“女王陛下”为什么是 Your Majesty 而不是 My Majesty？

而不是 My Majesty 呢?

影视剧里都把“Your Majesty”翻译为“陛下”，

虽然这么翻没错，

但会对我们造成思维定势，

让我们无法理解 your 和 my 的问题。

我们可以先来看外国知乎上的回答：

“

The idea behind such terms of address as "your grace," "your highness," and "your majesty" is that it was once considered disrespectful to address a member of royalty directly. Instead, it was preferable to address their station or their qualities.

使用your grace、your highness和your majesty这样的称呼是因为，直接称呼王室成员曾被认为是不礼貌的。相反，最好强调他们的地位或品质。

When using a phrase such as "your grace" , you are describing a (possibly presumed!) quality of the person to whom you're talking. If you say "my lord" you are probably describing a social relationship where you are deferring to the person you're addressing, although two peers might address each other as my lord .

当使用像your grace这样的短语时，你是在描述(大概率是假定的)与你交谈的人的品质。而你说my lord，你可能是在描述你和你所称呼的人的社会关系和地位。虽然两人可能是同辈，也会互相称呼对方为my lord。

"Your Majesty" applies to kings and emperors (although in England kings were addrssed as "your grace" up until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I); "your grace" is how one addresses a bishop; "your eminence" applies to a cardinal; "your reverence" applies to a non-specific clergyman in general; "your honour" to a judge or magistrate; plain "sir" to a gentleman (or Sir Fred if Fred is a knight or baronet) and "Mr" to a tradesman.

Your Majesty 目前的情况是适用于称呼国王和皇帝(尽管在英国，直到伊丽莎白女王一世统治时期，国王都被称呼为“Your grace”);“your grace”是人们对主教的称呼;“your eminence”指的是红衣主教;“your reverence”一般是指一个不具体的牧师;对法官或治安官说“your honour”;对绅士说“sir”(或者Sir Fred如果弗雷德是骑士或准男爵的话)，对商人说“Mr”。

”

从回答中我们可以看出

为什么用your，her或者his的原因是

你在说对方的品质

majesty / mædʒɪstɪ/ n. 威严;雄伟;权威;最高权威，王权

grace /greɪs/ n. 优雅;恩惠;慈悲;魅力

highness n. 高度，高位;高尚，高贵

这些都是人家的，我们总不能自夸吧

而用my则表明了对方的社会关系，lord是一个头衔

lord /lɔːd/ n. 领主, 君主, 贵族

现在，你的疑惑解开了吗?

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