deontic "will"

[Paolo Ramat]

Dear LINGTYP users,
in the substandard variety of Sardinian Italian the following construction is used: 
 la casa vuole pagata; questo vuole fatto , litt. "the house wants paid" i.e. "the house has to be/must be paid". This is the italianization of  a Sardinian dialect construction: Campidanese su domu boliri pagara "the house has to be/must be paid"; kustu boli fattu "this has to be done".
A parallel construct is attested in Pantelleria (Sicilian dialect):stu múru si voli autigghiari "this wall has to be/must be  elevated"

(18)     "    It has been suggested  that this deontic use of the verb "will,want" is of Arabic origin: Malti .  dan  il-hajt   irid joghla (diacritics omitted) "this the-wall wants elevated". 

               Is it a particular feature of some Mediterranean languages or does anyone  know of other  instances of this use of  "will"? 

                Many thanks for your suggestions.

D



(21

 

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Prof. Paolo Ramat
Dipartimento di Linguistica
Università di Pavia
Tel: +39 0382 504484
Fax: +39 0382 504487
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