Function and Meaning (Continued)
Like many places in Slovakia, Nitra has its share of ‘public art,’ expressed in all the advertisements, instructions, graffiti, and ubiquitous tagging of buildings, trains, bridges, fences, in short, anything that represents a potential canvas, something that can be seen by the random passers-by. So I wasn’t so surprised when a sidewalk in our fine city’s Stare Mesto neighborhood greeted me last week with the banner “Milujem ťa.” Of course, its full meaning is as inscrutable to me as the tags surrounding me as I walk through any underpass.
I look closely at the brownish paint—or is it dried blood—rather boldly spread out in front of my feet under the broad afternoon babie leto sunshine. Sidewalks rarely communicate so engagingly. A pleasant collection of lexical content and functional instructions which I can unpack as follows:
“Milujem t’a,” that is to say: ‘I have a certain feeling for you, an awareness amounting to approval, appreciation, and approbation, something stronger than mere liking, more kindred in intensity to hate, yet with positive polarity.’
Let’s investigate: there’s “t’a” . . . the single solitary walker, reader, familiar to the writer, or so the writer indicates, functioning as object of the writer’s love? Could it be me? If not, then who?
Continuing to decode, next there’s “-ujem” . . . . the single, solitary writer, agent, lover? Functioning as the speaker subject of the expression. Definitions so far are hard to come by: I’m left with the circularity of “I” and “you,” but I don’t know who.
But, aah, there’s that first part: “Mil-” from “milovat’” the content laden ‘love’ with all its entailments and entanglements. With ‘Mil’ we know that the speaker is human, has feelings, and knows what it is like to experience these feelings deeply, their presence and absence. “Mil-“ concept or atom, that which is composed of basic parts, or that which stands on its own, yet is connected with so much else? . . . such are the questions that run through the linguist’s mind . . .
October 11th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Your comment to the sentence Milujem ta is very interesting. Also it is funny the way you think about the words you see.
The other day I have been walking that path as well and seen the words and also started thinking about the meaning and the message. But I cannot remember what result I came to. I just remember that when I looked up in front of me I could see another message for me NOKIA connecting people, written on the building ahead.
October 11th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
HI, Surprise, I read it!!
Mom
October 11th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Hello!
Very nice article about the graffitti! I think that milujem ta or I love you requires definetelly complementation, unless it’s said amond two people:-), because otherwise it looses its power as it could be refered to any person who reads it.
October 14th, 2006 at 3:10 am
That´s the expression that we normally don´t use that often, at least not in front of public. As you already mentioned it refers to person that has a strong feeling for somebody. If we ask some people what does “Milujem Ta” means to them, they would give us various definitions. For example, hand in hand, caress of the face of the other, tenderness of his presence, her smile, the steps to the discovery of the other as a person in his totality and many others. In general their explanations would be rather the same and they all would express the feelings of love.
October 14th, 2006 at 7:08 am
It’s very interesting to observe how a single sentence can raise so many different associations. Two lovers, a melodrama ending with ‘Milujem ta’ written on a wall in blood, or, in my imagination, the last words of hope of a desperate boyfriend :> However, apart of these imaginative contributions, I can hardly admit that I would think about how much information this expression really carries. It’s strange that even though we know what the sentence means, we don’t know anything else. If someone asked me to explain it to them, I would be able only to repeat the sentence, because I don’t know who the speaker or the addressee is, and whether the expression is meant lovingly, ironically, in a positive or negative way, or whatever. That means, that to know the meaning of a listeme is not enough, we also need to know the context it is used in.
October 14th, 2006 at 8:59 am
Oh, that’s so nice analysis:) If I think about this word, I come to the same result as you did. Milujem ta tells me, that it is connected with a very strong and positive feeling towards some person and that there is somebody-the subject (I)-expressed in –ujem , who loves somebody- the object (you). Maybe, the writer told the concerned person, that it’s there written for her\him, but we really don’t know for whome it was written. And maybe, it is there written for me…haha
Some context, or other words would help us to understand the whole situation connected with this word.
October 15th, 2006 at 4:39 am
As you mentioned there are many tags, graffiti everywhere in Nitra. Most of them do not have meaning, not only to me, but I guess it really does not have meaning for people who make it. It is made only for destroying and without reasonable purpose.
But “Milujem ta” on the sidewalk is from different kind. It has meaning not only for person who wrote it, but for passers-by. Each of us at least once has felt what is love. It can arouse good or bad memories, but you definitely can not just pass by without feelings. The “author” of this text wanted to send a message only to his/her love, but this message in some way is for everyone.
October 15th, 2006 at 5:20 am
Hello!
