Two's Company, Three's a Crowd1

Pronominal systems express information about the social relationship between participants in a speech event. A discussion of the social implications of the dyad and triad indicates how, in some pronominal systems, social distance and deference are introduced into a relationship by symbolically transforming it from a dyad to a triad. In addition, if is shown how this transformation is accomplished through the pronominal system. [cross-cultural, sociolinguistics, semantics, language and culture]