V-form

plural V-forms · alternative V form

1. human sciencesA second-person pronoun used in formal situations, to address unfamiliar people and superiors.

   In the Erzin dialect, children address their parents with the V-form; to use the T-form would show a lack of respect for parents.

   2002, The Bible Translator

   3 more examples

   But cross-linguistically one finds that plural pronouns are predominant for the V-form. Again, there may well be a universal here that a plural address implies respect and that the singular pronoun implies a personal, i.e. intimate type of address.

   2003, Irma Taavitsainen, Andreas H. Jucker, editors, Diachronic Perspectives on Address Term Systems

   Typically, the informal pronominal address term (T-form) is the original second-person pronoun (Latin tu; Germanic du) and the polite or formal V-form is a plural form.

   2012, Marcel Bax, Dániel Z. Kádár, Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness

   ... in March 2010 Ikea's Swiss website in German, French and Italian used the V-form except when addressing prospective job applicants.

   2014, Challenging the Monolingual Mindset