I read your reflection on “Milujem ťa” and I must admit it is not easy to talk about it.This simple, short sentence is said when we have deep feelings for someone, e.g.when we are in love.I was thinking about what the components of this expression could mean and now I would like to share my meditation on it with you. I think “Mil”is the root of the Slovak verb “milovať”, which has no meaning on its own but when we put “ujem” to it we indicate the the first person singular termination. It means that we indicate that we are the subject of the expression. And “ťa” is the object of the expression, it is the object of my love.
If we compare the Slovak “Milujem ťa” and the English “I love you” we see that they differ in the number of components. In Slovak we have two, in English we have three components but we know that they both express the same meaning. But how can it be?
In English we must put the first person pronoun before the verb love because there is no termination,suffix after love(in Slovak we have “ujem”)that would express the subject of the expression.
But let`s complicate the task with a Hungarian word “Szeretlek” which means “I love you”.It is just one word in which everything is included as in “I love you”. In “szeretlek” there is included both the object and the subject.
It amazing how languages work and differ from each other.
October 15th, 2006 at 7:28 am
I am surprised seeing so few comments on such a lovely topic. Maybe my schoolmates are afraid of the critique of your mom
In the classroom last week you asked about the meaning of ‘mil-‘, and then about what the love is. That discussion motivated me to do a little research: Immediately after the lesson I went to the library and took an old Slovak dictionary (Slovník slovenského jazyka II. Vydavateľstvo SAV. Bratislava 1960). I found all the words beginning with ‘mil-‘, meaning something positive. I came to a list of 30 items as following:
miláčik
milec
milenec, milenecký
milenka
milený
milerád
milkovať sa, miliskovať sa
milký, milkovný
milodar
milohlasný, milohlasý
milokrásny
milosrdenstvo
milosť
milostiplný
Milostenka
milostivý
milostnica
milostnosť
milostný
milošialený
milota
milosťpán, milosťpani, milosťslečna
milovanie
milovaný
milovať
milovážne
milovník
milovonný
milozvučný
milý
All these words have a listeme indicating positive feelings (or love) of somebody towards another person or thing, or pleasant, agreeable perceptions. The underlined items are strange to my computer and probably to a modern Slovak reader too, because they were created by some Slovak writers like Andrej Sládkovič (milokrásny, milovonný, milošialený) or P. O. Hviezdoslav (milký, milkovný, milohlasný). I did not understand the words put in italics. Just to make it clear: the term ‘milostnica’, introduced by Margita Figuli (also a Slovak writer), was used to denote a beloved woman or a courtesan; and Milostenka is the name of a goddess of attractiveness, Grace (according to Sládkovič). Another surprise for me was the fact that I have never heard about ‘milota’ denoting a genus of gramineous plants (milota veľkoklásková, milota chlpatá). No idea what it is, however, interrresssting… Some proper nouns should belong to the list above too: Milada, Milan, Milena, Milica, Miloslav, Miloslava, Miloš, Milota (again!). I am sure that they were created through the application of our “positive listeme” as well as all the mentioned nouns.
To conclude, I am not going to answer your question. Everybody has his/ her own definition of love in his/ her head (or heart). And I am very happy to realize that the Slovaks have love fixed deeply in their language too.
October 15th, 2006 at 9:02 am
As we know graffiti is usually painting or writing on walls. But this one is on the path. Why did the author of that sentence write on the path? At first I thought that he wanted to attract attention of more people – we can´t imagine how many people pass through this path (through this banner)every day. But then I realized that not each person looks down by walking. Some people look in front of them a then they needn´t notice it. Maybe the author wanted to choose writing on untraditional place. He/she only knows why…
You have mentioned the brownish paint. From the photo it seems also like dark red. It reminds me some symbolism. Things that are connected with love (love hearts or love phrases), we usually write or paint with red colour. So that´s why I mean that the usage of colour wasn´t random.
„Milujem ťa“ from the morphological point of view means that the author (he or she), so one specific person ( not all inhabitants from Nitra)- so that´s why first person Sg and the ending „ujem“- would say to someone, to one specific person that he/she loves him/her and that´s why „ťa“ – second person Sg. If he wrote „mil“ only, it would mean nothing, this sequence of letters has no meaning. But from the word „milujem ťa“ we can identify that it is the infinitive from the verb „milovať“ – to love, to have some positive feelings to someone and according to ending we can identify the person and number as I have already mentioned.
October 15th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Education is such a tricky thing which opens you the door to unknown world, gives you some clues – knowledge to uncode mystery and let you think. This is the case of expression “MILUJEM ŤA”, before I have never looked at it from syntactic, semantic, etc. point of view. I always consider “MILUJEM ŤA” as a dream sentence of every human being, but education has helped me to uncover other layers except of the emotional one of the expression “MILUJEM ŤA”. So “MILUJEM ŤA” is about everything – it is a beautiful example of such a strong emotion for the people in love and beautiful example for linguists as well how nicely symbols are sticked together to make up complex units that correspond to complex ideas. Thanks you, Mark.
