3 ms·
In Bulgarian there is "double inferential" mood, used to relate reported speech about the speaker. Usually used when the speaker got drunk and has no memory of
by JBiserkov 2y ago
In Bulgarian there is "double inferential" mood, used to relate reported speech about the speaker.
Usually used when the speaker got drunk and has no memory of the thing they did. a.k.a. "past forgotten" tense. The double inferential also reflects the fact that the witness account maybe inaccurate/exaggerated either because the witness(es) were themselves drunk or because they knew the speaker cannot dispute their account.
The most extreme form is when the speaker doesn't even remember getting drunk ("Бил съм се бил напил.) and/or getting in a fight ("Бил съм се бил бил.").
The extra pun comes from "fought" and "was" being spelled and pronounced the same.
It also rhymes.
- adriand 2y agoThat’s so interesting and also kind of crazy. Do these forms of speech come with their own verb conjugations and so on, making them difficult for people who learn the language as a non-native speaker? What about young children, do they understand it?
- anticensor 2y agoYes, it does.
- eastbound 2y agoIs the purpose only when getting drunk and did it arise out of an alcohol culture? (If so, why doesn’t British English have more tenses) I often joke that Polish has several singulars and several plurals, because you know, 1-2 beers is singular, 3-4 is just tipsy, 4-6 is a real drink, but 4-24 is a real plural. But after 25+, you don’t remember so might as well restart from 0. But it’s a joke, because it applies to other things than beer. So, do they use that tense for ministers/news reporting, or in jokes, or when a program reports errors from the user?
- JBiserkov 2y agoI guess it's also used when one (usually disapprovingly) tells a story/accusation about themselves from a third party's perspective.