[Lexicog] Deductions - mind or emotions

[Cheryl Reitz]

I have a feeling you may be lost, but I think I can help you. - In these
cases have+feeling and think show conjecture/possibility/request for
confirmation from other. Perhaps the woman in Japan, who was not a native
speaker of English, meant 'have a feeling' rather than 'feel'.
Cheryl
  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of dick_watson at sil.org
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:54 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Deductions - mind or emotions












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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