V-form

English

Alternative forms

• V form

Etymology

From the first letter of the second-person plural pronoun in Romance languages; ultimately from Latin vos.

Noun

V-form (plural V-forms)

1. (linguistics) A second-person pronoun used in formal situations, to address unfamiliar people and superiors.
   • 2002, The Bible Translator:

     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.

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

     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.

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

     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.

   • 2014, Challenging the Monolingual Mindset:

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

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “formal second-person pronoun”): T-form

Translations

formal second-person pronoun

• Finnish: teitittelymuoto