Address Choice in Dutch 1: Variation and the Role of Domain

This article reports on research into the use of Dutch forms of address (i.e. the second-person pronouns u and je/jij) among students in the Netherlands and their parents. It takes the address model proposed by Clyne et al. in Language and Human Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2009) as its theoretical inspiration, and homes in on domain as a factor for the choice of address form. The article is based on the quantitative analysis of a questionnaire in which respondents were asked which pronoun they used to address a variety of interlocutors. The article also tries to map changes in the use of Dutch address pronouns in the last two decades on the basis of a global comparison with an earlier study.