From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Fri Dec 10 2004 - 21:11:34 CST
Philippe,
> RSVP is a French acronym for "Répondez, s'il vous plait".
Yes, we know that.
But it is also a reanalyzed English verb which means
"reply to a message (or invitation)".
That it has been morphological reanalyzed is demonstrated by the
fact that it takes regular English verb endings, as in:
"I RSVPed yesterday, right after I got the email."
As I said, it is now a bona fide English verb, and most
English speakers will treat it as such.
> SVP means "please" in English, so when I see "Please RSVP", there's a sort
> of repetition of "please", as if it was an emphatic and desesperate request:
> "Please reply, please"!
That's actually a misinterpretation by people who "know too
much" -- particularly French speakers. ;)
"Please RSVP" actually means "Please reply (to this invitation)",
and is polite, not emphatic or desperate.
--Ken
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Dec 10 2004 - 21:12:40 CST