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[Dixonary] OT: "may" used in third person/second person request for permission?
Have any of you experienced someone using "may" as a second- or
third-person request for permission? I'm specifically interested in the habits of educated speakers and occurrences older than 20 years, as both fall outside of my experiences. My understanding of "may" is mainly in two forms: First, as a statement of nonspecific probability, wherein any person is a valid expression, for example, "They, he, she, we, you, or I may be going to the park later." In this case, any of the pronouns will work independently, and not only as that absurd list. Second, as a negotiation of permission, for example, "May I hold your hand?" and its response, "Yes, you may." And this is the form in which I'm specifically interested. It almost exclusively takes the form of a first-person request followed by a second-person permission or denial. "May I?" "Yes, you may." "No, you may not." (Less often used is a third-person request, but I've only ever seen it with proper nouns—always along the lines of, "May Sally come out to play?" instead of the less-descriptive, "May they come out to play?" I assume this is primarily circumstantial, as it's always in a situation with an imbalance of power, and usually only seen within parent-child dynamics wherein one child is asking another child's parent for permission. I believe this process may be waning due to the use of "can" eclipsing that of "may" and the advent of cell phones and a greater emphasis on personal accountability. And probably the specificity of a parent-child relationship. Adulthood is quite different. You wouldn't go to the Director of Marketing and say, "May Joe come consult on this presentation?" You'd just talk to Joe. Or you'd ask the Director's opinion. Or you'd ask the Director to clear some scheduling time for Joe, but that would still be a request on your own behalf, "May I have a some time to get Joe's take on this?" But I digress.) In any case, some 12 years back, I noticed a tendency among my children to say "May you . . .?" And my partner's niblings do the same. And now, oddly, my 60ish manager is doing it, too. Is this new? Have any of you experienced this construction? When and where? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Dixonary" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to dixonary+unsubscribe (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/di...oglegroups.com. |
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