T-V distinction has to do with languages that have a formal and an informal 2nd person pronoun. This article came up in one of my interpreter chat groups, the conversation having to with how one handles a client demanding use of formal pronouns when the situation clearly dictates otherwise. This is a common situation for medical and legal interpreters when the person for whom they are serving as interpreter is a child. In many languages that have T-V distinction, the rare time the formal is used with a child is when they are in trouble, similar to how some English speaking parents might address their child by their full and complete name to indicate a high degree of irritation with them. Anyway... The article itself delves into the idea of whether coming from a T-V language make you more or less aware of social and hierarchal intricacies than speakers of languages that have no T-V distinction. Language, thought and T-V distinction (Sorry for the atrocious state of the post as it was originally written. Back trouble + medication for back trouble = Impossible to follow post)
To clarify, a T-V distinction is when a language has a polite and an informal second person form. The T and V are from Latin 'tu' and 'vos'. It has nothing to do with television.
