (I, I, F (I))
(I am again assuming they favor the informal, sicne they used it more.)
Question 4: Younger Woman at Coffee Shop 10-18:
1. Danke! Gehört Ihnen dieses Handy? (F)
2. Danke! Gehört dieses Telefon Ihnen? (F)
3. Danke! Gehört ihr dieses Handy? (F)
4. Vielen dank, ist das Ihr Handy? (F)
5. Dankeschön! Gehört das Handy dir ? (I)
6. Danke, Gehört es Ihnen! (F)
7. Danke, ist das dein Handy. (I)
8. Danke! Ist das dein Handy? (I)
9. Danke! Ist das Ihr Handy? (F)
30+:
1. Danke! Gehört das Telefon Ihnen? (F)
2. Danke schön. Ist das Dein Telefon? (I)
3. Ist das ihr Telefon? (F)
4. Danke! Ist das Ihr (Dein) Telefon? (F, (I))
(I am assuming they favor the formal, since it is not in parentheses)
Question 5: Elderly Woman
10-18:
1. Danke für die Mango!! Gehört Ihnen dieses Handy? (F)
2. Hallo! Danke, für die Mango! Gehört Ihnen dieses Telefon (F)
3. Danke für die Mango! Gehört ihr dieses Handy? (F)
4. hallo danke für die mango. gehört ihnen dieses handy? (F)
5. Hi! Danke für die Mango! Gehört dir dieses Handy (I)
6. Hi. Danke für die Mango, gehört dieses Hany Ihnen? (F)
7. Hey Danke für die Mango gehört dieses Handy zu ihnen (F)
8. Hallo! Danke für die Mango! Gehört das Handy ihnen? (F)
9. Hi! Danke für die Mango! Gehört dieses Handy Ihnen? (F)
30+:
1. Vielen Dank für die Mango! Gehört das Telefon Ihnen? (F)
2. Hallo. Danke für die Mango. Gehört dieses Telefon Dir? (I)
3. Danke für die Mango! Gehört ihnen das Telefon? (F)
4. Hi, danke für die Mango. Gehört dieses Telefon Ihnen? (F)
Question 6: Young Boy
10-18:
1. Hey, gehört dir dieses Handy? (I)
2. Hallo, gehört dir dieses Telefon? (I)
3. Gehört dir dieses Handy? (I)
4. gehört dir dieses handy? (I)
5. Gehört dir dieses Handy (I)
6. Gehört dir das Handy? (I)
7. Gehört dieses Handy dir ? (I)
8. Gehört das Handy dir? (I)
9. Gehört dieses Handy dir? (I)
30+:
1. Hallo, ist das dein Telefon? (I)
2. Gehört dieses Telefon Dir? (I)
3. Gehört dir dieses Telefon? (I)
4. Gehört das Telefon Dir? (I)
Question 7: Older Woman
10-18:
1. Hey, ich mag deinen Hut. Bitte sag mir, dass dir dieser Hut gehört. (I)
2. Mir gefällt Ihr Hut! Können Sie mir sagen, ob dieses Telefon Ihnen gehört? (F)
3. Ich mag ihr Hut! Bitte sagen sie mir das dieses Telefon ihr gehört. (F)
4. ich mag ihre mütze! bitte sagen sie dass das ihr handy ist! (F)
5. Ich mag deinen Hut! Bitte sag mir, dass das Handy dir gehört. (I)
6. Ich mag deinen Hut! Bitte sag mir, dass dieses Handy dir gehört! (I)
7. Ich mag deinen Hut bitte sag mir das Handy gehört dir (I)
8. Ich mag dein hut. Sag mir bitte das dieses Handy dir gehört! (I)
9. Ich mag Ihren Hut! Bitte sagen Sie mir, dass das Ihr Handy ist. (F)
30+:
1. Mir gefällt Ihr Hut! Bitte sagen Sie mir, dass dieses Telefon Ihnen gehört. (F)
2. Ich mag Deinen Hut. Bitte sag mir ob dieses Telefon deins ist. (I)
3. Mir gefällt ihr Hut! Gehört ihnen zufällig das Telefon? (F)
4. Mir gefällt Ihr (Dein) Hut! Bitte sagen Sie / sage mir, dass dieses Telefon Ihres (Deines) ist. (F(I), (F(I), F(I)) (The phrase “sage mir” in bold is not a pronoun, but rather a more informal way to say “tell me”, which is why this person gave it as the informal option. “Sagen Sie” on the other hand is the formal version of this command. Again, because the informal is in parentheses, I am assuming they favor the formal.)
Question 8: Older Homeless Man
10-18:
1. Hallo, gehört Ihnen dieses Handy?
2. Hey, gehört dieses Telefon Ihnen?
3. Hallo ist das ihr Handy?
4. hallo, ist das ihr handy?
