“Thank you, Jirka, for helping…” Combining first names and formal address pronoun in the communication of Czech Twitter users
Abstract
The article deals with forms of address combining a first name and the 2nd person formal pronoun (similarly to the French Vous) in different types of communication situations on Twitter. It shows how this specific way of addressing is used 1) in corporate communica-tion with customers, 2) in tweets expressing positive or negative evaluation of the addressee, in the latter case often as part of ironically intended statements.
It further demonstrates that the politeness of nominal and pronominal address is closely related to so-called referential politeness, i.e., how someone is referred to in the 3rd person singular. The analysis also confirmed that reciprocity is an important principle determining whether a mode of address is considered im/polite.