betting questionniare

[Siewierska, Anna]

Dear colleague, 

 

We are doing a survey on betting constructions and would very much appreciate your help. Below is a short questionniare with a number of questions relating to various aspects of betting constuctions. If you could answer any of these with respect to your native langauge or any other language that you know we would be very grateful.   We suspect that the constructions that we are after may not be present in all languages.  However, we have good reason to believe that betting constructions are not restricted to just European languages.  

 

We have already had some interesting responses from several colleagues who we approached individually for which we are very grateful. We will post these together with any repsonses that we get now once we have collated all the information. 

 

If you have any other observations about the linguistic expression of bets not covered by the questionniare, please do share them with us.

 

Thank you very much for your help.

 

 

Dan Ponsford, Anna Siewierska, Willem Hollmann

Lancaster University

 

 

Questionniare 

 

 

Please give the name of your language (including variety). 

 

 

 

Here is a little scenario: I ask my mother to do something. She may remember; she may forget. I say to you: 

 

"I bet you fifty dollars she forgets" 

 

Please answer the following questions. 

 

 

 

(1) How would you express the sequence in quotes most naturally in your language? Please gloss your example. 

 

 

 

Betting is often done on sports. Here is a second little scenario:

 

Me and my brother are watching a football match between Manchester United and Barcelona. He says that Manchester United will win. But I think Barcelona will win. I say to him:

 

"I bet you fifty dollars Barcelona win"

 

(2) How would you express the sequence in quotes? Please gloss your example.

 

 

 

 

(3) If your answer to (1) or (2) used a word specifically meaning 'bet' or 'to bet', does this word have any senses other than the betting sense? 

 

 

 

(4) If your answer to (1) mentioned 'I' and 'you', is it also possible to express the same meaning without mentioning 'I', without mentioning 'you', or without mentioning either? If so, please give examples. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Is there a conventional way of agreeing to a bet in your language? In English, bets are conventionally accepted with expressions such as "Done!" or "You're on!"

 

 

 

 

 

(6) Can a construction similar to the one in your answer to (1) be used to show how strongly one believes a proposition to be true? For example, in English it is possible to say the following with no gambling intention. 

 

I bet you anything they won't come 

I bet you they won't come

I bet they won't come

 

If this is possible in your language, could you provide a glossed example. If it is not possible, how would you express the same meaning? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) How would you express the following in your language? Please give glossed examples. 

 

I'll give you fifty dollars 

 

 

I promise you fifty dollars 

 

 

I promise you she'll forget 

 

 

I predict that she'll forget 

 

 

I will put the money there

 

 

 

There may be aspects of betting constructions that occurred to you but are not covered by these questions. If you'd like to comment further, please do so. 

 

Many thanks for your help.