Презумптив за изразяване на епистемична възможност във въпроси в балканските езици – какво ще да е това?
The Presumptive of Epistemic Possibility in Questions in the Balkan Languages – What Might This Be?

Summary/Abstract: This article examines a grammatical means of expressing epistemic possibility in interrogative utterances. It takes Bulgarian ще да-constructions as its point of departure and traces their semantic equivalents in Greek, Romanian, and Albanian. The focus is on the potential of presumptive forms (whether unique or non-unique) to express epistemic possibility, rather than probability, in polar questions. The study addresses the semantic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic aspects of this type of utterance. Among the possible interpretations of the morphological status of the forms under discussion, particular emphasis is placed on the hypothesis that a specific interaction may arise between the context – an interrogative utterance that includes emotive or expressive components – and the presumptive (typically associated with epistemic probability). This interaction may trigger a semantic shift from epistemic probability to epistemic possibility.

• Details
• Contents