delocutives [was Graha epithets (tArA,tArakA and tAraka)]

[George Thompson]

Dear Dominique et al,

Perhaps I misunderstand Benveniste, but it seems to me that even in your
interpretation of the terms 'totoyer' and 'vouvoyer' both may still be
understood as delocutives. The expression 'etre a tu et a toi avec
quelqu'un' seems to me to refer to a discourse convention, so that the verb
formation can be said to derive from such a convention, rather than from
the normal morphological system of French. I think that these constructions
are very much like the Skt ones mentioned: ahaMkAra, asmitA, etc. But
perhaps I am using the term 'delocutive' too loosely.

Best wishes,
George

>At 18:15 +0100 10/12/97, George Thompson wrote:
>>In response to Jonathan Silk's post:
>>>I am entirely unaware of any verbs such as 'to encore', or 'to yes'.
>
>        In the case of 'to yes', Benveniste give a reference at: Mencken,
>The American language, p.195.
>
>>Consider other examples: in French one can 'tutoyer' and 'vouvoyer' ['to
>>address as *tu* or *vous*']
>
>        Despite Benveniste advice, I don't believe this two verbs beeing
>delocutives. 'tutoyer', with the reduplication 'tu' + 'toi' seems a
>formation parallel to the expression 'etre a tu et a toi avec quelqu'un'.
>It covers the two cases 'sujet' and 'regime' of the ancient French, two
>forms unable to be in the same elocution. Hence, it is more
>'demorphological' (!?!) than delocutive. 'vouvoyer' or 'voussoyer' are
>formed by analogy.
>
>        Sorry for this small non-Indological parenthesis.
>Dominique
>
>PS: George, I'm yet trained to write free-mindly my poor English, that's no
>more an ordeal ;-)
>
>Dominique THILLAUD
>Universite' de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France