In the modern world, the hierarchical social structures of a traditional society (including the extended family) are undergoing serious changes, which are reflected on the communicative level. The paper considers one of the aspects of communication between the mother and and adult daughter: the forms of pronouns and verbs of the second person that they use. Due to the fact that in Hindi one of the key characteristics of these language units is the degree of subordination (familiar, neutral or honorific), examination of these units' behavior in the texts allows us to draw conclusions about the features of the hierarchical relations between the participants of communication. The study is based on the two stories by Krishna Sobti (a classic of contemporary Hindi literature), reflecting problems faced by women from different segments of Indian society.