[Lingtyp] fear + NEG

[Michael Daniel]

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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