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[Question] „She knows her semantics“: Excessive use of posessive pronouns in English (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by ChaoticNeutralCzech@lemmy.ml to c/linguistics@lemmy.ml

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Phrases like know one's [general subject of interest] are very annoying to me because they seem rather self-centered. I am obviously fine with knows his way around or Know Your Customer because the use of possesive pronouns is appropriate.
On the other hand, now I know my ABCs is atrocious because the modern Latin alphabet obviously does not and never did belong to a single person, and has been used by billions of people in the last few centuries.

Do you know other English phrases with unnecessary posessive or personal pronouns? Do they exist in other languages? Is there a name for this linguistic phenomenon? Where do I complain? ~/s~

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[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I usually interpret this as the subject being so intimate with the object that they claim some metaphorical possession over it. Effectively working as a reinforcer.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Imagine YouTuber describing a vintage computer: “...above the keyboard, you’ll find your cursor keys,” knowing that 99 % of their viewers never owned that type of computer.

How do you explain that case?

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It still looks for me like an extension of the idea of possession to refer to closeness - as if the youtuber is talking about the cursor keys of a hypothetical computer that you'd be using. For example, note how it would sound natural if the youtuber said "above the keyboard, you'll find your cursor keys... well, one of my cursor keys is missing, but you would find it here". (imagine that the machine is in a rather poor condition), contrasting the one in his computer with yours.

You'll see this sort of extension of the role of the possessive fairly often across languages. Latin for example shows something similar:

1 Vivāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus, // Let us live, my Lesbia, and-also [let us] love

Focus on "mea Lesbia". Why is that "mea" (my.F.NOM) there? It doesn't indicate that Lesbia belongs to the narrator, nor that she's necessarily related to him, but instead that he holds her metaphorically close to him. Sometimes this appears with the genitive too, instead of personal pronouns, but I'm having a hard time looking for examples.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

OK, I kinda get it. However, I will still be drawing a rage comic about this once I get a graphics tablet.

Rage comic idea

◰ Kid: *sings to a sing-along video on their tablet* "♪ now I know my ABCs ♫"

◳ Ghost of Karl Marx: *appears* "DON'T SAY THAT!"
Kid: *shocked*

◱ Karl Marx: *monologue all over the panel* "The modern Latin alphabet is not your private property! It is in the public domain, the collective ownership of mankind, and used by all English speakers as well as by literate people all over the world with minor variations. Billions of lives were made easier with a common writing system and a standard ordering of its glyphs. Learning what countless other children in the past few centuries have mastered does not give you the right to claim ownership of this knowledge and, in fact,..."
Kid: "Oh my god!"

◲ Karl Marx: *slaps kid with Das Kapital* ~(or~ ~maybe~ ~a~ ~better~ ~punchline,~ ~IDK)~