Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: pardoej@lonnds.ml.com (Julian Pardoe LADS LDN X1428)
Subject: Re: is turkish new language ?
Message-ID: <D5E663.706@tigadmin.ml.com>
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Organization: Merrill Lynch Europe
References: <3jls9l$lb@rouge.usl.edu>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 18:32:27 GMT
Lines: 27

hxs9268@ucs.usl.edu (Sever Hayri) wrote:

> -ama: simply either beyond your ability or out of your intention. 
> -ama+yabil:  shows probability/possibility on -ama. For example,
>
> come gel
> cannot come   gel+eme
> may not come  gel+eme+yabil
>
> I cannot precisicely recall now why I used "is" instead of "may", 
> but probably because of -ecek suffix, which adds future tense.

Is the distinction the same as that in English between "don't have to" and "mustn't"?
i.e. is it the case that
X-eme-        means "is unable to X"    (does not have the ability to X)
X-eme+yabil-  means "is able to not X"  (has the ability not to X)

"He may not come" pretty much means "The possibility of him not coming is there".
"He cannot come" pretty much means "The possibility of him coming is not there".
(There seems to be a slight emphasis difference in the first case.  The "may" form
suggests that it is a matter of his will whereas the other form suggests that the
power lies with external factors, more "he may not be able to come" than "he may
not come".)

-- jP --


