5 From chance to epistemic possibility

Abstract

This chapter draws attention to the notion of happenstance, i.e. something that happens (by chance), a common cross-linguistic source for expressions of possibility, among them the core English epistemic adverbs perhaps and maybe. We show here that these adverbs are just two members of a wider set of happenstance adverbial formations available in earlier English, which also included lowfrequency expressions such as peraventure, by hap, may fall, may fortune, and chance. Based on data from the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary and from the standard historical dictionaries and their quotation databases, we examine the two major pathways followed by these happenstance expressions in their adverbialization process: (i) from phrase to adverb (e.g. perhaps < per ‘for, by’ + hap ‘occurrence, chance’); and (ii) from clause to adverb (e.g. maybe < (it) may be that . . .). We argue that the development of these happenstance epistemic adverbs shows defining features of grammaticalization, including bleaching, decategorialization, fusion, layering, and cross-linguistic generality, alongside the acquisition of subjective and intersubjective functions.

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