Conversation started Jul 31, 2015 at 8:45.
Anonymous
Jul 31, 2015 08:45
I wonder what modality in Thai is like
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Hmm...
I think it's all hinged on จะ.
Let's start from English (because I'm not sure how to think of "modality" in Thai).
In English, there're will/would, shall/should, can/could, may/might, must, ought to.
Anonymous
In English we have the system of modal verbs, yes, and also the modal adverbs probably, maybe, and expressions in all likelihood, it's possible that, etc.
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
The typical equivalent/translated word for them are: will/would จะ อาจจะ คงจะ น่าจะ, shall/should จะ อาจจะ คงจะ น่าจะ, can/could จะ ได้, may/might จะ ได้ คง, must ต้อง จะต้อง, ought to ต้อง.
Anonymous
We focus on modal verbs a lot because they're so important and are special grammatically, but we have a number of other ways to express modality in English.
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
probably น่าจะ อาจจะ, maybe อาจจะ, in all likelihood เกือบจะแน่นอนว่า, it's possible เป็นไปได้ว่า
Most of the time, จะ คง น่า ได้ will get involved.
So we have a similar set of words which work somewhat like modal verbs somewhat like adverbs, with lots of overlapping, and none is really identical to its English equivalent word.
Which makes me come up with the idea that Thai is really more about hints, not tenses or aspects.
> He comes to tomorrow. เขา-มา-พรุ่งนี้ [he-come-tomorrrow]
> He will come to tomorrow. เขา-จะ-มา-พรุ่งนี้ [he-will-come-tomorrrow]
I think most people will do that when they translate English into Thai.
But!
If they think about it, it doesn't have to be like that.
Anonymous
Jul 31, 2015 08:59
There are people who suggest that there's been a Western imperialism of sorts when it comes to grammar—that ideas like subject aren't necessarily appropriate in all languages, etc., but these have been imposed on languages simply because that's how Western grammar always worked
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
เขา-มา-พรุ่งนี้ and เขา-จะ-มา-พรุ่งนี้ can be used for the same scenario.
Anonymous
Subject is just a random example.
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
@snailboat Yes. I think it really has some impacts. (Similar to the architectural photos posted above.)
^Oh, I don't know why I typed to before tomorrow!
Ah, just got an (irrelevant) idea.
Perhaps Thai จะ is more like marked version of English will.
Hmm... not quite.
Because if I do that, it will be like I'm trying to map Thai proximal words to English here and there, but Thai has three ranges for that!
Anonymous
Proximal, medial, distal
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Yes!
So, it's like Thai has unmarked, marked, and overmarked versions. :-)
Anonymous
Jul 31, 2015 09:12
Overmarked!
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Hehe!
> a) จะ-มา-มั้ย [will-come-Q] "Will you come?"
> b) มา-มั้ย [come-Q] "Do you come?" (sort of)
> c) จะ-มา-มั้ย [WILL-come-Q] "Will. You. Come?"
 
Conversation ended Jul 31, 2015 at 9:14.