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 mothers and adult daughters: the second person pronouns and corresponding verbal forms that they use. Due to the fact that in Hindi one of the key characteristics of these language units is the degree of politeness (intimate, 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 strata of Indian society.