Re: Plural form used as quality/intensity, but not for meaning "many".
- From: "Wugi" <guido.wuyts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:06:42 +0100
Neeraj Mathur :
I'm sure you might be able to consider plural pronouns, and the verbs
agreeing with them, in your discussion. French, (older) English, and
Hindi/Urdu, for starters, all use plural personal pronouns in the second
person as an honorific (in English this has replaced the older singular
pronoun more or less completely already by Shakespeare); I suppose that
might be considered a difference of quality. It's worth pointing out that
that's not the only possible strategy to show honor (note Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian, German, Sanskrit etc. all use third person singulars
for the job), and so it might be useful in your study.
German "Sie haben" is a plural form.
In Spanish "Usted" (sing.) < "Vuestra merced", "merced" is sing., but
"vuestra" is a plural form (you people's).
So is latino Spanish "vos" (for "tu"). As was, originally, the Dutch "jij" <
medieval and Flemish "gij", then used as a polite form (like F. vous), when
it came to replace sing. "du" entirely; compare E. "you" vs. "thou".
Not sure this was a 'quality' thing, but quite a few Romance feminine words
were derived from neuter plural Latin forms. Compare It. il membro, le
membra.
As I seem to recall, feminine and neuter forms would have been derived one
from another (f<n, n<f?), in a process including change between plural and
sing., in PIE. Compare old Greek plural neuters, with their sing.
conjugation ("panta rhei").
guido
http://home.scarlet.be/~pin12499/
.
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