Bangla to Korean: a respectful pronoun does not replace the whole speech style
Apni supplies respect but not a complete Korean formula
The Bengali teaching grammar distinguishes ordinary tumi from respectful apni with corresponding verb forms. Sangoak Lee’s discussion of Korean honorifics explains a more extensive relationship between person reference and speech style. A Bangla respectful address therefore cannot be translated merely by substituting one Korean word for you.
This matters when the source writer addresses a teacher. Lee discusses 선생님 as a respectful teacher title in that relationship. A target reference based on the person’s role may be more appropriate than a mechanically chosen second-person pronoun. The source identifies a listener and respectful stance, while the target construction needs the social relationship interpreted in its own terms.
The ending belongs to the selected interaction
Lee illustrates different styles through a question about whether a book belongs to the listener. The object and ownership relationship remain comparable while the person-reference wording and sentence form vary. A Bangla question about a respected listener’s book thus needs a coherent target style rather than respectful vocabulary attached to an incompatible ending.
The Bengali source can mark the relationship through apni and the verb. Those pieces should be interpreted together before selecting the Korean construction. Preserving only the source pronoun’s broad dictionary meaning can lose the interactional force carried by the source predicate. A target sentence should maintain the same degree of social distance throughout the question and reply unless the source exchange actually changes it.
A title refers to someone without changing the participant
The use of a teacher title does not make that person an observer outside the conversation. A Bangla sentence directly asking the teacher a question remains addressed to that teacher even when the Korean wording uses a role expression rather than an explicit you.
This distinction is important in reported dialogue. A source can alternate between asking a teacher and telling a friend what the teacher said. The person remains the same, but their conversational role changes. Track whether the Bangla utterance is direct address or third-person report before selecting the target reference and speech style. Social respect alone does not resolve that role.
A source negative-looking request can still invite action
The Bengali grammar distinguishes present imperative expressions with na used as positive requests from other imperative forms expressing prohibition. If the exchange asks the respected listener to eat or stay, the Korean translation must establish the intended action before forming its polite request.
A respectful target prohibition is still wrong if the Bangla writer was encouraging the listener. Conversely, a correctly positive request can still sound socially inconsistent if its ending clashes with the chosen address form. Interpret source polarity, requested action and listener relationship as separate but connected facts. Korean honorific wording should express their combination rather than serve as a decorative polite layer on a sentence whose conversational purpose was selected mechanically.
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