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In:“You can say you to me”: Address in German
Edited by Heinz L. Kretzenbacher, Horst J. Simon and Christa Dürscheid
[Topics in Address Research 7] 2026
► pp. 115–131

Chapter 6
How and why choosing the wrong form of address may make you look like a boomer or a Karen

Characterological figures on social media

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Abstract
In T/V languages, address choice is a highly sensitive communicative act. When the social media team of Deutsche Bahn adopted the informal pronoun du (T form) on Twitter, reactions were strongly polarized, ranging from enthusiasm to sharp rejection (Truan 2022). This chapter connects two sociolinguistic phenomena often studied separately: forms of address and stereotypic personae. I argue that T/V forms operate as first-order indices, linking linguistic choice to social personae: the V form indexes deference and adherence to unmarked politeness norms, while the T form indexes more relaxed internet communicative practices. Once these associations become metapragmatically noticed and commented upon, second-order indexicality emerges. Through processes of enregisterment (Agha 2003, 2005), T and V forms eventually become objectified and linked to recognizable stereotypes. In this case, defending the formal Sie on social media becomes associated with the interrelated personae of the ‘boomer’ and the ‘Karen’.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Address choice in German
  • 3.Enregisterment, characterological figures
    and personae on the Internet
  • 4.Data collection
  • 5.Playing the competent language user, or how to provoke people resisting the informal you
  • 6.“Ok Boomer” and “Ok Karen”: The V as an index for old-fashioned and entitled language users
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (38)
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