Investigating the Use of Old English Second Pronoun “Thou” in Old Until Modern Stages

Abstract

This research provides a comprehensive investigation into the evolution and usage of the second-person pronoun thou across the history of English, with a particular focus on the pivotal Early Modern period when the pronoun you supplanted it as the dominant form. While previous studies have extensively documented its historical decline, a significant gap remains in understanding its residual presence in contemporary language. This study employs robust corpus linguistics methodologies, analyzing data extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to map the modern footprint of thou. A detailed examination of 12,385 instances demonstrates that thou has not vanished but persists within highly specific and marked domains. Its usage is predominantly confined to religious liturgy, literary quotations, and deliberate stylistic archaism, where it consistently carries either archaic or profoundly reverential connotations. These findings underscore a crucial linguistic phenomenon: historical forms can retain significant functional and symbolic power long after their grammatical obsolescence. This study ultimately demonstrates how archaic linguistic forms continue to exert a subtle yet persistent influence on modern English, proving that thou maintains an enduring cultural and symbolic value, serving as a marker of solemnity, tradition, and stylistic nuance.