|
The inferential mood (abbreviated or ) is used to report a nonwitnessed event without confirming it, but the same forms also function as admiratives in the Balkan languages in which they occur. The inferential mood is used in some languages such as Turkish to convey information about events, which were not directly observed or were inferred by the speaker. When referring to Balkan languages, it is often called renarrative mood; when referring to Estonian, it is called oblique mood. The inferential is usually impossible to be distinguishably translated into English. For instance, indicative Bulgarian ''той отиде (toy otide)'' and Turkish ''o gitti'' will be translated the same as inferential ''той отишъл (toy otishal)'' and ''o gitmiş'' — with the English indicative ''he went''.〔For a more precise rendering, it would be possible to also translate these as "he reportedly went" or "he is said to have gone" (or even "apparently, he went") although, clearly, these long constructions would be impractical in an entire text composed in this tense.〕 Using the first pair, however, implies very strongly that the speaker either witnessed the event or is very sure that it took place. The second pair implies either that the speaker did not in fact witness it take place, that it occurred in the remote past or that there is considerable doubt as to whether it actually happened. If it were necessary to make the distinction, then the English constructions "he must have gone" or "he is said to have gone" would partly translate the inferential. ==Renarrative in the Balkan languages== Writing on the typology of evidentiality in Balkan languages, Victor Friedman systematizes the facts in the following way:〔(Language Contact and the Typology of Evidentials in the Balkans ), (A. Victor Friedman )〕 ''Ibid.'', "Illustrative data (interlinear glossing is omitted to save space): () :''Тој бил богат!'' (Macedonian, nonconfirmative past) :Той щял да ме набие. (Bulgarian, doubtful future: He is going to beat me up, but I do not think that would be possible because I think that I am stronger than him) :Ама вие сте били тук. (Bulgarian, present tense: You are/have been here, but I did not know it, I have just found out and I am surprised at the fact) :''O zenginmiş!'' (Turkish, nonconfirmative past) :''Ai qenka i pasur!'' (Albanian, nonconfirmative present) :He is rich! (To my surprise, the nonconfirmative refers to discovery of preëxisting state) :''Ku qenka mjeshtri?'' (Albanian, nonconfirmative present) :''Каде бил мајсторот?'' (Macedonian, nonconfirmative past) :''Patron neredeymiş?'' (Turkish, nonconfirmative past) :Where is the boss? (I am surprised at his absence; Albanian can have true present meaning, Balkan Slavic/Turkish cannot) In Bulgarian, even though a state of affairs may be entirely undisputed by the speaker, he may choose to use the renarrative in order to present ''disagreement'' with the actions or opinion of the speaker: :''Obizhdash go ne za drugo, ami zashtoto bil bogat'' :(You're insulting him for no other reason other than for the fact that he's rich) Grammatically, this could be seen as a way for the speaker to be demonstratively re-narrating the event (the insult) back to the listener in order for them to pause and consider their actions. Present and future tenses also exist for such a mood in the above-mentioned languages, but, with the exception of the Albanian ''true nonconfirmative present'' illustrated above, these "nonconfirmatives, (from perfects), always have a past reference to either a real or a putative narrated event, speech event, or state of mind. They cannot be used with true nonpast reference." :''Do t'u hapka një universitet privat'' (Albanian: A private University will be opened - apparently, i.e. as reported by someone & to my surprise.) :''Varacakmış'' (Turkish: He will be arriving - as told by someone) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inferential mood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|