October 15th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Hello, I would like to add my personal experience with the expression ´milujem ťa´, or, more precisely, with its french equivalent ´je t´aime´.
When I was in France, I met a boy and after some time, we became really good friends. As the time went on, the expression ´je t´aime´started to appear in his messages and e-mails and I became confused about what it could mean, so, after some hesitations, I simply asked him. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be just a casual way to finish one´s message or e-mail! I made a fool of myself, but the idea of saying ´milujem ťa´to any of my friends appears really strange to me!
This proves that even such a simple expression like ´milujem ťa´ doesn´t necessarily have to have one clear content
and clear meaning.
In one language, it is used
to express feeling of love, whereas in another, you can use it when adressing even to your neighbor! But this could be
probalbly the subject of sociolinguistics…
October 15th, 2006 at 11:43 am
´Milujem ťa´the strongest words of possitive feelings between two people. But from the linguistic point of view, I´ve never thought about it like that. It´s true that when we change the for example the suffix -m to miluje ťa, it becomes something completely different. The speaker or writer is not ´me´ but he or she and (s)he has very strong possitive feelings to somebody else but not me. So the translation would be (s)he loves you. Sometimes it´s very confusing for the foreign learners to understand what is the difference between these two, relatively the same phrases with only little change. But it is the system how our language works…
October 15th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
That´s really nice that also nowadays people stop for a while when spotting the banner with inscription milujem ťa.I have never been thinking about its function vs. content meaning before like linguists do .It is said that content listems carrry the meanings that are summarized in dictionary entries.So I find in the dictionary the meaning of the word “to love” which says that it is a strong liking for someone or something, a passionate affection for another person.But this word doesn´t mean anything when it is not followed by its function listem “ťa” or in english “you” which organize its meaning. As it is explained in the dictionary “love” is a strong liking for someone or a passionate affection for another person.So there must be someone whom we love,the object of our love.My first impression about the banner was that the creator of this inscription is desperate young boy who is in love with girl who rejects him.Then I realized that in fact it can be anyone from young boys and girls to our grandmas and grandpas or someone who wants to express his love for God .That´s because pronouns I and you (as in I love you)don´t include information about the gender of the noun they are standing for or any other additional information .So we can only make assumptions about it so we will never get know where the truth lies.Now it comes into my mind that in slovak language we have two equivalent expressions for the term I love you.the first one is the one you mentioned “milujem ťa” and the second one is “ľúbim ťa”.
October 15th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Many words and expressions are becoming less and less intensive. Even their true and original meaning is sometimes arguable. They are being used so often and in so many different situations that they start to lack the power they once had. They are more and more often being taken for grounded.
Milujem ta, for example. It used to be a verbal proof of one’s strong and true affection, emotional warmth towards some other person (your “definition” is nice as well); a testimony of profound feeling that one could rely on, believe in, consider to be of great importance…
Today, Ja milujem otca, matku, brata, sestru;
Also Ja milujem priatela, manzela, milenca; – boyfriend, husband, lover
But I also milujem vychadzky do parku – walking in the park
A ja proste milujem taliansku kuchinu – Italian kitchen
A ja ozaj milujem Channel 5…
Ja milujem on every step I make, in every situation, what ever comes into my way.
I am rather disappointed and sad to see/hear that even the expressions such is this are becoming usual, universal and worn out.
But there are some other examples, even though they don’t sound as pleasant as our Milujem ta. Let’s mention swearing, for example. What once used to be a reason for one to start a fight, get offended and feel verbally attacked; cry or react emotionally, is today a part of speech, like comma, or a dash… One must be very creative, use special tone of voice and be mostly direct for the receiver of the bad language to be affected. Isn’t that just sad? No, that’s rude.
Well, I am about to go to bed, and I don’t have a clue how to tell my mum that I really love her – if I could, I guess I would give her a warm hug and silently close my eyes, because words just might spoil the moment.
And I happen to be someone who simply LOVES words.
October 15th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Very interesting inscription… When you think about it more deeply, it poses you some questions. You read “milujem ta” (I love you), but when you pronounce it for yourself, it doesn´t have the same meaning/function, because now it can be use only when writing (speaking) to another person. So more logic would be an inscription “miluje ma” (he/she loves me) which when pronouncing sounds more appropriate, but on the other hand the intention of the writer wouldn´t be the same (he/she would express his/her pleasure that somebody loves him/her, but the reader´s interpretation would be that somebody loves him/her as a reader, not writer – uuu, sounds complicated;) I was thinking about “ambiguous inscriptions” like this also before and I´ve come to a conclusion that it´s always better to use them when speaking (it´s not so confusing). But I have to also say, that when somebody tells you or writes you “milujem ta” you usually don´t “analyse” it;) Thanks to these inscriptions we can see the power of the written word…and also a diversity of interpretation.
