Fun Stuff > CHATTER
English is weird
Case:
That's pretty much how Germans use their 2nd person singular and plural ("Du" und "Sie", respectively) - usually, only familiar people, or children are addressed with the singular. Amongst adults the 2nd person plural is standard, and formally correct is to "offer somebody the 'Du'" as a token of familiarity and friendship, though that is changing, too. In the olden times, children would address their parents with "Sie", whereas the parents used the "Du", as a sign of the difference in rank. Using the singular with a stranger (especially when they've used the plural form before) can express contempt - a sign that you don't take them seriously.
The 2nd person plural is more formal and distant, and can hence be used as an exhortation to behave like an adult - bit like what your granddad did with you. My teachers switched to the 2nd person plural once we completed the secondary education first stage (German equivalent of high school) -most would offer us the "du" again, but one flat-out refused to address us with "du" again, stating that now that we had completed the mandatory part of schooling, he'd address us like adults and expected us to behave accordingly. Definitely grabs your attention.
As a TA, I use the 2nd person plural when I address students - some try to get me to use the singular, and I don't get mad at them when they do, but I stay with the more formal plural.
Method of Madness:
The other night when I jokingly chastised someone (inside my car, not to them) who cut me off while driving in a "curse you, sir or madam!" That got me thinking...what's the gender neutral sir/madam? My girlfriend and I agreed on "esteemed individual," but is there actually something people use?
LTK:
In the sentence "They have come before you," "before" can have opposite meanings. It can mean "in front of", or "earlier". The former refers to a spatial forward direction while the latter refers to a temporal backward direction, assuming we face the future in our imagined orientation in time. Isn't that weird?
sitnspin:
Cleave can mean either to hold on tight or to split apart. Many English words have multiple and contradictory meanings.
LTK:
Ah, but those simply have different etymologies.
--- Quote ---From Middle English cleven, from the Old English strong verb clēofan (“to split, to separate”), from Proto-Germanic *kleubaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, to slice”). Cognate with Dutch klieven, dialectal German klieben, Swedish klyva, and Ancient Greek γλύφω (glúphō, “carve”).
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---From Old English cleofian, from Proto-Germanic *klibjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gleybʰ- (“to stick”). Cognates include German kleben, Dutch kleven.
--- End quote ---
"Before" has only one etymology. But wait, could it be related to ranking? What is before you, cannot be after you. Can it be said that the king stands before the peasant, but the peasant cannot stand before the king? After all, the first comes before the second, but the second cannot come before the first.
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