This chapter deals with a system of terms of address and self-reference in the Mongolian of Ulaanbaatar, capital of the Mongolian state. It first deals with the morphological strategies (politeness and definiteness marking, respectively) that are used to extend the reference of regular inalienable person-referring nouns to second and first person referents. Based on ten interviews, it then presents the semi-closed set of person-referring nouns that this system is based on: terms for relatives, friends, lovers, and marginally professions. Semantic extensions between these categories as well as into the category of strangers are described and partially explained through the interplay of factors such as the social background of the interlocutors and communicative intent.
