Usage of the Second Person Singular Pronouns 'Thou and Thee' in 1830s English Literature

Full text

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Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador
Applied Linguistics for Teaching
Linguistic Investigation
Mtr. Janine Matts
“Usage of the Second Person Singular Pronouns 'Thou and Thee' in
1830s English Literature”
Marcela Saltos Bourgeat
12/9/15

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Abstract
This paper describes and interprets the different usages of the second person singular pronoun
thou (in nominative position) and thee (in objective position) inside a corpus of literary works
form the 1830s English Literature. The usages are based on the relationship of the interlocutors
adapted from David Crystal (2004) and Dennis Freeborn (1992) reflected in the context of the
poem or short story. This paper provides information about the most recurrent usages of the
pronouns as markers of social difference inside that determined period of time.

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Introduction
Literature Review
In the modern English we speak today there are no personal pronouns that carry within
themselves a social distance distinction. For those ends, English uses modals to express this
social connotations and levels of politeness. (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 161).
Nevertheless, it was not always like that. In the 14
th
century French started having a great
influence over the English Language of that time. For that reason, English start to imitate the
pragmatic notion that French personal pronouns tu and vous carried within themselves at that
time and still now. In order to understand better, in French tu is used to denote a sense of
familiarity or proximity, while vous is destined to address to people we are not yet acquaintances
or in very formal contexts. Vous is also a way to show respect for your superiors which could be
teachers or bosses. For the French system of hierarchy to make this social distinctions is really
important (Capelle & Menand, 15). This differentiation system comes from the Latin form tu
and its plural vos used in the 4
th
century to mark the social distance between the emperors and
their servants (Brown &Gilmal, 255).The T-V distinction was also present in other romance
languages derived from Latin. Among them we have Old French, Spanish, Italian and
Portuguese. The relationships in which T-V distinction was used were those representing power
differences like in older than, parent of, employer of, richer than, nobler than, etc. (Brown
&Gilmal, 257).
Back into the topic, English speakers wanted to have this distinction in their pronouns aswell so
they start using ye/you (the second person plural pronouns in nominative and objective position)
with a meaning that denoted politeness. In relation to the second person singular pronouns thou
and thee, they were said to be used in three important senses at that time which are familiarity,
contempt or anger. Nevertheless, when exploring the literary works of that century, it was
evident that those usages were not stable yet. They were far from stable, and many writers appear
to use the forms indiscriminately (Blake, 219-220).
Time was passing and it was not until the 16
th
century when the use of thou/ thee and their plural
counterparts ye/you was established as markers of social difference. 16
th
century literature makes
this distinction very clear. Language carries culture and in that century the difference between
monarchy, royalty and common people was pretty marked. So it was the manner to address to the

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people in your environment in fiction of your position and theirs. In this way we could see that a
superior used thou to an inferior, who had to address the superior with you in the hierarchical
sense of the use. Also a relationship of friendship or intimacy was marked this way. You began
to use thou when you reach a more intimate relationship with that person (Freeborn, 310-313).
Shakespearean English also shows contextualized examples of this. If you follow carefully the
plot of the plays and the characters interaction you could see how the author describes the
superior-inferior addressing relationship (Crystal, 75).
Moving on, during the Early Modern English Period the socially conditioned and emotionally
expressive uses appear in literary and religious texts. In the Durham Depositions, which are
records of the ecclesiastical court of Durham, showed that the usage of thou start to become
more regular in the oral speech not only by clerks but also for believers who starts using that
form first found in written religious text now used for familiar conversations and everyday
interactions, at least in the context of the believers community (Kastovsky, 143).
Continuing with the religious contexts where thou and thee can be found, we can say that even
now a days the famous prayer in the Catholic believe “Our Father” still maintains these pronouns
and believers when praying keep thou and thee. The Bible itself in its English version contains
second personal singular pronouns. Richard Anthony mentions that “The English words "thou,
thee, thy and thine" are translated from an emphatic Greek and Hebrew personal pronoun,
stressing the identity of the one being addressed to the exclusion of all others.” He exemplifies
this social distinction with one passage of the Bible from the book of Samuel that goes:
“2 Samuel 7:23, "And what one nation in the earth is like THY people, even like Israel,
whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for YOU
great things and terrible, for THY land, before THY people, which THOU redeemedst to THEE
from Egypt. Here David prayed to God in the second person singular, but referred to the people
of Israel as "You." What confusion could result if this important distinction were done away? It
could be incorrectly thought that David was praying in part to the nation, or that the land
belonged to the people and not to God.”
This extract is just one taste of the relationship with God represented with pronoun thou. It is
pretty clear that it represents familiarity and that is the reason why people in that time used thou
to call God, not because he is not a superior because he is, but because God is close to them