5. Hey ist das dein Telefon
6. Hey, ist das Ihr Handy?
7. Hey, ist das ihr Handy
8. Hey, ist das dein Handy
9. Hey, ist das Ihr Handy?
30+:
1. Entschuldigung! Gehört dieses Telefon Ihnen?
2. Hey, ist das Dein Telefon?
3. Ist das ihr Handy?
4. Hallo, ist das Ihr Telefon?
Question 9: Younger/ Older Woman
10-18:
1. Hey, gehört Ihnen dieses Handy? Ich suche schon so lange nach dem Besitzer!!
2. Hi! Gehört Ihnen dieses Telefon?
3. Hi! Gehört ihr dieses Handy? Ich habe seit so langem danach gesucht.
4. hallo ist das ihr handy, ich suche schon so lange
5. Hi! Gehört das Handy dir ich hab jetzt schon lange gesucht.
6. Hallo, ist das Ihr Handy, ich suche schon die ganze Zeit?
7. Hey ist das ihr Handy ich habe schon so lange gesucht
8. Hi ist das dein Handy ich suche schon seit so lange!
9. Hi! Ist das Ihr Handy, ich suche schon so lange danach.
30+:
1. Entschuldigung! Ist das Ihr Telefon? Ich suche schon so lange danach, wem es gehört.
2. Hallo. Ist das Telefon deins? Ich Suche schon so lange.
3. Ist das ihr Telefon? Ich suche schon lange den Eigentümer!
4. Hi! Gehört das Telefon Ihnen? Ich suche jetzt schon so lange.
Question 10: Younger/ Older Male with child
10-18:
1. Hey, gehört Ihnen dieses Handy?
2. Hallo, gehört ihnen dieses Telefon?
3. Hi, ist dies ihr Handy?
4. hi, ist das ihr handy?
5. Hi. Ist das dein Handy
6. Hallo, Ist das Ihr Handy?
7. Hey Ist das dein Handy
8. Hallo, ist das dein Handy.
9. Hi, ist das Ihr Handy?
30+:
1. Zu dem Mann: Hallo, ist das Ihr Telefon?
2. Hallo, ist das Dein Telefon?
3. Gehört das Telefon ihnen?
4. Hi, ist das Dein Telefon?
Question 11: Younger Woman as Teacher
10-18:
1. Heyy, gehört dir dieses Handy?
2. Hallo! Mir gefällt Ihre Brille, gehört Ihnen dieses Telefon?
3. Ich mag ihre Brillen! Gehört ihr dieses Handy?
4. hi, ich mag deine brille, ist das dein handy?
5. Hi. Ich mag deine Brille! Gehört dir das Handy
6. Hallo, ich mag Ihre Brille, gehört das Handy Ihnen?
7. Hey ich mag ihre Brille ist das ihr Handy
8. Hallo, ich mag ihre Brille. Ist das ihr Handy?
9. Hi! Ich mag Ihre Brille! Ist das Ihr Handy?
1. Hallo, mir gefällt Ihre Brille. Gehört Ihnen dieses Telefon?
2. Hallo. Ich mag Deine Brille. Gehört Dir das Telefon?
3. Ist das ihr Telefon?
4. Hi! Mir gefällt Deine (Ihre) Brille. Ist das Dein (Ihr) Telefon? (I(F), I(F))
(I am assuming they favor the informal, since the formal option is in parentheses)
Analysis of Data
To visualize the data I collected, I created pie charts for each question of the Google form, one for the 10-18 age group and another for the 30+ age group. Some people provided multiple options for which pronoun they would use, and for these when creating my charts, I used the first option they gave. One thing to keep in mind is that I received nine responses from the 10-18 age group, and only four from the 30+ age group. The informal is in orange and the formal is in green. (I used the website https://www.meta-chart.com/pie to create these pie charts)
Question 1: Older Male 10-18
Question 2: Younger Male 10-18
Question 3: Younger/ Older Woman with child
10-18
Question 4: Younger Woman at Coffee Shop
10-18
Question 5: Elderly Woman
Question 6: Young Boy 10-18
Question 7: Older Woman
10-18
Question 8: Older Homeless Man
10-18
Question 9: Younger/ Older Woman
10-18
Question 10: Younger/ Older Male with child 10-18
Question 11: Younger Woman as Teacher 10-18
In Question One, we can see a pretty clear consensus that the formal pronoun should be used when addressing older people, but we also see some deviation in the younger age group. The data from this question seems to support the hypothesis that younger people use the informal pronoun more than older people, as no older people used the informal, but a couple younger people did.
In Question Two, we can see that younger people indeed tend to use the informal when addressing people their age, but we can also see something interesting when looking at the results from 30+: half the participants used the formal pronouns even though they were addressing someone much younger than them. Nonetheless, this data supports the idea that younger people use the informal more.
In Questions Three and Four, we still see fewer younger people using the formal than older people, but we also notice that when the participants addressed the younger woman at the coffee shop, they used the formal more than when addressing the woman with the child. This suggests that in transactional situations, the formal is used more. It also shows us that the presence of a child most likely didn’t elicit the use of formal pronouns, as I hypothesized that it could.
