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“it doesn’t seem to make grammatical sense” To people familiar with standard American and British English, perhaps, but it's written by Indian English speakers
by TazeTSchnitzel 5y ago
“it doesn’t seem to make grammatical sense”
To people familiar with standard American and British English, perhaps, but it's written by Indian English speakers for an Indian audience. Perhaps it's not ungrammatical in that language variety?
- unmole 5y ago> Perhaps it's not ungrammatical in that language variety? Indian English rarely differs in grammatical constructs from other varieties. It makes no sense in Indian English either.
- OJFord 5y agoAs a native BrE speaker learning Hindi, what I notice most (if not entirely) is phrases/styles/devices borrowed from Hindi (and probably other Indo-Aryan languages), translated and applied in English. For example: 'I myself have noticed this' (likely translating ही emphatic particle - a BrE speaker would almost certainly not say 'myself' at all, unless responding to someone saying they had noticed something perhaps, and then it would be at the end of the sentence) similarly 'I/me only' & 'even I'. Or 'slowly-slowly' (धीरे-धीरे) and other adverbs - while BrE does use repetition for emphasis I'd say it's not nearly as common, and typically not adverbs.
- phillc73 5y agoI noticed this repetition for the first time in South African English. The phrase "just now" means sort of now-ish, maybe in the next 30 minutes, maybe even tomorrow. Whereas the phrase "now now" means immediately.
- OJFord 5y agoHa, interesting. (From comments I gather you're in the UK, but for the benefit of others 'just now' here would be a very short time ago; in the past: phillc commented just now.) I've struggled to explain the nuanced variations in meaning of 'quite' in BrE to a Canadian, depending on tone and other words that really have no right to make any difference. (Think 'quite nice' vs. 'really quite nice'; 'a bit' vs. 'quite a bit'. "That makes no sense", she said. Well quite.)
- phillc73 5y agoI might still use "just now" in future tense. "I'll do that just now." However, to me, this would mean very soon. Not necessarily in South Africa. "I'll be there just now" - you might be waiting for a while! It took me quite some time to adapt my expectations.
- OJFord 5y agoAh yes I can just about hear that - probably regional variation, I wouldn't use it that way myself.
- selimthegrim 5y ago>For example: 'I myself have noticed this' More likely ‘main khud’ - ‘main hi’ would be explicitly comparative
- koliber 5y agoThis is interesting. I see where you are going with this. I had the good fortune of spending a month travelling in India in 2011. A phrase that came to mind immediately when I read your comment was: photo OK mister The way it was spoken was not quite a question, and not quite a statement. It was clear what the speak meant though: "May I take a photo of/with you?" I wonder if this is indeed a way of phrasing "Honk when passing" using a type of pidgin.
- mattbee 5y agoIndian English is definitely a language with its own grammar and word forms. My favourite phrase from Indian customers confirming they wanted something done - "please do the needful".
- selimthegrim 5y agoI think do the needful is old UK argot? Not sure about condole though
- albert_e 5y agoI am arguably an expert in Indian English and I can assure you the phrase "Horn OK Please" does not have any meaning nor is it grammatically correct.