October 16th, 2006 at 4:05 am
In Hungarian instead of a long phrase such as ‘I love you’, or ‘miľujem ťa’ we use only one word: ‘szeretlek’. That single word carries all the massage that is covered by three or two words in other languages. For me the compactness of that word reflects the absolute character of Love.
Concerning your photo, I find it very strange that miľujem ťa is standing alone just without any object. Usually the writings of that kind look like the following:
Miľujem ťa Zuzka
P.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:25 am
What really seems interesting for me is the web of concepts and the way these concepts are connected. Actually the ability to store and connect these concepts makes you a wiser person. By learning we connect old concepts to new ones. This way some people have smaller and some bigger word net. For example when a person sees a sign “Milujem ta” (I Love You); knows that it is a FEELING (symmetrical or asymmetrical) between two HUMANS (knows some of its entailments such as –bipedal –primates –mammal –Homo sapiens…). It is hard to link more concepts to this, because it’s an abstract notion.
I was thinking about another feature of this web. That is when some connect the word “Milujem” (I Love) with a positive and some with the negative side of such thing (probably both are possible at the same time). Maybe that’s one of the reasons why there is so much misunderstanding in the world.
About the banner on the walkway: somebody is just being very sentimental
October 16th, 2006 at 6:40 am
As you have finished your essay about the milujem Ta, I`ll quote:” such are the questions that run through the linguist’s mind”. As long as I`m not a linguistic I would never thought about things like that. Seeing such a thing anywhere like milujem Ta would make me a.)smile or sad-depending on my present situation and feelings connected with a particular person I can think about reading this “confession” or b.) I would completely ignore it.
I really admire your enthusiasm about the Slovak language. How could you be so interested in the details?How long have you been learning Slovak? In my case when I`m learning foreign languages or I`m in a different language community I`m firstly interested in the meaning of an expression or word. But I guess is the issue of “ to be or not to be a linguistic”.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:55 am
Hi, I just wonder about how did you came up with the idea that the first part “MIL” of the word MILUJEM means something laden ‘love’. When I think about “MIL-”, I rather connect it with another Slovak word “mily” (kind). What is also interesting to me is the difference between Slovak “MILUJEM TA” and English “I LOVE YOU”. Subject in English sentence here is expressed by “I”. But in Slovak sentence of the same example there is no explicit word “Ja” but just “-ujem” that says “I love”.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Hi, very nice article. To say somebody – “I love you” or “Milujem Ťa”, is it very strong emotion. I think that say to somebody like that must be saying with high degree of the love and the truth.
I was just thinking about the division of the word “Milujem Ťa”. I thing that, as you mentioned, that “Ťa” means, to whom we are saying this emotion – object – person. But in the word “Milujem”, I think that this ending “m” means that “I” love somebody. If there will be “miluješ” – it means that not “I” but “you” love somebody (ja milujem, ty miluješ, on miluje, my milujeme, vy milujete, oni milujú). I think that the root of the verb “milujem” is “miluje”. Because, “mil” is not a verb, we do not know from which word, verb it is derived. Now, I am not sure, if it is right what I am writing. I think only that is so. If I am making a mistake, I am having an apology for that.
Have a nice day. Michaela
October 16th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Hi dear professor Lencho,
concerning graffiti and the walls, in my opinion the authors of these things communicate together through these objects. They certainly know who wrote it or that. It is a kind of communication that exists in that particular group of people. Anyway it is like in the ancient times when using caves for communication.
As far as concerning the word MILUJEM TA, in my opinion the base of the verb is MILU and the person who wrote it is JEM. It is addressed to the word TA. MILUJEM TA is a very passionate word which is the opposite of hate. Only very-very close people – lovers use this expression.
October 16th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Hi,
well after finally reading your blog posts, I a was a bit confused. The choice of your topics, which to me seem very natural and don’t need much explanation, made me position myself into your role as a foreign visitor to our country.
In my opinion what’s written on the sidewalk is simply one kids expression of feelings to a girl. I’m just guessing it’s done by a boy ’cause I’ve never seen a girl with a spray-can running around in Nitra, waiting to tag something. This is the simpliest way to express some hidden feelings. But on the other hand when a walker passes by a notices it on the ground, he might think it’s meant for him, even though it’s not. Maybe it was just someones bright idea to make our day better, like he was counting on us to notice the writing.
As we discussed earlier in the class, the sentence can be translated into various meanings. The strongest one which says that you have strong feelings for someone. I think that’s the way the painter meant it. We just don’t who the ‘ťa’ really is so that’s what’s confusing us.
October 16th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
It is really interesting to read all the things that can be said about one single phrase: “milujem ťa”. I have to say that I consider this phrase together with the other Slovak expression “ľúbim ťa” to be of great importance and meaning and that’s why I really need to be sure about saying them, concerning people, of course, because as it was mentioned before, we tend to use “milujem” in connection with many other things.With those things we usually use “milujem” to emphasize and maybe exaggerate what we like and what gives us pleasure.