In Questions Five and Six, we have a stark contrast in age, with the first person being elderly and the next being a very young boy. In Question Five, with the elderly woman, the consensus was mostly that the informal should be used, although there was a surprising number of people in the 30+ age group which used the informal, even more than in the 10-18 age group. This might just be because of the small sample size. However, in Question Six, with the young boy, every participant in each age group used the informal, which I expected.
In Question Seven, more than half of the 10-18 year old participants used the informal pronoun, which is interesting since the subject was a middle aged woman. Only a quarter of the 30+ year olds used the informal pronoun. This supports the idea that younger people use the informal more.
In Question Eight, the ratio of informal to formal pronoun use was almost exactly the same across age groups, with about a quarter people using the informal pronoun. More people in the 30+ age group used the informal pronoun for this man than they did for the other man about his age. I included this question to see if something of that sort could happen, maybe due to the economic status of the man in this question. The participants from the 10-18 age group actually used the informal just as much as they did for the man in question one, so their answers didn’t change based on economic status, maybe because of the human rights issues that the younger generations are advocating more against.
In Questions Nine and Ten, I chose people of about the same age, but different genders and the male had a small child. Interestingly, the male with the small child was addressed informally, moreso by the older generation, perhaps because of closeness in age to them. The woman in Question Eight was actually addressed much more formally by both age groups than the woman of similar age that had a child in question three. Interestingly, it seems that people with small children are being addressed more informally, and also it seems that the male with a child was addressed more formally than the woman of similar age with a child. The woman in Question Three’s face was more obscured though, so it could be argued she was perceived as being younger.
In Question Eleven, it is interesting to observe that more younger people addressed the woman in question, seen in a teaching role, more formally than the older generation did. The woman in Question Four, of similar age but as a barista, was addressed more formally only by the older generation than the woman in question eleven, although she is seen as a teacher.
These observations don’t indicate a definite disproportionality in which pronouns the younger versus older generations use; there were a few instances in which this hypothesis was supported, in addition to a few in which it was contradicted.
Limitations and Reflections
It is important to also acknowledge the limitations of this study, those being the small sample size, problems with translation exercises in general, differences between natural speech and written language, and possible differences across regions in Germany. Firstly, I was only able to gather about a dozen responses, and for this reason it is not possible to draw any definite conclusions from my data, since to get results that accurately reflect the population, a larger and more diverse sample size is needed. Also, I only received four responses from the 30+ age group, in comparison to the nine which I received from the 10-18 age group, so it is much more of a generalization for the 30+ age group. Next, the fact that this survey consisted of translation exercises might have had an impact on how participants answered the questions, as they might have been influenced by what they read in the English sentence. I decided to make this a translation exercise despite this, because I wanted to elicit more than one use of pronouns instead of just asking them to ask each person if the phone is theirs, which would elicit only a single use of the pronoun. This is important because sometimes people make a typo
or accidentally use one pronoun instead of the one they intend, and having more than one instance of the pronoun gives them a chance to correct the mistake in the other uses. We saw this in my data, where one pronoun was used once in the beginning of the sentence and the other was used multiple times in the rest of the sentence, indicating that the participant probably meant to use the second pronoun. Another limitation is that it is hard to observe how a person might speak naturally through what they write. Often, when writing people tend to be more formal, and have the chance to think more about what they say. Also, in this exercise, the observer bias, the idea that “people behave differently when they know they are observed,” is most likely even amplified due to the fact that the survey is written. I tried to instruct participants to not worry about being unnaturally formal in the instructions. But, despite this, the fact that this was a written exercise probably had an influence on the results. Another factor which might have influenced the differences in answers other than age, is the region in which each participant resides. We all know that the area in which we live influences how we speak, for example, people from the south of the United States usually speak differently than those from the north, and this also applies to Germany. Germany has a large range of very different dialects differing by region, and not only this, but like all other countries, the area you are from might have different customs than others. Because of this, the possibility that this could influence the answers to my prompts cant be ruled out.
In order to draw more probable conclusions, it might be better to conduct this study in person, and to a larger range of both younger and older participants and differing backgrounds while remaining all native German speakers in Germany, and also a range of people similar to the ones a displayed pictures of, and asking each participant to ask each person a question similar to the ones I prompted in person might result in more accurate results.
Generational differences are evident in our daily life, especially in language and customs, but can we see a significant difference in how Germans across generations address strangers? I conducted a field study to answer exactly this, the conclusion being: maybe. Due to the limitations of my study, even if I noticed a stark contrast between the two age groups, I would not be able to conclude anything definite, but although I sometimes noticed some significant differences, these were not evident in every question. Despite this, many people report that they observe these changes occurring around them, so a study which accurately captures these patterns in natural language across a larger population might pick these changes up. Why did I investigate this in the first place? It might seem that the use of pronouns can’t lead to a strong and definitive generalization regarding a group of people, but observing these kinds of changes can indeed tell us about the kinds of societal conventions this group upholds or considers significant. It is also important to recognize that changes in these conventions are not necessarily due to lack of manners; they can also signify a sort of social rebellion, or even more openness to strangers. For these reasons I think it is important to open the field of research up to these questions.
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