impolite
Posted by Elizabeth.K on August 16, 1998 at 10:07:41:
In response to addressing somebody in the third person , written by Constanza on August 13, 1998 at 15:16:40
] Both Lord Orville and Mortimer Delvile sometimes talk to Evelina and Cecilia using the third person. Do you know if that form of address usual? or was it a novel-writing-speech devise?
In some other European languages (Hungarian for instance) you would never address somebody you had never met before (and who's older than you) in the 'you' form - it is simply impolite. So in nineteenth century England some people obviously felt the same way.
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