|
|
English, a Cold Language? Do we need so many Loves?
love songs? those shity cheazy commercial english songs ? wleaagh !
west-life band take that band i dont (take that) crap mate! have you ever heard of the italian OPERA ? and ARTISTIC CLASICAL MUSIC ? dont think so
///love, affection, adoration, desire, to be keen on, to care for, to like, devotation.///
they have diferent meaning : to like is not to love!
My goodness what childish arguements... It seems to have turned into a little battle over which language is the best, Romance languages or Germanic ones... I read this comment with interest:
------------------------- Loan words are not English words, even if they part of your mother's family. They are just LOAN WORDS ! YOU are not considered A MILLIONAIRE - with 60% LOANED MONEY ! ok ? ------------------------- With all due respect, this arguement does not at all hold water. Words are not comparable to money. A monetary loan is something that must be paid back. Will the English give their words back to their various sources. You said: ------------------------- My question is, is the English language cold in the emotional sense, and is that why we only have one word for love, and is that why we may in general have a hard time showing our feelings. ------------------------- Well does the amount of words we have for love really have a bearing on how easy you find expressing your feelings? I lean more to believing the opposite. The ease of showing your feelings might vaguely have a tenuous relation to the amount of words you have for love. Coming back to the point, although the word "love" is admittedly freely thrown about in the English language, when someone says "I love you" it is quite obviously not the same thing as saying "I love hamburgers". The recipiant of this phrase will not think something like, "oh is that all? i thought i meant more to you than a hamburger", because the phrase portrays the deep sence of love that it is intended to portray. The reason the Italian lady feels that English is not as expressive for her, is simply because it is not her native language. It is not the language of her heart. Its all well and good saying "nyeeh nyeeh, the latinate languages are beautiful and more expressive", but then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Often the beauty or ugliness that one finds in a language is due to racism, nationalism or jelousy. For example, My previous flatmate cringed when she heard Polish being spoken on the street. Yet I myself could not for the life of me tell the difference between Polish and her native Slovak. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is relative and one cannot be dogmatic about it. Expressiveness too is measured in how we as individuals use the ample tools available to use in each and every one of our languages, not by the amount of vocabulary nor by how many words we use with foreign origins. There are a plethora of other terms in English which individuals can use to express their personal feelings, instead of just saying what everyone else says. English is as as much a cold or inexpressive language as Italian, French or Spanish are arrogant or aggresive languages. : I'm fond of you I'm mad about you I like you I fancy you I admire you I adore you I love you I am in love with you (Try saying "I am in love with hamburgers" hein?) I love you with all my heart and soul and the list is almost endless with shades of meaning... But instead of using endless and really meaningless words to show or express our love to someone, try iinstead showing them, with actions. ***Actions speak louder than words***, so no matter how much you may use a Romance language to express your love, it is of no consequence if it is not backed up by actions. For those who think that Latinate languages are more expressive, please provide an example of a concept that can be expressed in French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, Catalan or Portuguese that *cannot* be expresed in English.
Kirk : « Another one which amuses me was the French resistance of "camera," even tho the English word comes directly from Latin (instead, they have "appareil photo[graphique]"). The same with the more recent "digital camera"--English words but wholly Latin in origin. So instead of that they opted (at least officially) for "appareil photo(graphique) numérique." »
Guest : « Well "une camera" in French is a video camera or camcorder. » Je confirme ce que dit Guest. En français [kameRa] est l'équivalent de Al <Kamera> & Es <cámara>. L'équivalent de An <camera> est Fr <appareil> <appareil photo>, comme Al <Apparat> <Fotoapparat> ou Es <cámara fotográfica> (?). Fr <caméra> & An <camera> n'ont pas le même sens. Puisqu'on parlait de l'amour et des mots de l'amour, le mot Fr <appareil> [apaREj] ne manque pas de sémantismes : 1/ tenue, toilette : <dans le plus simple appareil> = {tout nu, en tenue d'Adam, sans aucun vêtement} 2/ Al <Gerät> <Apparat> — Es <aparato> : <appareil photo>, <appareil urinaire>, <appareil communiste> etc 3/ avion. |