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"My"

Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
I'm fluent in two languages and know a few words in several more, and one thing they all have in common is something that, when I think about the meaning of some sentences, seems illogical and strange.

Compare these two sentences:
"This is my book."
"This is my brother."

Almost the same, but vastly different meanings. The first one means "This is a book that belongs to me", the second means "This person and I are related by brotherhood". You couldn't say "This object and I are related by bookiness", nor "This is a brother that belongs to me".

How did two meanings that are so different end up using the same words, in so many languages?
Could the use of such thing have an impact on our subconscious? As in, "This is my son/daughter, in other words he/she belongs to me"?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Interesting you mention that because I believe that in latin there was no word for my.

    Similar to the number 0, (it took us thousands of years of counting before we figured that there was such thing as zero) there is quite a leap in language I think to start conceptualising 'me'.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Google Translate seems to think Latin does have a word for it, but it could be "updated" Latin of course.

    I don't think the "my" (also "your", "his" etc) issue is related to conceptualising "me", to be honest. Having a concept of "me" makes sense, giving two different meanings to the same syntax doesn't really.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Latin does have a word for my, it's "mea", but it may be omitted if the case makes it clear.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    piccolo wrote: »
    Latin does have a word for my, it's "mea", but it may be omitted if the case makes it clear.
    You're right, I should have remembered "Mea culpa".
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think something like 'my brother' etc. does have the same meaning as 'my book'; the brotherhood belongs to you, even if the person himself doesn't, so saying something like 'my Jack' (meaning 'my brother Jack') doesn't really make sense apart from in a very possessive way, because Jack is a person whereas brother is a relationship.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    grace wrote: »
    I think something like 'my brother' etc. does have the same meaning as 'my book'; the brotherhood belongs to you, even if the person himself doesn't.

    That's a lovely way of putting it!
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    grace wrote: »
    I think something like 'my brother' etc. does have the same meaning as 'my book'; the brotherhood belongs to you, even if the person himself doesn't, so saying something like 'my Jack' (meaning 'my brother Jack') doesn't really make sense apart from in a very possessive way, because Jack is a person whereas brother is a relationship.
    I guess that's a possible explanation for how it came about, but I still find it strange that people didn't make a different word instead of "shortening" a sentence. Any linguists here?

    However it happened... What do you think about the possibility that it might work on a subconscious level to make us think of others as owned? They say that language is at the root of human intelligence. I'm not sure I agree with that, but still.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Portuguese has four word for my - meu, meus, minha, minhas.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Randomgirl wrote: »
    Portuguese has four word for my - meu, meus, minha, minhas.
    What's the difference between them?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Gender and singular/pleural of what you are talking about.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's just language and shit.

    Oh myyy, I still remember my log-in details...
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Randomgirl wrote: »
    Gender and singular/pleural of what you are talking about.
    Other languages are similar. They still basically have the same meaning then.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    What I'm trying to say is, surely language was created more like "I have this idea, how do I give it to others?" than "I made up this word, what could it mean?"
    Then it makes sense that a new idea would require a new word.

    On the other hand, maybe I have it backwards. When the first word for "my" appeared, perhaps it did always mean possession, and, in those times, some or all family members did use to be thought of as possessions.
    They're not now (except for people who should be dropped down a dark well and left to drown or eat each other and then starve) but, since that's how languages began, we still use the same construct.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Remember that language is dynamic. No one sat down and wrote a 'law' of language. It's just evolved over time, thereby introducing various oddities - English being especially odd. :)
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    It's not that a language has an oddity that puzzles me, and this isn't about English. It's that every language (that I know of) has the exact same oddity. I can't think of another oddity that's common in so many languages.
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