I'm trying to teach DD about this too, she's 2.5. She doesn't really understand the word respect, and the meaning, so I just keep it general.

When she chewed on the handle of the beautiful wooden toy a friend gave her and didn't stop after I asked her three times, I took it away. I told her that T had given these to her as a gift, and they're very special so if she can't look after them they'll be put away until she can. When she won't stop stabbing the table with her fork while waiting for dinner, I take away the fork and tell her that this is Mummy and Daddys table and it means a lot to us not to have those marks in it.

Those things she seems to get, she can see the marks she's made and seems to know she shouldn't do it. Tougher is getting her to respect us by doing as we ask (for reasonable requests) rather than running away to keep doing it. She's a very active kid and gets dirty hands outdoors, and she seems obsessed with sticking her filthy fingers up her nose and in her mouth. I'm certain her most recent illness was because of it. Anyway we are constantly asking her to take her hands out of her mouth, but she turns away or leaves the room to do it even more. We're talking to her about why Mummy and Daddy ask her to do/not do things, and when we ask her not to do it because it will make her sick, she needs to please listen to us and do as we ask. It's slowly working.