Re: First-person plural used for condescension
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:03 pm
Same usage in Swedish (doctor - patient, parent - child).
We talk languages
http://forum.language-learners.org/
http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5515
Ingaræð wrote:
I 'liked' Alphathon's post because I thought that what s/he wrote was a useful piece of information, particularly for non-native speakers of English. I can't see where anyone has told you off for anything...? I certainly haven't.
Ingar̄¯´œ˙´®þ¥¨ʼø,-˚˝ˍ©ƒð߯ˀ.¸ˇ˘˜˛≤¡™£¢§ˆ¶•ªªº–≠‘“,øʼ¨¥Œ̇́ ̇́‰Þ ̛̏̈Ø̦ ̦”’’»Æ№…æ searched for the æ ...d wrote:
I find it's easiest to copy and paste people's usernames. And that's not criticism, I'm just sharing a tip.
Alphathon wrote:I'm sorry if it came off as me telling you off as that certainly wasn't my intention - I was just trying to be informative.
Alphathon wrote:I have to admit I only skimmed Reineke's post (it's a little on the long side) so I must have missed that part. As such I totally misunderstood what you meant.
Alphathron wrote:Regardless, (having now read it properly) I think my point applies to that post as well, i.e. that using "we" in place of "I" (as in the royal we or the editorial we) is separate from using "we" for "you" as described in the OP. The linked paper (in English) might be relevant however (I've only read the abstract).
Alphathon wrote:For future reference ð is a letter known in Icelandic as "eth", in Faroese as "edd" and in Old English as "ðæt" (thaet). The Wikipedia article on it has info on how to enter it on Windows and OS X.vogeltje wrote:and I know that ingraed's d is a differernt letter but I can't find the correct one on my laptop.
vogeltje wrote:I knew the other one, I mean the "we" when the person means "you" becuase I know it in French (Doctors, but not often and it sounds stupid I think, for sure condescnding like the OP said in English), but I didn't know the "we" for "I" version like the royal one except that Queen Victoria said it.
Cainntear wrote:As I understand it, the "royal we" was common across much of Europe for a while, and is basically the equivalent of a French "vous" form for referring to ones self. Only kings did it because they were the only people that everyone called vous.