)meaning something like: Hmm, thats really what I love! The translation is maybe not 100% appropriate because the Slovak version can have different meaning in some situations. It can mean that I really like something but it can have a kind of ironical meaning too. Imagine the situation that you have an arranged meeting with your friend. You know that s/he is not very punctuate but it always makes you angry when s/he calls you to say that s/he will be late or that the meeting has to be cancelled. In that situation you may say to some other person beside you: “No to naozaj milujem, ked toto urobi!”(I really love when s/he does this!). Here the meaning of “milujem” is the opposite of what it usually is.
I’ve been thinking about a little different example. Somebody may say: “No, tak to naozaj milujem!” (oh, I see that our lovely Slovak “no” is back again
But still “milujem ťa” and “ľúbim ťa” are the phrases that are mostly about people and their positive intensive feelings for each other and have their special magic…
October 17th, 2006 at 2:19 am
It´s very interesting topic and tell the truth, I´ve never thought about the graffiti or other written messages in this way.
In my opinion the expression ´MILUJEM ŤA´is probbably devoted only to one particular person, where ŤA represents a general object. If there would have been written ´MILUJEM ZUZANU´, the subject is more specific but still general in a certain way because in Nitra there is hundreds of Zuzanas. For ex. Zuzana Bokanska is more specific then only Zuzana but still there can exist more Zuzan Bokanskych. It´s hard to say which way would be the most specific one. (probably the whole adress of that person
))) plus her mobile number)
Hm, here is one thing I don´t understand. How do you know that the usage of ´Mil´ menas the speaker is human?
I found lots of words started with ´mil´ and they all are not human:
mil – odar
mil – énium
mil – ión
mil – iarda
mil – osrdenstvo
mil – iampér etc.
In fact, it´s so hard to define words which are so obvious to you and analyze them. Very hard!
)
October 17th, 2006 at 4:10 am
hi,
“Milujem ta” written on the path – the greatest example how to understand the words “deictic meaning” – this really has the deep deictic meaning…
I did appreciate your lesson, your explanation… to tell the truth I was never thinking about the words and their meaning as I do now… I was just taking them as they were – written or spoken…
those words “milujem ta” and your comments made me to think about it in deep, what such words really mean to me??? it´s absolutely different to see them and to hear them… If I hear them I do not really have to think about who they are for and who is the speaker… the situation helps me to understand…
October 17th, 2006 at 5:15 am
From the linguistic point of view, the expression “Milujem Ťa” written on the path is set out of the context (it is deictic) and this fact doesn´t allow us to understand its meaning fully. In general, we can say that sentences which are out of context can connotate various meanings. If the recipient isn´t aware of the specific context boundaries, in which is the expression said, he cannot receive the proper message. It often happens that if you accidentally hear only a part of sentence of a strange person passing you by, you can explain the meaning of it in an unappropriate way. It´s because you don´t know the circumstances of that particular situation the person is talking about. For example, it happened to me yesterday when I and my friend got on the bus, we were talking about where I was going to sleep and she said you will sleep in my bed but because the bus driver was out of context, he didnt understand the words properly and he was confused…
It works similarly with function and content words. The definition of function words is that they organize the flow of information of the expression in which they occur. So, in expression “milujem ťa”, all of the parts of this expression are necessary for getting the appropriate meaning. The words I (ujem) and (ťa)themselves don´t tell us what it´s going on. But when we add the content word “mil” which indicates us that we are talking about love, we can easily find out what the author wants to say when he says “milujem ťa”.
But still only those two people who know that these two words are about them, can understand the meaning fully. Because we, as passers- by, still remain out of context and we can only assume what different circumstances could we put this expression into.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:39 am
Hi!
I have never thought about these two words “Milujem ta” in the way like I am thinking now. Milujem ta means some very strong positive feeling to somebody. We know that these words belong to a human who has very positive feeling to somebody. If I say “Milujem ta” to somebody, I do not have to think about it. Because it is something very natural for me and I am saying it without analyzing it. Now when I have read your text I have to look at it from a different perspective, I have to think about it and it is very difficult for me. I do not like the idea that people start using these words “Milujem ta” more and more often. It starts to be understood and used like “I am going shopping”. In my opinion it is not right because these words have very secret meaning and we are destroying it by using it so often. The person who has written “MILUJEM TA” maybe he or she had to do it, because he or she did not know how to express himself/herself. Maybe he or she has written in because he wanted us to realize that love is everywhere and we should not forget about it even if we are upsed and depressed. It is very difficult to think about these two words despite of the fact that they are so clear and simply.