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(Crystal, 46) This assumption was also found in the book ‘The History of the English Language’
where it is mentioned that the old singular forms thou/thee are only retained in poetry and formal
writing. Therefore it is not easy to know exactly when and how quickly they were replaced in
speech (Blake, 219)
Justification
Many authors and experts have described the evolution of the English language through time.
One of them is David Crystal (2004) who discuss the history of the English language from its
roots to the English we speak today. However, the usages of the forms thou/thee (second person
singular pronoun) have changed since their origin in Old English period until the Early Modern
English period (Blake, 1996). Therefore, this investigation aims to describe and interpret the use
of those forms in a corpus of works from the 1830s English Literature and identify their usages
according to the pragmatics of that time and the hierarchical distinction of the interlocutors.
Research Questions
The questions this paper seeks to answer are:
1. Which are the types of uses of the second person subject and object pronouns thou/thee in
1830s English Literature?
2. How is the second person subject pronoun thou use as a marker of social difference?
3. Which would be the most recurrent use of thou/thee?

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Methodology
The literary works have been selected according to the period of time when they were written
and published. All of them inside the period of the 1830s English Literature. Also, it has been
taken into account the presence of pronoun thou/thee inside them in order to conduct the
analysis. Finally, it is important to remark that all of those works have been written originally in
English. This process of selection led to come up with the following corpus:
1. The Captive Of Fez (Canto Iii): Mother And Son by Thomas Aird.
2. Corn Law Rhymes by Ebenezer Elliott.
3. The Descent into Hell by John Herald
4. Satan by Robert Montgomery
5. The Underlying One and Others Poems by Caroline Norton
6. Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces by Charles Tennyson
7. The Assignation by Edgar Allan Poe
8. The Pleasure of Hope by Thomas Campbell
9. The Dream of Eugene Aram, the Murderer by Thomas Hood
10. Acon and Rhodor by Walter Savage Landor
Tools
The following chart shows the usages based on the relationship of the interlocutors adapted from
the descriptions of David Crystal (2004) and Dennis Freeborn (1992) reflected in the context of
the poem or short story.
Second person singular subject and object pronouns thou and thee are used when:
Case 1: People of high social rank address to those who are below them.
Case 2: Denoting sense of familiarity, friendship or intimacy.
Case 3: Low/Middle class people addressing to each other.
Case 4: When addressing God

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Case 5: When talking to ghosts, witches, and other supernatural beings
Case 6: When imaginary addressing imaginarily to someone/something who was absent
Case 7: As a sign of a change (contrasting with you) in the emotional temperature of an
interaction.
Analysis
1. The Captive Of Fez: (Canto III) Mother And Son
“…Downcast her eyes; upon her hand she leant
Her cheek of sorrow: for the song was spent.
“Zara!” the Chieftain said, “dear sister-twin!
Heed'st thou not me?..”
Case 1 is present because the Chieftain is superior to Zara in social status.
“…But grief nor years have hurt my love for thee…
Come to this heart, my brother ever dear!
O thou twin-being of my life! can I
Forget thy love for me so pure and high,
In our young days?”
Case 2 is also present because Zara addresses the Chieftain not as a superior but as her
brother who she loves greatly.
2. Corn Law Rhymes: The Wanderer Returned
“I seek my native home,
Resolv'd no more in gorgeous wilds to roam;
Again I look on thee, thou loveliest stream!”
Case 6 is present in this poem because the wanderer is addressing to the elements of
nature in his home town where he has just returned.
3. The Descent into Hell (Adam)
“Thy maker bears the whole Death’s sacrament…and yet his Life thou art!
For unto thee I gave my Living soul”
Case 1 is present here because the narrator is God’s voice talking to Adam about the
moment of his creation.
4. Satan
“Oh Thou, whose judgment weights the heart,
If ever with presuming eye

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I dare to dream Thee as Thou art
And faintly shadow The Most High”
Case 5 is present here because the narrator is talking to the devil.
5. The Underlying One and Others Poems
“I WAS not false to thee, and yet
My cheek alone looked pale;
My weary eye was dim and wet,
My strength began to fail.
Thou wert the same; thy looks were gay,
Thy step was light and free…”
Case 2 is present here because the narrator is talking to someone with who she has had a
common background or past. A denotation of familiarity.
6. Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces (To the Lark)
“Am I up with thee, light-hearted minion!...
And with such vocal token of wild ease
Thou dost reveal your proud immunity…”
Case 2 is present here but this time the sense of intimacy and implicit admiration goes
toward the lark which is an element of nature.
7. The Assignation
“Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine”
Case 2 is present in this section because the narrator found a poem written for the most
beautiful woman in Venice. The poem detonates affection and intimacy.
“Stay for me there! I will not fail
To meet thee in that hollow vale.”
Case 5 is present here because the narrator is saying this quote to the ghost of a dead
man.
8. The Pleasure of Hope
“And say, when summon'd from the world and thee
I lay my head beneath the willow tree,

