ne mozhno

[Elena Ostrovskaya]

Well, no, it is not possible in standard  idiomatic Russian. The
correct way is to say 'nelzya', of course. There is a 'but', though.
It may be used as a response ironically to emphasize the negation. By
forming negation, simply adding 'ne' to the original word, not using
the standard negative, you attract a person's attention to the saying
as well as the fact of negation. The obvious environment for such a
use is home speech, especially kids' talk and kids' talk as reported
by the adults.

I would think the pragmatics of this device is similar to the
following  dialogue in English :
Mummy, can I go for a walk now?
No, you MAY not.
The actual device is quite the opposite, but goal seems quite close:
to  emphasize both the refusal and the saying.

For what it may be worth,
Elena Ostrovskaya




On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 12:07 PM, anne marie devlin
<anne_mariedevlin at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
> one of my native speaker students used 'ne mozhno' as a response.  I don't think I've come across that before and was always under the impression that  it wasn't possible.  Just wondering what your thoughts are on it.
> Thanks
> AM
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------