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Allicht en wellicht in Belgisch- en Nederlands-Nederlands
Abstract
This article examines the use of the modal adverbs allicht ‘most probably, of course, at least' and wellicht ‘perhaps, possibly'. Their use in Belgian Dutch differs from the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. The article then investigates what two leading lexical works, namely the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal (WNT) (de Vries, te Winkel et al., 1882–2001) and the Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal (Van Dale, 1914 and later), write about both words, and how allicht and wellicht are used in the metalanguage of these lexical works. The inventory shows a disparate description of allicht and wellicht. In the section which follows we try to determine which degree of probability is indicated by means of allicht and wellicht in Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch and to contrast these results with the results of a small survey on the interpretation of allicht and wellicht in spoken Dutch. The main conclusions are then presented.
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2007, 25(3): 333–350