[Lingtyp] fear + NEG

Thu Mar 19 09:10:41 UTC 2015

That´s right, Hannu, this is still taught as a difference in many French grammars, but in present spoken French the risk of ambiguity has been cut off, as people would way

For 'I'm afraid he'll come'
´je crains qu'il vienne'

(Or rather 'j'ai peur qu'il vienne' - as 'craindre' is high register)

And for 'I'm afraid he'll NOT come':
´je crains qu'il ne vienne PAS'

(Or rather 'j'ai peur qu'il vienne pas'),

So that only the negative meaning is nowadays distinctively marked.

M.M.Jocelyne FERNANDEZ-VEST

Envoyé de mon iPhone

Le 19 mars 2015 à 09:21, "Hannu Tommola" <Hannu.Tommola at uta.fi> a écrit :

> As Hartmut, I feel a clarification of the original query is needed here. I know that my competence in French is poor, but isn't it that there is a difference between the following utterances:
> 
> French:
> 
> Je crains qu'il ne vienne
> 'I'm afraid he'll come'
> 
> and
> 
> Je crains qu'il ne vienne PAS.
> 'I'm afraid he'll NOT come'
> 
> Similarly in Russian:
> 
> Ja bojus', chto on pridët
> 'I'm afraid he'll come'
> 
> and
> 
> Ja bojus', chto on NE pridët
> 'I'm afraid he'll NOT come'
> 
> Best wishes,
> Hannu
> 
>    Quoting Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk>:
> > 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>:
> >     
> >> 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[1]
> >> President: Linguistic Society of India
> >>
> >> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Michael Daniel
> >> <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 (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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> >>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
> >> _______________________________________________
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>  
> 
>  
> 
> Hannu Tommola
> Professor emer. of Russian Language (Translation Theory and Practice)
> School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies
> FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland
> Linkit:
> -------
> [1] http://www.andamanese.net/
> 
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