36.1307, Qs: Funny stories wanted on markers of certainty and surprise

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-1307. Fri Apr 18 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.1307, Qs: Funny stories wanted on markers of certainty and surprise

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Date: 17-Apr-2025
From: Jenneke van der Wal [g.j.van.der.wal at hum.leidenuniv.nl]
Subject: Funny stories wanted on markers of certainty and surprise


Dear linguists,
I am looking for funny situations that you encountered in the use and
misuse of markers of mirativity (surprise) and epistemic modality
(possibility and certainty). Perhaps you have a fieldwork situation,
or an issue that second-language learners encounter?
The goal is to use these as illustrations in an online course about
the broader field of epistemicity (the knowledge of speaker and
addressee as expressed in the linguistically), so that participants in
the course see the relevance of these markers in an engaging way. Any
and all such stories are greatly appreciated!
As an example, I share one from the 'SIL stories in the field' to
illustrate the notion of 'focus':
'Roger Van Otterloo tells of the time he was discussing translation
with his Kifuliiru friends (Democratic Republic of Congo) and he
uttered the sentence “Don’t steal from widows!” They started
chuckling, and soon everyone was laughing uproariously. Roger was
mystified and wondered if he’d used the wrong tone (Kifuliiru is a
tonal language) or what. The Kifuliirus told him, no, the tone was
fine, but what he said implied that they could steal from everyone
besides widows!
Roger found out that day that the last word in Kifuliiru is the focus,
the main point, of the entire sentence. So you need to say  “Those
widows, don’t steal-from-them.” The “from-them” is a suffix on the
verb, so the last word in the sentence is now “steal”.'
Thanks in advance!
Jenneke

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics




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