也许。。。也不一定

[stapler]

Is this some kind of grammatical pattern? I haven't had any luck finding out much about it (assuming it even is a pattern). But I have come across two examples

 

以后也许我们也有一套自己的房子了，也许还是一套海滨别墅也不一定

 

and

 

也许是免费的也不一定哦

 

It seems this 也许。。也不一定 is a grammatical structure that adds emphasis to the possibility? Or to put it more clearly, the 也不一定 adds emphasis to the 也许. Is this correct?

[Jim]

I think it's more like 也不一定 is a set expression and you just happen to have encountered it in two similar contexts where of course it fits well (as a "or maybe not" sort of thing), have a look at all these:

 

http://www.jukuu.com/search.php?q=也不一定

[stapler]

Can’t access the site. 

 

Even if it isn’t a fixed phrase I’m still a bit confused about the function of the phrase. Are you suggesting it’s a kind of rhetorical phrase?

 

[imron]

5 hours ago, stapler said:

Can’t access the site. 

It seems like they try to ban searches that don't originate from their home page.  Try going to http://www.jukuu.com/  and then do a manual search for 也不一定.

 

5 hours ago, stapler said:

I’m still a bit confused about the function of the phrase.

Compare:

 

也许是免费的  - Maybe it's free

 

也许是免费的也不一定哦  - Maybe it's free, or maybe it's not.

 

[Lucas Yu]

I think you can consider 也不一定 as an emphasis here.

也许是免费的 means “Maybe it is free”.

“也许…” is to make an assumption.

不一定 means “Not sure/uncertain”.

Therefore, 也许是免费的也不一定 is saying “Maybe it is free, (the assumption that I made) could be wrong”.

Seems 也不一定 is unnecessary here. It’s here to restate the assumption and to give emphasis to “Maybe this thing is free”.

[陳德聰]

Yeah I’d say it’s full-on redundant, but I have seen and heard people say things like 也許是...也說不定 or 也許是...也不好說 too, I just don’t think it’s really an eloquent way to express oneself.