Re: Inherently Reflexive Verbs (was: mental masturbation)

Boudewijn Rempt <bsarempt@...> wrote:
>
> I like the idea of smuggling someone in as a servant: that ought
> to also give some idea of the difference between the servants
> language usage and that of their masters (if there's one, of
> course), and might add some interesting cultural facts.
True. I'm still deciphering what it really means to be
in the upper or lower classes in Thaqulm. I think there's
not much difference, i. e. not to the point of having to
touch the floor with your forehead when a noble passes by.
As for the speech, the upper class people probably talk
like their servants among themselves, but more politely
in front of guests, *unless* they are snobbish peasants
that just got a title.

> > My best chance, I guess, would be sending researchers of both
> > sexes, in couples, who'll be pretending they don't know each
> > other. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.
> >
>
> Wouldn't it work if they were married and both of good status?
> Perhaps they'd get invited together, then?
As I said above, there's one way to talk to guests and
another one within the family. Being servants, my researchers
could hear both kinds of conversations. But the idea of a
married couple of investigators being invited to a noble house
could be useful too. If the hosts are not xenophobic, they can
just say they're scholars from faraway lands studying the ways
of the local people, and they'll be surely treated with respect,
though maybe also not left alone -- you see, observing a phenomenon
changes it, especially if the phenomenon tries to help. :)


> (I've got it easy - except for the job of emperor and the
> state of eunuch, there's no restriction on the scope of
> women in Charya. Both the current institution of emperor
> and the presence of eunuchs are relics from the Matraian
> empire, which didn't really believe the female half of
> the population to be human. The whole subject is rather
> complex, but the gist of it is that you can't take the
> emperor and his court as typical for the Charyan culture.)
So, are they just symbolic figures? How much power does
the emperor really have? Does he delegate on ministers,
governors, etc.?

The eunuchs are a curious thing to me -- I remember now
the eunuchs at the Chinese emperors' court and that I thought
"What do they do?".


--Pablo Flores