Schnappi was putting dinner on the table last night, and suddenly asked the question “do you think it’s a detriment to our society that we don’t have both a formal and informal tense in our language”?
I should note that a question of this sorts, seemingly out of nowhere, is not unusual for either of us. We often walk home from work together, and while talking about our day (me in the arts, she as an observer of policy making and politics) something will cause an axiom to fire in the other’s brain a couple blocks from home.
The line of reasoning for last night’s question was that she was wondering what I wanted to drink, and was going to ask in French. ’cause it’s funny. ’cause I wouldn’t understand what she said. But as she stood in the kitchen, she could only remember the formal (which I’ve already forgotten), and not the informal, which is obviously what would be appropriate as it was five thirty, I was in a robe and pyjamas and she in a tshirt.
I already knew where she fell on this. In fact, she devoted a blog entry to informality in dress at the theatre not even a month ago.
So I thought about it. And decided the answer was “yes”. To have no distinction between informal and formal in our language puts everyone on the same level. You have no recourse to address your superiors or those which demand respect in words other than what you use to the person sitting next to you on the couch eating Clam Chowder on a cold, wet, rainy day and swearing exuberantly at the semi-final French open match between Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova while the cats and dog sit patiently at your feet, flicking both of your with their tails while waiting for you to drop something off your spoon.
For example.
And to put everyone on the same level not only wipes away formality, but also intimacy. You could say “do you like that?” in reference to a publication you’ve put together for your boss, or…I won’t finish that sentence.
In German, interestingly enough, the singular formal is the same as the plural informal, thereby linguistically equating a mass of one’s peers to one superior.
Maybe that’s why lolspeak has taken off with its own sentence structure. Or texting colloquialisms which tend to drive the grammar hound in me crazy.
I don’t know the answer to these questions. We were just thinking about it.
And a master’s thesis called “You or Tu and Vous: exploring the decline of formality in American Society through Sociological Linguistics“ would be really interesting to write.
