What do the individual words in this phrase actually mean please?
Naaaahnazywam - I call, I name (the infinitive is nazywać)
się - myself (also: yourself, himself, herself, etc.)
Thanks Elroy,I know what the sentence means. The original poster asked for a literal translation: "What do the individual words in this phrase actually mean please?"
You're welcome, Phil.Thanks Elroy,
I like your explanation - it seems similar to the French expression je m'appelle which also uses a reflexive form.
Phil.
Still, your analysis might be incorrect, in the sense that this seems to be an anticausative, rather than a literal reflexive verb. What this means is that the verb has a purely passive meaning, rather than one in which the subject is simultaneously the patient of the action expressed by the verb. The difference is significant because it determines whether the verb can be used with an inanimate subject -- an anticausative one can, but a literal one cannot, because an inanimate object can't be the agent of an action. If the true meaning of "nazywam się X" really were "I call myself X", then it wouldn't make sense to say, for example, "ta ulica nazywa się X" -- obviously, the street doesn't call itself anyhow.I know that, Artur!But the question in the first post was clear. I assumed that LeTasmanien already knew what the sentence meant, but was interested in breaking down the sentence so as to understand the Polish structure better.
Hi Athaulf,Still, your analysis might be incorrect, in the sense that this seems to be an anticausative, rather than a literal reflexive verb. What this means is that the verb has a purely passive meaning, rather than one in which the subject is simultaneously the patient of the action expressed by the verb. The difference is significant because it determines whether the verb can be used with an inanimate subject -- an anticausative one can, but a literal one cannot, because an inanimate object can't be the agent of an action. If the true meaning of "nazywam się X" really were "I call myself X", then it wouldn't make sense to say, for example, "ta ulica nazywa się X" -- obviously, the street doesn't call itself anyhow.
I don't know any Polish, save for the basic inter-Slavic similarities, but still, from the examples of usage I see on the web, nazywać się appears to be an anticausative verb. Therefore, in my opinion, the reflexive pronoun is best understood as a passive marker, so the most precise translation of the original sentence would use the English passive voice: "I am called Filip".
This might seem like philosophical nitpicking, but for speakers of English and other languages without anticausative reflexive verbs, it can be difficult to understand this distinction among different types of reflexive verbs, and it has actual practical implications on usage.
I'm not sure about the French verb, but the Spanish one definitely is. Both llamarse and nazywać się can be used with non-human subjects, in which case they can't be translated into English as anything but passive forms of the verbs llamar and nazywać.Hi Athaulf,
Are the French je m'appele Filip and/or Spanish me llamo Filip the same constructions as the Polish nazywam się Filip?