True meaning of はい、どうぞ


In the nhk course for Japanese, I came across the following lines:

> さくらさん。はい、どうぞ。

which means

> Sakura. This is for you.

But

> どうぞ

means "Please". Then how can

> はい、どうぞ

mean "This is for you"?




It not so much that "どうぞ" has differently defined meanings as that it doesn't
have a "meaning" in and of itself. It is an expression used when inviting,
encouraging, permitting or asking someone to do something. (I agree it works
somewhat like "please".)

What, therefore, that something that you are inviting, etc. the addressee to
do by its utterance is wholly dependent on the context.

For example, if you say "どうぞ" to someone standing by an unoccupied chair,
gesturing toward it, by that you are inviting them to sit in it. This "どうぞ"
may be translated as "Take your seat."

Or picture two people rushing to a bus and reaching the door at the same time,
almost bumping into each other. One might say to the other "お先にどうぞ" or just
"どうぞ". This is a courteous way of telling them to go on first. A fitting
translation here may be "After you."

Or imagine, lastly, that I got you are a present and I'm holding it out to
you, so that I can give it to you. As an encouragement for you to take it, I
may accompany this with "はい、どうぞ", or, as I might as well say in English to
accomplish the same goal, "This is for you."

The use of all three "どうぞ"s above is the same. But since their contexts and
therefore their pragmatic meanings differ greatly, translations for these
instances of the same word may also differ to the same extent.

