Fun Grammar Piece from the NYT

You have words - now what do you do with them?
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Slava
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Fun Grammar Piece from the NYT

Postby Slava » Thu Jul 28, 2016 3:57 pm

Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Fun Grammar Piece from the NYT

Postby bnjtokyo » Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:31 am

When I read this piece a few days ago on the Times' website, I though this use of -self was blow back from Indian English, but I didn't have any data. I've since looked around and it seem to be a feature of what we might call polite Colonial English.

The letter at the link
http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/doc ... 010-11.pdf
appears to be a serious letter of thanks written a few years ago from someone in India to a benefactor in Seattle.

Note the use of "own self" to refer to the writer and "kind self" and "good self" to refer to the addressee.


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