Temporal change in pronoun use and its application to cultural psychology: the case of the Russian language in the 20th century [post]

Leonid Borysenko
2017 unpublished
Pronouns have been linked to such an important dimension for comparing cultures as individualism and collectivism. I studied changes in pronoun use in the Google Books ngram database of Russian books published in 1900-2000. The frequency of all personal and possessive pronouns (in total 114 words, including 28 in the old, pre-1918 orthography) was retrieved. The results show that between 1900 and 2000 all pronouns decreased in use, except for third person plural pronouns; and significant
more » ... tions are observed during this period. Despite a century-long decrease, the period from 1960 is characterized by an increase in use for all pronouns. These results are in agreement with findings on other languages and also indicate a trend toward greater individualism.
doi:10.31234/osf.io/phjr4 fatcat:tpi3yqe22fhsbme7qsnykyyspm