Re: Phaleran Imperatives and Politeness markers

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Jesse Bangs wrote:
> > I'm immediately struck that none of these are the same!  That is
> > certainly a lot to remember, although I suppose any one person would only
> > have to know one line of the chart.  Still, I would expect that some of
> > these would repeat.  What are the etymologies of the clitics?
>
> And it does seem to be unusually systematic.  One would expect it to be
> a bit more complicated, varying depending on many different
> circumstances, like, relative age, or context, so that one could choose
> a more flattering form of address if, for example, one were requesting a
> favor.  And what about within a social class?  There relative age might
> be very important, the young having to use polite terms of address for
> their elders within the same social class.
All very true.  I haven't worked out every possible way of doing this, and
all of those are good suggestions.  I can get around to those other dimensions
later. As for right now, I don't think the systematicity is as big a problem as it
could be (as long as the historical scenarios that back it up are plausible).
I think it needs tweeking more than overhauling.

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
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