This research study attempts to understand the linguistic ideology of
honorification in the tribal society of Santals. For ethnographic purpose,
the study has chosen three villages from the region of Asansol, located on
the western part of West Bengal. There are two important observations
worth consideration in this society. First, the physical and social
distance among certain affinal relationships is reflected in the use of
dual forms of first and second person pronouns in this society. Second,
while a stranger is greeted with the same physical and social distance as
is common in most societies s/he is addressed using singular form of
second person pronoun, something which is used invariably with
consanguineal kin members as an indication of the social proximity. Using
these two categories of affinal relationships and strangeness, this study,
therefore, delves into the fundamental question of how the concepts of
body, space and identity correlate with honorification in the Santal
society.