October 17th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Mark, did you know that we Slovaks have three different ways how to tell someone “I love You”? It is “mám ťa rád” (similar to I like You),”ľúbim ťa” (I love You) and “milujem ťa” (compared to I adore You). Each of them represents a different degree/intensity of love – we use to say, we can “like” many people, only few can be “loved” by us and only one person we can really “adore”. From the lexical point of view it is interesting how can we investigate all the components of “milujem ťa”(function and content words) that build its nessage, but in our case it does not really matter whether the writer of “milujem ťa” is male or female, whether the object of love is a single person or everyone who reads it, there is not a singe right answer to this, yet everybody is right – if this writing makes you smile, it is good; if it makes you think about it, it is good, too ; if you think it might have been written there for you, it is also good; if it makes your day nicer, it is perfect; if it is a topic for our next lesson, good as well… I think it is about feelings this expression evokes…
October 17th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Hi Mark,
to be honest, I didn´t use to look at words from the linguistic point of view but I found it very interesting especially after your lessons.I am not walking through the town anymore how I used to(I was just looking at people, their clothes, manners…I was rather testing a little bit but not in details) but I started to notice things in more deeply way. When you are listening people on the street, you cannot be always able to listen the whole conversation, so the result is: you actually do not know anything what they were talking about although you caught some words. Of course, your intuition can help you but not enough. And that is the same with the utterance “milujem ta”. In this case, I am familiar with this words, so I should understand it without any problems.But!It is not so clear because as we know from the lingustics the term deictic, we are supposed to know that is a kind of expression that refers to the personal, temporal, or spatial aspect of an utterance, and whose meaning therefore depends on the context in which it is used. So, here we can see the problem because we do not know any special circumstances in which this let´s say cliché was said. We do not who, why, to whom…etc..wanted to say or messaged.
PS: I add a special kind of explanation of the utterance “Milujem”:
it has nothing to do with love… just I was playing with the verb milujem and I create a sentence Milu(as a slovak biscuit)jem (eat)=I eat Milu:-)
October 17th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Hi,
I think that it is nice when someone writes on the sidewalk “Milujem ťa” because it is one of the most important and most beautiful expressions that people have. But it is not good that the author did not write to whom it is addressed. Maybe that person would be very happy. But back to the words “Milujem ťa”. It is true that “Mil-” is the lexical item there and it represents the meaning, and we know that it is from the word “milovať”. “Mil-” is the minimal unit of meaning and I think that it is really the minimal meaning that we can get from the words “Milujem ťa” because the full meaning is created by the combination of all three elements- mil-ujem-ťa. We have mentioned in the lesson that “mil-” can never stand alone in Slovak. And it is true. It contains the meaning, but what does “mil-” mean when you say it or write it? Imagine that there would be written just “mil” on the sidewalk. It would be strange. Who would know know what is “mil-” without this “-ujem” and “ťa”? Nobody.
So “Milujem ťa” as the combination of all three components can give the meaning that the author wanted to express.
Although function words do not mean anything by themselves, this “ťa” in the sentence “Milujem ťa” is very important because without it the information in “milujem” would not be complete. “Milujem”- there is more meaning than in “mil-”, but this “ťa” gives this expression the “essence”, “ťa” tells us what is this expression about because we can love or like many things.
Best wishes.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Hi,
Sorry for adding my comment so late, but I cannot really force myself to view a phrase “Milujem ťa” from a linguistic point of view because I was always focused on its meaning rather than the form. But now I see that it is quite a tricky question since it could adress anybody if it was not put in the context.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:52 am
well, I have to say that this is a very interesting topic. I have never thought about the phrase MILUJEM TA as this. After the lesson I was thinking about it a lot. in my case if i observe a sign or a painting like this i would not raise so many questions as you did in your article. Your feelings towards this single expression really surprised me. now, I am sure, I will not pass or left such SIGNS without thinking about it in more detail. I will try.
October 17th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Hi Mark.
I would like to add my comments :
Function and meaning
Milujem ťa. I hear this sentence all around every day and I am wondering if people realize it’s emotional power. No, we use it so often that it looses it’s strength. That’s why I think that we should use it less, but with true enthusiasm and affection. We sometimes use it even with concrete and abstract connotation of things. e.g.: Ja milujem pizzu, slnko, London,… You can like all that, however milujem ťa should be really used only when expressing feelings to people, human beings. Even stronger expression is ľúbim ťa- usually partners and couples say it to each other, also children and parents say it very often to express their love. On the other hand, expression Mám ťa rád is slightly less intensive feeling than Milujem ťa. People can say Mám ťa rád to their siblings, family members, friends, sometimes also to their pets.However, it’s always a nice feeling when you hear any of these words, or read it e.g. on a sidewalk. Just be careful about emotional expressiveness, right moment and of course to whom you say those three special words.
