[OT] African

[Ric Moore]

On Sun, 2007-01-14 at 21:31 +0800, Man-wai CHANG wrote:
> > Something like "mei" in Mandarin?
> 
> Cantonese and Mandarin/Putonghua actually are quite different. Our "no"
> response is situation-dependent, context-sensitive, and object-oriented.
> Different voice sequence for different events.

Same as in English, huh? 

Passive "No"; situation dependent; submissive tones
"No, honey, I don't mind trimming the hedges."

Withdrawn "No"; object-oriented ; cold tones
"NO, your cousin FC5 didn't treat me like this and I'm un-installing
you."

Aggressive "No"; situation-dependent; loud tones
"I've got this baseball bat, what part of 'No!' don't you understand,
chump??"   

Assertive "No"; context-sensitive; object-oriented; neutral tones
"No."

Hey, this would make a great exercise for role-plays. All the various
ways to just say "No". <scribbling furiously> 

I'm ripping this one off! Thanks Man-wai! 

Not hearing a No, Ric
<chuckles>

-- 
================================================
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256 Sign up at: http://counter.li.org/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/oar
http://www.wayward4now.net
================================================