[Lingtyp] fear + NEG

[Hannu Tommola]

Dear all,

     let me add some examples from Finnish, where the adverb _vain_ 'only'
seems to trigger the negation in the complement clause of 'fear':

  (1) Pelkää-n, ett-ei                     vain tule   
           astma
       fear-1SG  COMP-NEG.3SG only come.STEM asthma
     'I'm afraid it may develop to asthma'

  (2) Pelkää-n, ett-ei                     vain ole   
       jotain         vakava-mpa-a...
       fear-1SG  COMP-NEG.3SG only be.STEM something serious-CPR-PRTV
     'I'm afraid it may be something more serious'
     
  In this construction Conditional (as in ex. 3 below) is often used but not
necessary as shown by (1) and (2).

  (3) Mutta pelkää-n  ett-ei                    vain 
ol-isi         alka-va-a
       but     fear-1SG COMP-NEG.3SG only be-COND begin-PTCP-PRTV

       alzheimeri-n       tauti-a
       Alzheimer-GEN disease-PRTV

  'But I'm afraid it might be something more serious'

  Best,
  Hannu

     Quoting Anvita Abbi <anvitaabbi at gmail.com>:
  > Here is the grammatical information with phonetic transcription to clear
  > the air. Semantically the two sentences are equal. I don't think that
  > (1) is passive.
  >
  > 1.   /mujh-e         //ɖǝr        
h//ɛ           ki             vo
  >           a             na          
ja-ye/
  >
  > 1sg-dat         
fear       aux        comp      3sg        
  > come    neg         go-subjunctive
  >
  > ‘I am afraid lest he come’ OR ‘I am afraid he might come’
  >
  > Sentence 1 is equivalent to sentence 2 with non-negative and future
tense.
  >
  >
2.      /mujh-e               //ɖǝr        
h//ɛ          
  > ki             vo          
a             ja-yega/
  >
  > 1sg-dat                
fear       aux        comp      3sg        
  > come     go-fut.3msg
  >
  > ‘I afraid that he will 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[1][1]
  > President: Linguistic Society of India

 
Hannu Tommola
   Professor emer. of Russian Language (Translation Theory and Practice)
   School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies
   FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland
Linkit:
-------
[1] http://www.andamanese.net/


Linkit:
-------
[1] http://www.andamanese.net
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