[Lingtyp] Epistemic possibility plus affective evaluation?

[David Gil]

The Hebrew expression "im yirce hašem" (if FUT.SGM\want DEM:name) 'If 
God wishes' (clearly areally related to its Arabic counterpart 
"inshallah") seems to me to be primarily epistemic in nature.

A second unrelated comment in the same domain:  When I lived and worked 
in Malaysia, I remember a Pakistani work colleague of mine expressing 
his surprise and bewilderment at how "mashallah" was used very 
differently in Malay than in his native Urdu.  Alas, I can't remember 
the details, though I have a vague recollection that the difference did 
actually have something to do with whether it can be used in positive or 
negative contexts.  Perhaps somebody more knowledgeable could help out here.

David


On 20/10/2020 15:37, Volker Gast wrote:
> Hi Sebastian,
> I was wondering about these expressions ("inshallah", "ojalá" < 
> "washallah") too, but I somehow felt that they belong in the domain of 
> desiderative or deontic modality, rather than epistemic modality (cf. 
> also "magari", which seems to be widespread across the Balkans). 
> "Inshallah" seems to have specific religious implications which are 
> not primarily related to ignorance. But sub-types of modality are hard 
> to keep apart, of course, and perhaps Bastian's question could be 
> rephrased by asking whether there are elements that convey both 
> epistemic possibility and desiderative modality. Btw Lichtenberk uses 
> the term "apprehensional epistemic" for "fear of a future situation" 
> (cf. Kilu's message), and English 'lest' is often used as an example 
> of that category. At the end of the day, I'm afraid we're back to the 
> question of how to define linguistic categories within and across 
> languages, but imho we shouldn't restart this discussion.
>
> Best,
> Volker
>
> On 20/10/2020 13:00, Sebastian Nordhoff wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> one obvious example which came to my mind was inshallah in Arabic 
>> (and ojalá in Spanish). Both have an epistemic value of uncertainty, 
>> but a positive attitudinal stance.
>> Best wishes
>> Sebastian
>>
>>
>> On 10/20/20 12:55 PM, paolo Ramat wrote:
>>> Volker's mention of Span. /a lo mejor / lets me think of the Ital. 
>>> opposite/alla peggio /"at worst", "in the worst" (while it doesn't 
>>> exist an adverbial corresponding to /a lo mejor):/
>>> It's terribly raining; let's hope that the bus comes on time, /alla 
>>> peggio/ we'll have to go on foot". However, it does not seem 
>>> that/alla peggio/ has an epistemic value.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Paolo
>>>
>>>
>>> Il giorno mar 20 ott 2020 alle ore 12:14 Kilu von Prince 
>>> <watasenia at gmail.com <mailto:watasenia at gmail.com>> ha scritto:
>>>
>>>     Hi Bastian,
>>>
>>>     that is pretty much the definition of apprehensive or timitive 
>>> mood.
>>>
>>>     Best,
>>>     Kilu
>>>
>>>     On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 11:45 AM Volker Gast
>>>     <volker.gast at uni-jena.de <mailto:volker.gast at uni-jena.de>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>         The specific variety of Spanish that I learned (Mexico/Chiapas)
>>>         has an expression "a lo mejor" which is basically an 
>>> adverbial of
>>>         epistemic possibility ("perhaps"), but which seems to come with
>>>         a positive
>>>         connotation ("hopefully"). But it is possible that the positive
>>>         connotation is due to my imagination, triggered by "mejor"
>>>         ("better").
>>>         There are certainly native speakers of Spanish on this list 
>>> who can
>>>         clarify that.
>>>
>>>         Volker
>>>
>>>         _____________
>>>         Prof. V. Gast
>>>         http://linktype.iaa.uni-jena.de/VG
>>>
>>>         On Mon, 19 Oct 2020, Bastian Persohn wrote:
>>>
>>>          > Dear colleagues,
>>>          >
>>>          > I was wondering if you know of any examples of 
>>> expressions of
>>>         epistemic
>>>          > possibility - especially adverbials - that additionally
>>>         contribute an
>>>          > element
>>>          > of affective evaluation, i.e. expressions that could be
>>>         paraphrased in
>>>          > English along
>>>          > the lines of  ʻmaybe (and I hope that is the case)ʼ or 
>>> ʻmaybe
>>>         (but
>>>          > hopefully that's not the case)ʼ.
>>>          >
>>>          > Thanks so much!
>>>          >
>>>          > Bastian
>>>          >
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-- 
David Gil
  
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
  
Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
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