[Lingtyp] Epistemic possibility plus affective evaluation?

[tiritiri trauntraun]

In Castilian Spanish (and probably in other varieties of Spanish) “a lo mejor” does not necessarily imply a positive connotation. See for example:

“En Brasil a lo mejor mueren cien personas, aquí tres o cuatro”
(While) in Brazil a hundred people may die, here it would be three or four.

This is an extract of an interview about geology and natural disasters, without any animosity against Brazil…[Ferrer, M. (1995). Reducción de Riesgos Geológicos en España, p.178]

Best,
Rodrigo




Dr Rodrigo Hernáiz Gómez



Lecturer in Languages and Linguistics

School of Languages and Applied Linguistics

The Open University



From: Volker Gast<mailto:volker.gast at uni-jena.de>
Sent: 20 October 2020 10:45
To: Bastian Persohn<mailto:persohn.linguistics at gmail.com>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Epistemic possibility plus affective evaluation?


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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