Home Linguistics & Semiotics Chapter 8. The French future
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 8. The French future

Evidentiality and incremental information
  • Alda Mari
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Evidence for Evidentiality
This chapter is in the book Evidence for Evidentiality

Abstract

We propose a new analysis for the French future, which treats it as a modal-evidential, articulating two perspectival points – a conjectural and a ratificational one. Considering that future also contributes a relative tense, we explain a variety of uses covering previously unexplained cases, including those in which the speaker knows that the prejacent is true. Finally, our account sheds some light on cross-linguistic facts and most notably on the relation between the ratificational French future and the conjectural future in Italian (akin to an epistemic modal), paving the way for a typological distinction between two types of languages: ‘conjectural future type’ languages and ‘ratificational future type’ ones.

Abstract

We propose a new analysis for the French future, which treats it as a modal-evidential, articulating two perspectival points – a conjectural and a ratificational one. Considering that future also contributes a relative tense, we explain a variety of uses covering previously unexplained cases, including those in which the speaker knows that the prejacent is true. Finally, our account sheds some light on cross-linguistic facts and most notably on the relation between the ratificational French future and the conjectural future in Italian (akin to an epistemic modal), paving the way for a typological distinction between two types of languages: ‘conjectural future type’ languages and ‘ratificational future type’ ones.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. What do we know? Knowledge and evidence
  6. Chapter 1. Evidentiality as stance 19
  7. Chapter 2. Factual vs. evidential? The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian 45
  8. Chapter 3. I think and I believe 77
  9. Chapter 4. (Yo) creo que as a marker of evidentiality and epistemic modality 99
  10. Chapter 5. Finnish evidential adverbs in argumentative texts 121
  11. Part II. When do we know? Accessibility of evidence in time
  12. Chapter 6. Uralic perspectives on experimental evidence for evidentials 145
  13. Chapter 7. Reportive sollen in an exclusively functional view of evidentiality 173
  14. Chapter 8. The French future 199
  15. Chapter 9. Evidence for the development of ‘evidentiality’ as a grammatical category in the Tibetic languages 227
  16. Chapter 10. From similarity to evidentiality 257
  17. Chapter 11. What can different types of linguistic data teach us on evidentiality? 281
  18. Author Index 305
  19. Language index 309
  20. Subject index 311
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.61.09mar

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. What do we know? Knowledge and evidence
  6. Chapter 1. Evidentiality as stance 19
  7. Chapter 2. Factual vs. evidential? The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian 45
  8. Chapter 3. I think and I believe 77
  9. Chapter 4. (Yo) creo que as a marker of evidentiality and epistemic modality 99
  10. Chapter 5. Finnish evidential adverbs in argumentative texts 121
  11. Part II. When do we know? Accessibility of evidence in time
  12. Chapter 6. Uralic perspectives on experimental evidence for evidentials 145
  13. Chapter 7. Reportive sollen in an exclusively functional view of evidentiality 173
  14. Chapter 8. The French future 199
  15. Chapter 9. Evidence for the development of ‘evidentiality’ as a grammatical category in the Tibetic languages 227
  16. Chapter 10. From similarity to evidentiality 257
  17. Chapter 11. What can different types of linguistic data teach us on evidentiality? 281
  18. Author Index 305
  19. Language index 309
  20. Subject index 311
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 7.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/hcp.61.09mar/html
Scroll to top button