[Lingtyp] fear + NEG

[Steve Pepper]

Far be it from me as a non-Hindi native (you can tell me off tomorrow if I’m wrong, Anvita :), but...

 

Surely the NEG na means that the thing the speaker is afraid of is that he will NOT come?

If so, I would translate the example more idiomatically as “I am afraid that he will not come” (despite the fact that the Hindi uses the subjunctive and not the future form of the verb).

 

Steve मिर्च

 

 

Fra: Lingtyp [mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] På vegne av Anvita Abbi
Sendt: 19. mars 2015 08:52
Til: Hartmut Haberland
Kopi: list, typology; Nina Dobrushina
Emne: Re: [Lingtyp] fear + NEG

 

The Hindi sentence means He may come. I am afraid of that. 

Anvita




 <http://www.andamanese.net/> www.andamanese.net

President: Linguistic Society of India




 

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 1:10 PM, Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk <mailto:hartmut at ruc.dk> > wrote:

I need a clarification here. The Japanese sentence can be paraphrased as: Something bad may have happened. I am afraid of that. But do the Hindi and French sentences mean: He may come. I am afraid of that. Or:  He may not come. I am afraid of that. ?

It could just be a question whether the complementizer means that or if (like Japanese ka); the latter would require a negation that disappears when the complementizer is rendered by a that-like conjunction in a different language. 

Hartmut


Sendt fra min iPhone


Den 19/03/2015 kl. 08.17 skrev "Anvita Abbi" <anvitaabbi at gmail.com <mailto:anvitaabbi at gmail.com> >:

Dear All,

Hindi is one language with such structures. One example is given here.

mujhe       Dar     hai       ki           vo         aa       na       jaye

1sg.Dat     fear     AUX    COMP   3sg       come  NEG  come

Literal: 'I am afraid that he does not come'

 

Anvita




Prof. Anvita Abbi

Director: Centre for Oral and Tribal Literature

Sahitya Akademi

Rabindra Bhavan

35, Ferozeshah Road

New Delhi 110 001

www.andamanese.net <http://www.andamanese.net/> 

President: Linguistic Society of India




 

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com <mailto:misha.daniel at gmail.com> > wrote:

Dear all,

below is a letter I post on behalf of Nina Dobrushina. If you have any references or ideas that you could share, please send them to her: nina.dobrushina at gmail.com <mailto:nina.dobrushina at gmail.com>  (also in the copy above)

Michael Daniel

Dear all,

could you give me hints on empirical evidence and literature about languages where the predicates of fear (‘fear’, ‘to be afraid’, ‘to worry’  and the like) (tend to) have negation in the complement clause? I am aware of Russian, French (and other Romance languages), Japanese, and some Turkic languages like Kumyk. Two examples are provided below.


French:

Je    crain-s    que    la    lettre    n’    arrive        pas
I    fear    COMPL    DEF    letter    NEG    come.SUBJ.3SG    NEG

LT: 'I am afraid that the letter does not arrive'
(less literal 'I am afraid that the letter may not arrive')

Japanese (example courtesy Tasaku Tsunoda):

Nanika        waru-i        koto=ga         oki-nak-at-ta=ka        sinpai=da
something        bad-NPST    thing=NOM    happen-NEG-LINK-PST=Q    worried=COP.NPNST
 
LT: ‘[I] am worried whether something bad did not happen.’
FT: ‘I am worried that something bad happened.’

Thanks,

Nina Dobrushina


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