[Lexicog] Deductions - mind or emotions

[dick_watson at SIL.ORG]

Dear John,

> My colleague said "I feel you do not know the way to the faculty 
> building." In my mind (not my heart) I flagged this up as a 
> collocational clash of "feel" with "know". As a native English speaker I 

> would never use "feel" in this context, I would use "think" or "believe" 

> to express my deduction. But then I thought, maybe for other native 
> speakers of English it would be OK to say "I feel you do not know the 
> way to the faculty building." Maybe it is a male/female thing. The 
> Korean colleague who said this is female. Or another possibility is that 

> it is a politeness thing. Maybe the person who said this is wanting to 
> weaken the judgement by using "feel" instead of "think".

Speaking from complete ignorance, the following idea came to mind:

Does this sound wrong because there is a clash of opinion strengths going 
on.

I *feel=weak* you *do not=strong* know the way to the faculty building

if we weaken the second:

I feel you may not know where the way to the faculty building

then that's OK as would strengthening the first

I know you do not know the way to the faculty building

or strongest of all

You do not know the way to the faculty building

Me thinks that this strong weak thing may well crop up in 'management 
speak' or 'political speach' where people try to give the impression of 
speaking forthrightly and strongly while actually trying to speak weakly 
so they can't be held accountable. After all strong + weak = weak.

Anyway, just a mad idea from a non-linguist.

Yours,
Martin
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