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Wilt thou, sweet mourner! at my stone appear…”
Case 1 is present here because the narrator is a citizen who used to felt inferior to the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland but after the partition of Poland believes he is free so it
is not a subordinate anymore and assumes the superior position.
9. The Dream of Eugene Aram, the Murderer
“And now, from forth the frowning sky,
From the Heaven’s topmost height,
I heard a voice —the awful voice
Of the blood-avenging Sprite: —
Thou guilty man! take up thy dead,
And hide it from my sight!”
Case 1 is present in this extract because a powerful creature (angel) is talking, more like
recriminating, the murderer for his crime. That creature has a more powerful status than
the murderer.
10. Acon and Rhodope
“The father said "Echion! thou must weigh,
Carefully, and with steady hand, enough
(Although no longer comes the store as once!)
Of wax to burn all day and night upon…”
Case 1 is present here because Echion’s father is superior in rank to him. Therefore the
way to address to him is with thou.
“Crush thy own heart, Man! Man! but fear to wound
The gentler, that relies on thee alone..”
Case 3 is present here because both Acon the narrator and Rhodope the listener belong to
the same middle social class.

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Data
The Captive Of Fez: Canto Iii: Mother And
Son
Case 1, Case 2
Corn Law Rhymes
Case 6
The Descent into Hell
Case 1
Satan
Case 5
The Underlying One and Others Poems
Case 2
Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces
Case 2
The Assignation
Case 2, Case 5
The Pleasure of Hope
Case 1
The Dream of Eugene Aram, the Murderer
Case 1
Acon and Rhodor by Walter Savage Landor
Case 1, Case 3
Case 1) 5 out of 10
Case 2) 4 out of 10
Case 3) 1 out of 10
Case 4) 0 out of ten
Case 5) 2 out of 10
Case 6) 1 out of 10
Case 7) 0 out of 10
CASES

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Conclusions:
 Second person singular pronouns thou/thee were most commonly used as markers of
social distance in the 1830s English Literature corpus presented.
 Second person singular pronouns thou/thee were also used very frequent to denote
familiarity or intimacy.
Suggestions for further research:
Another study with a corpus of English Literature posterior to the 1830s will help to see if the
uses of the second person singular pronouns thou/thee changed or vary too much from this
period of time.

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Bibliography:
1. Blake, N. (1996). A History of The English Language. PALGRAVE: New York
(pg 219-220) “The use of ye/you with a singular meaning was prompted by politeness
and the influence of French; it was found already clear in the 14th century” “The old
singular forms thou/thee are retained in poetry and formal writing, and so it is difficult to
detect how quickly they were replaced in speech.” “...Thou and Thee can express
familiarity, contempt or anger. This usage was far from stable, and many writers appear
to use the forms indiscriminately”
2. Freeborn, D. (1992), From Old English to Standard English: A Course Book in Language
Variation Across Time. PALGRAVE: New York
(310-313) “The grammatically singular forms thou/thee and plural ye/you were used as
markers of social difference. A superior used thou to an inferior, who had to address the
superior with you. A friendly relationship was also marked this way. You began to use
thou when you reach a more intimate relationship with that person” “The social meaning
of thou and ye had been established before the 16th century.”
3. Brown, R. and Gilman, A. 1960.The Pronouns of Power and Solidarityin T.A. Sebeok
(ed), Style in Language, MIT Press, 1960, pp.253-76
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teacher's course. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
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Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.
6. Crystal, David. "The Origins of English." The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
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8. Brown, Roger, and Albert Gilman. "The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity." The Bobbs-
Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences (1960): 253-76.
9. Crystal, David, and Ben Crystal. "Explore Shakespeare's Works Like Never Before."
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10. Howe, S. (1996). The personal pronouns in the Germanic languages: A study of personal
pronoun morphology and change in the Germanic languages from the first records to the
present day. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
11. Collins, K. Thee and Thou—and the Great Pronoun Famine .Taken from:
http://www.kencollins.com/explanations/why-05.htm
12. Capelle, G. & Menand, R. (2009) Le Noveau Taxi Methode de Francais. Hachette Livre:
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