P.S.: Am adding the Slovak version of that saying Ali Fainova mentioned in her comment:
Ľúbiť môžež jedného, milovať nie každého a
mať rád koho chceš.:-)
October 17th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I don’t know if I’m still in time to write this comment but as my weekend was full of other duties I want to appologize and write the comment:).
I really liked the way you thought about this phrase “milujem ta”. It’s very interesting that while in English the 3 words of the phrase “I love you” are definitely 3 words, in Slovak this phrase is expressed by 2 words, which are only seemingly 2…in fact – as you explained – it means 3 words: ‘mil’, ‘-ujem’, and ‘ta’. A question came to my mind when trying to understand this phenomena: What if I say ” Ja ta milujem”. Does this phrase consist of 4 words: ‘Ja’, ‘ta’, ‘mil’, ‘ujem’?? In this case ‘ja’ and ‘ujem’ means the same thing: “I”?
October 18th, 2006 at 3:55 am
The theme of ‘public art’ is like a two-sided coin. As we can see on your pictures- there are many different forms of it which we can basically devide into two categories: some are nice and evoke positive feelings in us and the other are “more controversial”. Some of them (such as “milujem ťa”) make us feel good, smile and think about our beloved ones. On the other hand there are also some which we would rather repaint, which are not so pleasant (maybe I simply do not understand and can not appreciate this sort of art).
))
I think that most of us is somehow forced to ask questions about this “public expressions”: What does it mean? For whom is it written? And who is the author?
I think that this is a way how to let know the whole world about what do you feel or who you are.
In my opinion “messages” like Milujem ťa are inteded for one person only (who should somehow know/feel that it is for him/her) and those questions of by-passers are only a “side effect”. But who knows? Maybe there is a secret group of people who want to make our world more beautiful and more human.
I have thought a little bit about that beautiful utterance “milujem ťa” and about its linguistic context. I realized that I would probably devide it like this:
mi-lujem-ťa. (ja ľúbim teba)-(where part “lujem” is a content word-atom)and it is neither symmetric nor transitive. Why do I think so? Because it can be seen from this perspective in more languages: I love you, Ich liebe dich, Ja ľubľu tibja…
Finally I have to say that I love those questions that run through the linguist´s mind. They make us think about simple things which we usually overlook in everyday life.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:10 am
Since we already discussed the milujem ťa graffiti in class and in depth, I’ll just comment on the other thing we’ve just touched upon – the graffiti.
You have mentioned the difference between all those ordinary tags and the milujem ťa graffiti in one aspect — that this graffiti was meant to be legible. The author has made the effort to make the message as clear as possible, both in the legibility and intelligibility (apart from the missing context who loves whom). The utterance is open, meant to be understood.
On the other hand, most of the so-called “writers” make their tags and graffitis not only illegible but also unintelligible. Which beats me, because usually people write something because they want to say something. And if I’m writing something in a public place, I probably would aim to say all the people something important, like “Stop Mečiarizmu!” Not with the graffiti guys and taggers; their written language has different purposes than communication of ideas. The do not actually say anything; the written message (BTR, NESER, KEYLOCK, etc.) has lost the denotation; there is no longer important the “what” of the inscription. What actually does the communication are extra-linguistic considerations, mainly where the graffiti/tag is and who made it. Either it stands for “I wuz here” and, if it is an unusual place, like the side of a train or a wall that is accessible just by climbing, “look what I can do”. The creator of the inscription did not give a squat about being understood; the message is closed. The writers usually say that their work is meant for an exclusive community of likewise disturbed people who will understand, but that can easily be doubted, since these guys would do it regardless on the existing and community of those who would understand and appreciate.
Therefore, for me, most of the graffitis and all of the tags are empty words of empty people; the authors do not actually say anything, do not actually WANT to say anything. It is just a stupid attempt to do anything noteworthy in the way of ancient Herostratos — not with creation but with destruction.
And it makes me mad if somebody tries to make this the new art form, while in most of the cases it is just poor and pure vandalism.
October 18th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Hi! I must say that it is really interesting. What? The way how you can create an essay when you just see something written on the wall. I would like to say that if I see something similar, my first impression would be totally different from your view. It would be probably something like this: „Another idiot who wanted to draw attention to himself/herself destroyed the wall (pavement, building etc.).“ And the possible solution would be not to think about the inscription but find this stupid and take the money for renewal the wall from him/her. In this case there would be less money spent on the reparation and therefore these money could be spent for education (for example). And if we are lucky the money would be spent for the lexical semantics course (maybe more people would attend this course) where we can think about other thinks like for example what does it mean „milujem ťa“…
October 18th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Hope it is not too late to contribute to this article.
However, this has been an enthralling introduction of semantics.
So pleased to meet your actual thinking based on different kinds of appealing experience – I suppose that is the essential thing which can accomplish the demand of a science.
