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Re: Verbal Inflection for Formality

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Friday, June 23, 2006, 17:41
Quoting Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>:

> ---In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote: > >Quoting Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>: > >>Furthermore, in European languages such as French, the equivalent > >>of "vous" when addressed to just one person -- in other words, formal > >>second person singular rather than second person plural -- requires > >>plural agreement in the verb. "Tu" gets singular agreement, but the > >>formal "vous" gets plural agreement even if it is addressed to just one > >>person. > > > >In German, the formal _Sie_ takes *3rd* person plural agreement, differing > >from the familiar _du_ (sg) and _ihr_ (pl). > >Eg: du bist, ihr seid, Sie sind. > > Andreas > > Yes. German, and ISTR Dutch, have formal-second-person-singular forms that > were formally third-person; as I mentioned in an earlier paragraph of the > post to which Andreas is replying.
I appear to've missed that paragraph. My apologies. [snippety-snip-snip]
> in the case of an honorific > speaker and a humble addresse, from a command to a declarative (either "I > desire that ..." or "he or she (the addressee) will ...").
ObMyConlang: In Tairezazh, formal declaratives ("X will do Y") are the usual way of giving orders. I haven't worked out the sociolinguistic history behind this yet, but it pressumably derives form of status-marking. The historical imperative remains, but doesn't have the force of a command; it's used for giving suggestions and for indicating what you'd like people to do ("pass me the salt"). Andreas