[Lingtyp] optative sentences

[Paolo Ramat]

Ĺieber Christian, dear All ,
yes, I think that ' volitive ' and 'optative ' are the adproprìate terms.
However, sentence #1a is an imperative, directly involving an interlocutor
( or  a plurality of interlocutors) , wheras #1b  hasn't an addressee and
consequently it is nearer  than #1a to an optative/desiderative.  The
illocutionaŕy force of #1a seems to  be stronger than  that of #1b.
Schoenste Gruesze .Paolo

Il Dom 25 Ago 2024, 12:15 Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> ha scritto:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> since my master’s thesis (admittedly, a couple years ago), I have been
> struggling with the manifestation of volition in grammar. Please consider
> the following contrast:
>
> There is one type of utterances which communicate to the hearer that the
> speaker *wants* P. Like a command, they appeal to him to see to it that P
> be realized. This is explicit in (1a).
>
> (1)(a) Please shut the window!
>
>     (b) The window should be shut.
>
> In this sense, (1b) is an indirect speech act, but the type of volition
> conveyed is the same. One might say that (1)(a) and (b) share their
> illocutionary force.
>
>
> There is another type of utterances which express that the speaker
> *wishes* P. They are exclamations which do not appeal to anybody for
> fulfillment of P:
>
> (2)(a) If only Linda arrived in time!
>
>     (b) The devil take him!
>
> Sentences of type #2 are introduced by *utinam* in Latin, *ojalá* in
> Spanish, and so forth. Such particles are not used in sentences of type #1.
>
>
> Also, unfulfillable wishes (traditionally: irreal optative sentences) are
> fine and common as type #2, but in type #1 produce utterances hard to
> interpret.
>
>
> Here are my questions to you:
>
>    -
>
>    Is there an established conceptual and terminological distinction
>    between these two types? How about (1) volitive and (2) optative?
>    -
>
>    Does type #2 have an illocutionary force? Do exclamations have an
>    illocutionary force?
>
> --
>
> Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
> Rudolfstr. 4
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