[Lingtyp] Epistemic possibility plus affective evaluation?

[Bastian Persohn]

Dear Rodrigo,

Yes, the descriptive works I consulted agree. Here's an exerpt from a 
manuscript of mine:

Despite the constituent /mejor/ ‘better, best’, and as highlighted 
explicitly in several descriptions, /a lo mejor/ does not feature any 
element of positive evaluation (de Bruyne 1993: 428; García de Dini 
1980: 85; Gónzalez Calvo 1989: 157; Santos Río 2003: 498; Fernández 
Sanmartín and García Salido 2012: 2131; Suarez Hernández 2017: 110, 
footnote 95)


I recall examples from the CdE and CORPES XXI corpora that closely 
resemble your example,
though I do not have them at hand right now.


Best,

Bastian


References:

De Bruyne, Jaques. 1993. /Spanische Grammatik/. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

*García de Dini, Encarnación. 1980. /El sintagma “a lo mejor” y su 
función dentro del mecanismo de la expresividad/. /Bolletino 
dell’Istituto di Lingue Estere/ 12. 82*–109.**

*González Calvo, José Manuel. 1989. A propósito de los adverbios y 
locuciones de duda. In Julio Borriego Nieto, José J. Gómez Asencio & 
Luis Santos Río (eds.), /Philologica II. Homenaje a D. Antonio 
Llorente/. 149*–161*. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca.*

Santos Río, Luis. 2003. /Diccionario de partículas/. Salamanca: 
Luso-Espa*ñola de Ediciones.*

Fernández Sanmartín, Alba & Marcos García Salido. 2012. De adverbio 
oracional a marcador del discurso. Los casos de naturalmente y a lo 
mejor. In Emilio Montero Cartelle (ed.), /Actas del VII congreso 
internacional de la historia de la lengua//española. Santiago de 
Compostela, 14-18 de septiembre de 2009/, vol. 2. 2127–2138. Santiago de 
Compostela: Meubook.

Suárez Hernández, Ariana. 2017. /Análisis diacrónico de adverbios con 
función discursiva: hacía una descripción lexicográfica/. San Milán de 
la Cogolla: Centro Internacional de Investigación de la Lengua Española.


Am 20.10.2020 um 15:08 schrieb 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lingtyp mailing list
> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
> >
>
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