4 ms·
My biggest problem with English is the lack of different "you"s. If I say "you can't do that", what does this mean? 1) "you" as a concept: nobody at all can d
by silvestrov 3y ago
My biggest problem with English is the lack of different "you"s. If I say "you can't do that", what does this mean?
1) "you" as a concept: nobody at all can do this.
2) "you" as a specific person: only one person can't do this. Other people can do it.
3) "you" as a group: Nobody in the group (or the group as a whole) can do this.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lotsofspots 3y agoI like how the phrase "I didn't say she stole my wallet." changes meaning completely depending on which word(s) you emphasise.
- computator 3y agoIt's fun to spell out 7 the different meanings you can get: - I didn't say she stole my wallet. Tom saw it happen and he's the one who said she stole my wallet. - I didn't say she stole my wallet. You're making up something I never said. - I didn't say she stole my wallet. Maybe I suspected her, but I never actually said it. - I didn't say she stole my wallet. Someone stole it, but I don't know who it was. - I didn't say she stole my wallet. She took it, but for safekeeping after I forgot it at the restaurant. - I didn't say she stole my wallet. I did see her steal a wallet, but it wasn't mine. - I didn't say she stole my wallet. She stole my money but left the wallet exactly where it was. It's a great example of how written speech doesn't capture all the nuance of spoken words. Well, italics helps, but hearing it makes a bigger impact.
- OJFord 3y agoI believe this is because/relates to English being a 'stress-timed' language; others (such as Hindi) have 'emphatic particles' that emphasise the word they're attached to, and make more use of words like 'too' in 'I too would like some water' for this effect.
- mnw21cam 3y agoNumber one on that list is covered by the word "one". That usage has mostly fallen by the wayside, and I think that's an indication that we didn't really need to make that distinction. There are also other ways to word it to make the meaning clear.
- misnome 3y agoI mean, "one" can also mean "Myself" (which is in my mind more immediate than "one" as a general group). So it doesn't exactly solve and possibly makes it worse.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y agoMy feeling is that the use of "one" refer specifically to oneself rather than "anyone" is actually an attempt to gain status through generalization. That is, "one" used instead of "myself" is an indication of social climbing, not synonymity between the terms.
- CollinEMac 3y agoIt totally blew my mind when I found out Spanish has different words for these: "se" (1), "tú"/"usted" (2), "ustedes"/"vosotros" (3)
- Izkata 3y ago3 would be "you all" or "y'all"; it's from a particular dialect in the US, so might sound odd, but would be understood.
- OJFord 3y agoThe non-dialectal way would be 'you can all do this'. (It's a bit more interesting, or at least more example-dependent, in the negative.)