[Lingtyp] fear + NEG

[Hartmut Haberland]

I need a clarification here. The Japanese sentence can be paraphrased as: Something bad may have happened. I am afraid of that. But do the Hindi and French sentences mean: He may come. I am afraid of that. Or:  He may not come. I am afraid of that. ?
It could just be a question whether the complementizer means that or if (like Japanese ka); the latter would require a negation that disappears when the complementizer is rendered by a that-like conjunction in a different language.
Hartmut

Sendt fra min iPhone

Den 19/03/2015 kl. 08.17 skrev "Anvita Abbi" <anvitaabbi at gmail.com<mailto:anvitaabbi at gmail.com>>:

Dear All,
Hindi is one language with such structures. One example is given here.
mujhe       Dar     hai       ki           vo         aa       na       jaye
1sg.Dat     fear     AUX    COMP   3sg       come  NEG  come
Literal: 'I am afraid that he does not come'

Anvita


Prof. Anvita Abbi

Director: Centre for Oral and Tribal Literature

Sahitya Akademi

Rabindra Bhavan

35, Ferozeshah Road

New Delhi 110 001

www.andamanese.net<http://www.andamanese.net/>
President: Linguistic Society of India




On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com<mailto:misha.daniel at gmail.com>> wrote:
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<mailto: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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