You are what you is : verbal agreement variation and change in Early Modern Dutch
- Author
- Anne Breitbarth (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- Much ink has been spilled over the question how the pronoun u'you' came to be used as a polite form of address in subject function in the history of Dutch, and the role epistolary forms of address played in it. What has so far escaped attention is the form that verbal agreement takes with u. In present-day Dutch, there is variation in verbs that have distinct second and third person forms. The current paper traces the diachronic development of this variation in a corpus of letters from the 17th and 18th centuries and argues that the present-day variation is the result of top-down and bottom-up tendencies: the downward spread of upper class (written) forms of address requiring third person agreement and the initial use of the position-dependent agreement system of gij, and analogical pressure against it, from below.
- Keywords
- verbal agreement, pronouns, epistolary forms of address, historical sociolinguistics, Early Modern Dutch
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01KC19DRCVD8X12C5H3CT372BN
- MLA
- Breitbarth, Anne. “You Are What You Is : Verbal Agreement Variation and Change in Early Modern Dutch.” TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE, vol. 142, no. 1, 2026, pp. 1–24, doi:10.5117/TNTL2026.1.001.BREI.
- APA
- Breitbarth, A. (2026). You are what you is : verbal agreement variation and change in Early Modern Dutch. TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE, 142(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.5117/TNTL2026.1.001.BREI
- Chicago author-date
- Breitbarth, Anne. 2026. “You Are What You Is : Verbal Agreement Variation and Change in Early Modern Dutch.” TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE 142 (1): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.5117/TNTL2026.1.001.BREI.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Breitbarth, Anne. 2026. “You Are What You Is : Verbal Agreement Variation and Change in Early Modern Dutch.” TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE 142 (1): 1–24. doi:10.5117/TNTL2026.1.001.BREI.
- Vancouver
- 1.Breitbarth A. You are what you is : verbal agreement variation and change in Early Modern Dutch. TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE. 2026;142(1):1–24.
- IEEE
- [1]A. Breitbarth, “You are what you is : verbal agreement variation and change in Early Modern Dutch,” TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE, vol. 142, no. 1, pp. 1–24, 2026.
@article{01KC19DRCVD8X12C5H3CT372BN,
abstract = {{Much ink has been spilled over the question how the pronoun u'you' came to be used as a polite form of address in subject function in the history of Dutch, and the role epistolary forms of address played in it. What has so far escaped attention is the form that verbal agreement takes with u. In present-day Dutch, there is variation in verbs that have distinct second and third person forms. The current paper traces the diachronic development of this variation in a corpus of letters from the 17th and 18th centuries and argues that the present-day variation is the result of top-down and bottom-up tendencies: the downward spread of upper class (written) forms of address requiring third person agreement and the initial use of the position-dependent agreement system of gij, and analogical pressure against it, from below.}},
author = {{Breitbarth, Anne}},
issn = {{0040-7550}},
journal = {{TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NEDERLANDSE TAAL-EN LETTERKUNDE}},
keywords = {{verbal agreement,pronouns,epistolary forms of address,historical sociolinguistics,Early Modern Dutch}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{1--24}},
title = {{You are what you is : verbal agreement variation and change in Early Modern Dutch}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.5117/TNTL2026.1.001.BREI}},
volume = {{142}},
year = {{2026}},
}
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