Twins are said to possess a language of their own. From a very early age, they communicate with body language and strange sounds and make themselves understood to one another. There are reported extreme cases of twins who make up an actual language, or shorthand, that no one can decipher—not even their poor parents!
Though my girls are not twins, they are close enough in age—and friendship-wise— to have mannerisms that are unique to the two of them.
Witness the verb tense they have made up. I call it Sayour Tense. In fact, I think it's its own mode. It's not conditional, it's not subjunctive. It's something else altogether.
I'm not sure of its origins and when exactly they started using it, but I am very familiar with its usage (I've even been known to use it with them). The Sayour Mode is constructed exactly like the past tense: you were, I was, I ate, I walked, I loved, etc. But it is used to describe events that are about to unfold, in the imaginary realm.
When Maïa and Solanne are coming up with an imaginary situation that they will act out, a pre-game game that is becoming more and more elaborate, they describe what they will play out. It goes something like this:
Maïa: Okay, Sol. Say you're the prince and I'm the princess. And we were going to the ball. And then a dragon came to get us and we ran away.
Solanne: But then I did not see it and the dragon getted you and then I had to catch it.
It's an interesting and elaborate scheme they've developed to describe this whole world that they've made up. And the tense is reserved only for this activity. They don't use the past tense to describe, say, what they are about to draw or colour.
I like watching their little minds work and innovate to fix a problem. After all, if we had a verbal mode to express the imagined, they wouldn't have had to invent it, would they?
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
