Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Politeness

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Wednesday, March 27, 2002, 14:42
Williams Annis wrote:
> >interrogative form may or may not *exist*, but it would rarely be > >used. "Where is the door?" would translate to something like, "If > >you would tell me the location that is the door." > > This is how English speakers (American ones, at any rate) give >polite commands, by giving indirect questions or suggestions: "could >you close the door". > > I believe polite commands in Hindi use some sort of >multi-causative construction, implying, as I recall, that the person >you're asking to do something has armies of servants in a hierarchy >waiting to his bidding. > > Vaior allows a passive-causative construction along this line, >assuming the verb in question isn't already a derived causative. This >is very polite. You can also use the moderating particle 'úai' after >an imperative to tone down a command: > > fauni enen maven úai - "close the door please" > faun-aunin-i enen maven úai - "please cause the door to be closed" > >(-au- marks the passive, -nin- the causative).
The normal way to be moderately polite in Tairezazh is to employ a simple imperative, eg _tsair lis tar_ "give that to me". Alternatively, you can switch to subjunctive, eg _sha tsaist lep fe tar?_ "would you give that to me?", which's somewhat more polite. If you feel like being markedly impolite, you can use a bare indicative _sha tsaist lis tar_ "you will give that to me", the implication being that the person you're addressing has no choice in the matter. This form is also common for legitimate commands; eg a officier ordering around his troops or a teacher telling his/her students what to read before the next lesson. Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com