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stella41b -> RE: -=Submissives need to be told what to do. Slaves need ...=- (11/2/2008 3:46:54 AM)
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I'll try.... I see a distinct difference.
The key word here is 'do' and it's position in both sentence constructions.
Spanish, Russian and Polish are descriptive languages, which means you communicate ideas through description. In such languages generally one word has one common uniform meaning.
English however is a naming language, where one word can have more than one meaning and also more than one form.
For example 'submissive' can be both a noun and an adjective. Get has 18 different meanings. Set has 58 different meanings.
Therefore do has different meanings as well, for it is not only an action verb (I will do it tomorrow) it is also an auxiliary verb (Do you like cheese?)
The key to understanding what a word means in a sentence lies in how it is used. English grammar is simple, one of the simplest grammars of any language on this planet, but as any non-native English speaker will tell you, learning what English words can mean can be a pain in the neck.
So how do we know what a word really means? By its context. If you check any thesaurus you will find that the verb 'do' has anything up to 13 different senses. I'm trying nothing more than a simple paraphrase.
The second sentence here where the verb 'do' is the subject of the sentence the meaning to me is literal:
Slaves need to do what they are told = Slaves need to be told how to act.
The first sentence the verb 'do' is the more flexible object of the sentence and it's function in the sentence is not the same as it in second. Whereas in the second sentence the verb 'do' forms part of subject's verb in the first sentence it merely becomes a verb phrase and is therefore the object of the sentence and can be interpreted more liberally. Hence:
Submissives need to be told what to do = Submissives need to be told what to accomplish.
The above paraphrase is my interpretation of the first sentence, based on my understanding of "the lifestyle" - another word which may be interpreted differently by other posters. These different interpretations are connotations.
It is these connotations which allow for word play in the English language, for puns and double entendres, and is also a reason why we will never really reach a general consensus on what any particular label means.
Makes sense?
ETA: English relies heavily as a language on implication and inference. It's also an individual language which means that no two people will ever use it the same way. This is why whenever someone who is a native English speaker opens their mouth you can easily infer (1) where they come from (2) their education and (3) many different things about them from their pronunciation and choice of words.
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