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Negative Probability.

The Negative of the forms in 7.11 is formed by affixing the `negative participle' È×¾ aame to the verb in question and following it by Éçÿ»Ôè£ Éç¡´ÁÔ£ irundaalum irukkalaam, e.g.
Ǩ ؽԴÔ×¾ Éçÿ»Ôè£ Éç¡´ÁÔ£
avan pook-aame irundaalum irukkalaam. `He might not go; perhaps he won't go.'

Similarly, the negative of 7.12 is formed by affixing È×¾ - aame to the verb, and following it by Éçÿ»Ôè£ Éç¤Ø½¨ irundaalum iruppeen, e.g.

Ǩ ¾Ô¾Õ¶£ ¶Ô¤½Õ¹Ô×¾ Éçÿ»Ôè£ É礽Ԩ avan maamsam saappidaame irundaalum iruppaan. `He probably won't eat meat.'

The `expected' negative forms, i.e., something like * pookaattaalum pookamaattaan, while acceptable grammatically to a native speaker, would not be assigned the meaning a speaker of English would expect and would not be used by a native speaker.



Haorld_F.Schiffman