Catalan to Assamese: respectful grammar must preserve the actual number of listeners
Vós can address one person despite its plural verb
CPNL illustrates Catalan vós addressing a named individual with second-person plural agreement. It contrasts that treatment with vostè, which addresses the listener through third-person agreement. Neither grammatical form can be interpreted merely by counting the apparent person or number on the verb.
Bharadwaj’s Assamese fieldwork, based on Sivasagar data, describes neutral, informal, and formal second-person pronouns, with separate plural forms. The source’s respectful singular addressee must therefore remain one person when a target address expression is selected. A Catalan plural-shaped verb does not authorize inventing a group of recipients.
A formal letter can have one addressee while mentioning several people
Consider an original Catalan letter addressing one school director as vós and discussing several teachers. The plural grammar associated with the director’s treatment and the actual plural group of teachers arise for different reasons.
In Assamese, keep the director distinct from the teachers rather than letting the Catalan agreement merge them into one audience. A sentence requesting the director’s reply should not become a request addressed to the whole staff. Conversely, a later sentence addressing all teachers needs its real plural reference retained. The target choice should follow who receives each part of the message, not simply continue the form chosen for the first source verb.
Assamese verbal agreement can distinguish treatment without distinguishing number
Bharadwaj illustrates tumi and tomalok with the same imperative agreement, while apuni and aponalok share another form. In the described data, honorific agreement distinguishes treatment, but the corresponding singular and plural pronouns do not require separate verb endings for number.
This reverses a tempting assumption for a Catalan reader: a matching target verb ending does not establish that the listener count is unchanged. If a source shifts from one recipient to several, the target pronoun or another expression may carry that shift even while the verbal agreement remains the same. Read the complete address construction rather than using only the verb as a headcount.
A relative’s kinship suffix can reflect respect toward the possessor
Bharadwaj contrasts tomar deutara with aponar deutak for your father, using neutral and formal second-person possession. The contrast concerns how the possessor is addressed. It is not simply a difference in the father’s own status.
Catalan can express respectful address through a consistent combination of verbs, personal expressions, and possessives. In an original message asking one recipient about their father, preserve both the respectful relationship with the recipient and the separate reference to the father. Do not interpret the Assamese kinship form as permission to change who owns the relationship. Likewise, changing the Catalan treatment from tu to vós should not make the father plural. The target needs the source’s real family relation, actual listener count, and chosen level of address interpreted together; none can be inferred safely from one isolated plural-looking ending.
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