“May the Force Be with You!" : 英語のmay祈願文について

IR IR (HANDLE) Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • “May the Force Be with You!" : On the optative Sentence with may in English
  • May the Force Be with You : エイゴ ノ may キガンブン ニ ツイテ

Search this article

Description

application/pdf

論文(Article)

The optative sentence with may in English, a substitution by the modal auxiliary may for the older present subjunctive, is peculiar in that it takes the word order “May + Nominative NP + Verb,” although it is not an interrogative sentence, which is, for example, used to get permission from someone: “May I ...?” Here we find that their syntactic structures are superficially the same, but their functions are totally different. Should this construction of the may-optative be taken as an ordinary subject-verb inversion? I do not think it should. Instead, as Quirk et al. (1985) say, I am in favor of regarding the sentence-head may as a “pragmatic particle” introducing a wish like the principal clause which has the same function: I wish/hope, because it is fully conceivable that its historical development could have been influenced by the let-hortative/imperative and the mote-optative, both of which have the same construction as the may-optative.

英語における、法助動詞 may と共起する「may祈願文」の発達を通時的に検討していく.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top