Subject
semantics, modality, pragmatics, apprehensive modality, subordination, syntax, indirect speech act, [SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics

Domains
Linguistique, Sciences Sociales, Sciences humaines, Langues

Description

International audience Among the languages that grammaticalize the apprehensive domain, some use a subordinator like Eng. lest (“Don’t run, lest you fall”); others have an apprehensive modality within their verb system. Mwotlap (Oceanic, Vanuatu) thus has a mood marker /tiple/ (≈‘might’), often found in paratactic constructions like “Don’t run, you might fall!” This apprehensive also encodes a form of interclausal dependency; yet rather than being due to syntactic subordination proper, this dependency effect is arguably of a pragmatic nature. Indeed, by exposing an event (e.g. your falling) as a risk to be avoided, the apprehensive clause serves as an argument towards a certain behaviour (“don’t run”). Sometimes, only the apprehension is formulated (“You might fall!”), leading the hearer to reconstruct the intended instruction. The apprehensive mood then defines an indirect speech act – one where exposing a danger serves as a proxy for an implicit order. The pragmatic effect is sometimes exploited for politeness strategies, or for its humorous potential.

Keywords

Language
English (en-GB)

Creators
François, Alexandre

Contributors
Lattice - Langues, Textes, Traitements informatiques, Cognition - UMR 8094 (Lattice) ; Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3-Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (USPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Département Littératures et langage - ENS Paris (LILA) ; École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), Marine Vuillermet, Eva Schultze-Berndt, Martin Haspelmath, ANR-10-LABX-0083,EFL,Empirical Foundations of Linguistics : data, methods, models(2010)

Sources
A typology of apprehensives, https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03092513, Marine Vuillermet; Eva Schultze-Berndt. A typology of apprehensives, Language Science Press, In press, Studies in Diversity Linguistics

Relation

Coverage
Vanuatu

Name of newspaper