Your incentives bring me to look for a way how to think of a word. Trying to recollect in what respect did I used to think of a word itself, because it seems to me at the moment I never did. Maybe there was a glimpse while translating or studying a new language or reading an etymological analysis, but my overriding focus always lead me somewhere else. When having a word in focus it was more of a savouring, just as Bohumil Hrabal describes it in his “Prilis hlucna samota”, and never reached the point of a reflection aiming to systematic fundamentals. All what is offered seems to be just the right platform for an endeavour.
Let me have a look at the “savouring” of a word. Mental lexicon could be the disposition of taste buds and all the possible entailments different flavours, which relish gradually just like flavours of a good wine. Therefore, I would say, atom theory could be based more on an instinctive knowledge of a word – such, which is acquired through experience, while definition theory seems to anticipate some kind of analytic reflection.
This is just a try to approach the matter, not thought out thoroughly. Thus critical comments are welcomed.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:04 am
We use the expression ‘milujem ta’ when we want to express that we really love somebody and this is a strong feeling. As we mentioned in seminar, Slovak people have three different levels how to express their love. They can say: ‘Mam ta rad’ which means I like you and this expression we usually use with friends or with somebody who is close to us. Than we have: ‘Lubim ta’ which is stronger feeling and we can use it with family members. And finally we have “Milujem ta’ which is usually the feeling between husband and wife. But from other point of view we can say: ‘Milujem palacinky (pancakes)’ and this is not the same feeling as it is between two people. This means that we enjoy this food and we can it it whenever it is possible.
But let’s come back to the word ‘milujem ta’ and its function. Its part ‘mil’ is the base or root of this word and ‘ujem’ is only the suffix which carries the personal pronoun, the tense and number(Sg or Pl). So from this suffix we know that it is 1st person Sg and present tense. ‘Ta’ is an object.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
I would like to react on one of the comments I have read here, where there appeared a question How did U came up with the idea that MIL means something laden love.There was suggested to relate MIL to the word milý (kind). I think, this could be also a good idea, but…I would like to add that milý does not mean only kind. Standing as a noun it means a person who I love-My boyfriend-My milý. And again we are talking about love.
(Although, nowadays, we do not use this expression very often and more common place where we can often meet it are Slovak older literary works or movies.)
October 20th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Milujem ťa, maľujem ťa. Me, I. First person singular. I feel something very positive towards you. You, second person singular. Me and you gives „us“, me and you becomes „we“. We both are involved in milovanie, maľovanie. We moved from singular to plural form. Love multiplies people. That’s a pity, if it did the same with things…hmhm…what a wonderful world would we have!?
Good evening Mark,
you are a linguist and your mind really is linguistic. I have a lot of respect for that.
My mind doesn’t work that way I am sorry, I cannot write anything better right now.
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:58 pm
It’s not that easy to reflect on an essay after so many people expressed their opinions.
I must admit I read only a few of them and I was trying to avoid their influence on me.
The first thing that came to my mind after I read your thoughts on „Milujem ta” was what would you say if there was written „Milujú ta” (They love you) instead of I love you
It’s not that the simple I love you doesn’t allow many interesting analyses but it is still easier to make guesses about the two „arguments” of the verb „Milujem ta” – the „experiencer” could be a girl/woman or a boy/man (it is also interesting why it is so obvious for most of the people that the person who „painted” the sentence was the representative of the stronger sex) and the adressee or linguistically said the „theme” is another boy or a girl.
But if we consider the sentence „milujú ta” it would be more interesting to analyze the two arguments of the verb. Even the verb’s (milujú) meaning will differ from that in the “Milujem ta” sentence. “Milujú ta” may have a wider range of meanings depending mainly on the experiencer’s and the theme’s identity (I mean “milujú” can express in this situation not only the kind of love that parents feel towards their child or what lovers feel towards each other but also other „types” of love.) What we know from this sentence is that there are more experiencers (-ujú) and it already makes the discussion more interesting, who can they be? Parents, teachers, ghosts or the UFOs?
And I think if a passer-by would read this sentence he would feel himself more personally addressed than at the “Milujem ta”-one because “Milujú ta” sounds more mysteriously and he would unintentionally think about who might have addressed him.
That’s briefly what came to my mind about the sentence but I’m sure there are many things left for further analyzing
September 18th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Well, sooo many approaches, yet almost all the same. Why not to look at such matter from the social side, not trying to analyze it linguistically. In my opinion, the author wasn’t trying to analyze his writings, choosing the most appropriate and suitable words…just had one person in mind, probably being shy to express them orally. Still we need to do the oposite “analysis”, from the reader’s point-of-view. In such (meaning Slovakian) society, too little passers-by give such expression a particular meaning, leaving them just readers of the text. The one, it may be adressed to, is most likely aware of the message, or if not, remains another passer-by amongst others. Nothing more, nothing less
)