http://www.acceity.org/2008/09/you/ A Southwest Wisconsin Blog Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:00:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.acceity.org/2008/09/you/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Eric Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:51:48 +0000 http://www.acceity.org/?p=76#comment-11 Looking at the English language as a whole, do you think that the language has become too simplified to make it so ambiguous that we have to use more words to convey meaning? In a way, this is a paradox, use less meaning in each word but use more words to carry on a conversation. This reminds me of the German, where there is the formal "Sie," which is capitalized in all cases. The only words to be capitalized in German are the beginning of sentences, nouns, and "formal" words like "Sie" (you) and "Ihr" (you all). Not even, "ich" (I) is capitalized. Do you think English is a selfish language? "I" seems more important than "you," while in other languages there is usually a formal and informal version of "you." In fact, German even has a verb called "duzen" which does not translate to English, but generally means that the people who are "duzen" are speaking on an informal level. You might even be friends for a while before "duzen" occurs. And once you are "duzen," to use the formal "Sie" with your friend is offensive. I wonder if other languages have more meaning conveyed with each version of "you." Looking at the English language as a whole, do you think that the language has become too simplified to make it so ambiguous that we have to use more words to convey meaning? In a way, this is a paradox, use less meaning in each word but use more words to carry on a conversation. This reminds me of the German, where there is the formal “Sie,” which is capitalized in all cases. The only words to be capitalized in German are the beginning of sentences, nouns, and “formal” words like “Sie” (you) and “Ihr” (you all). Not even, “ich” (I) is capitalized. Do you think English is a selfish language? “I” seems more important than “you,” while in other languages there is usually a formal and informal version of “you.” In fact, German even has a verb called “duzen” which does not translate to English, but generally means that the people who are “duzen” are speaking on an informal level. You might even be friends for a while before “duzen” occurs. And once you are “duzen,” to use the formal “Sie” with your friend is offensive. I wonder if other languages have more meaning conveyed with each version of “you.”

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