ne mozhno

[anne marie devlin]

Thanks Elena,
you've hit the nail on the head re: the situation in which it occurred.  The student who uttered the phrase was explaining a concept to a slightly younger and much less experienced colleague.  He was obviously accommodating his speech downwards.  The illoctionary force was lost on me but probably not on the recipient who shut up after that.
 
I feel so much wiser now!
 
AM

 
> Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 13:25:02 +0300
> From: elena.ostrovskaya at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] ne mozhno
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> 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
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