Ability Verb and Epistemic Possibility (Feature 55)
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Feature Annotation
Can epistemic possibility (”perhaps, possibly”) be expressed by the same verb as ability? This is the case in quite a few languages, e.g. German kann: Er kann morgen kommen 1. (ability) ‘He can come tomorrow’, 2. (epistemic possibility) ‘He will possibly come tomorrow’.
By ability, we refer broadly to various non-epistemic possibility types comprising mental participant-internal ability (French savoir: Il sait nager ‘He can swim’), physical participant-internal ability (”He can lilft 100 kilos”), and participant-external possibility (”She can go to town by bus”, i.e. because there is a bus connection). (However, this excludes permission, as in “You may leave now.”)
We ask whether there is any ability verb in the language that also expresses epistemic possibility, i.e. the speaker’s judgement that there is a possibility that the sentence is true. If there are several ability verbs that behave differently, please ignore those that do not also express epistemic possibility.
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | The ability verb can also express epistemic possibility | German Er kann morgen kommen 1. (ability) ‘He can come tomorrow’, 2. (epistemic possibility) ‘He will possibly come tomorrow’. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | The ability verb cannot express epistemic possibility | French Il peut venir demain ‘He can come tomorrow’ vs. Il viendra peut-être demain ‘He will possibly come tomorrow’. Also in standard English, the ability verb can cannot be used epistemically. |
| 3 | There is no ability verb | (Ability is exclusively expressed by non-verbal means) |
WALS No.
74 (Total)
