Tell me how to call you, and I'll tell you...
The most important is the subject (of the sentence)!
"My name is Henri", in English... Simple, direct, pragmatic. In the language of empiricism, what are we talking about? What is the subject of the sentence? "My name."
My name: that's what it's about, and what's important.
"Je m'appelle Henri" Is the most usual form, in the language of Molière, and the subject of the sentence, is "Je" (= I) !
Because finally, the most important thing, what we need to talk about is still... me ! (as Guy Béart and Jeanne Moreau sang so well...). "I", redoubled by the pronominal form "Je m'appelle": I call myself.
"Меня зовут Анри" in Russian. ("Анри" or "Генри", I will have the opportunity to come back to this in a future note...). Phonetically: Minya zavout Anri (or Guenri). Literally: "They call me Henri"... Which is doubly interesting... On the one hand, the verb "to call" (звать) is here in the 3rd person plural (зовут). The subject of the sentence, which I consider the most important thing, is therefore "They" !
And on the other hand, this "They" (Они) is, in fact, absent of the sentence...
The most important thing, the reference, would therefore be a "They" that we cannot see...
Did you notice?
Language, sometimes, is more than just words...
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Other Intercultural Notes...
"Si vis pacem..." the article, some kind of manifesto of our association.
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