Interrogative constructions

HUL464

INTERROGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

SAJEED MAHABOOB2011ME1111

2INTRODUCTION

Acquire information is very important to the human species Apparently most if not all languages have developed some particular means dedicated to eliciting information henceforth called interrogative constructions

An interrogative construction is a grammatical form used to ask a question

17-Feb-16

3TYPES OF INTERROGATIVES

Polar interrogatives (lsquoyesno questionrsquo lsquoclosedrsquo)

ex Does a platypus lay eggs

Constituent interrogatives(lsquowhrsquo lsquoinformational questionsrsquo lsquoopenrsquo lsquospecialrsquo lsquopartialrsquo)

ex What is a platypus

Alternative interrogatives(to query which element of a set of alternatives makes an open sentence true)

ex Is a platypus a mammal or a bird17-Feb-16

4INTRODUCTION

There are seven basic strategies of deriving interrogatives some of them being restricted to particular types of interrogatives

1 Intonation2 Interrogative particles3 Interrogative tags4 Disjunctive constructions5 The order of constituents6 Verbal inflection7 Interrogative words

Some of these strategies can occur in combination others may be mutually exclusive

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5INTRODUCTION

POLAR INTERROGATIVES

The expected answer lsquoyesrsquo or lsquonorsquo The speaker asks the addressee about the truth value of the proposition expressed by the relevant interrogative clause

Polar interrogatives may have either positive or negative polarity

A Is 761 a prime number (Unbiased case) (no expectations with respect to the answer)

B Canrsquot you stay a little longer (Biased case) (either a positive or a negative answer)

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6INTRODUCTION

CONSTITUENT INTERROGATIVES

We find an interrogative word (who what when etc) in the position of the unknown informationSpeaker expects the addressee to supply adequate information for these variablesEx What is the Bermuda triangle

There are interrogative with one or with multiple interrogative wordsA Who opened the door B Who did what to whom

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7INTRODUCTION

ALTERNATIVE INTERROGATIVES

With these interrogatives the speaker offers the addressee a list of possible answers from which he is supposed to choose the correct one

Ex Would you like tea or coffee Are you going to gym Egg is vegetarian or non-vegetarian

Mostly optional answers

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8POLAR INTERROGATIVES

The expected answer in the case of polar interrogatives is either lsquoyesrsquo or lsquonorsquo The speaker asks the addressee about the truth value of the proposition expressed by the relevant interrogative clause

INTONATIONThe intonation contour most widely employed for polar interrogatives and in fact interrogatives in general is a rising one with the rise usually being placed towards the end of the contour

Ex Italian Suo marito egrave ancora malato -Statement Suo marito egrave ancora malato -Question

Ex Hindi कबर न फितर फिलम दखा ह -Statement कबर न फितर फिलम दखा ह -Question

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INTERROGATIVE PARTICLE

Interrogative particles are expressions like French est-ce que Polish czy Finnish kouml Mandarin ma Slavic li Bengali ki etc

Used after intonation The most widely employed device

Ex Japanese(a) yamada-san wa ginkoo de hataraite-imasu yamada-Mr TOP bank at working lsquoMr Yamada works at the bankrsquo

(b) yamada-san wa ginkoo de hataraite-imasu ka yamada-Mr TOP bank at working lsquoDoes Mr Yamada work at the bankrsquo

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Ex Bengali ki beral pakhita dhorechilo IP cat birdSG caught lsquoDid the cat catch the birdrsquoEx Russian ital li ty egravetu knigu read IP you this book lsquoHave you read this bookrsquo

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

Another strategy for marking polar interrogatives are the so called interrogative tags

Ex English He has gone to Tokyo hasnrsquot he

Ex Bengali beral pakhita dhorechilo noy ki lsquoThe cat caught the bird didnrsquot itrsquo

Ex Russian Ty ego sly₁al pravda lsquoYou heard him didnrsquot yoursquo

Ex German Er ist sehr reich nicht wahr lsquoHe is very rich isnrsquot hersquo 17-Feb-16

DISJUNCTIONNormally used for alternative interrogativesNow a possible device for posing the polar interrogatives

An affirmative clause and its negative counterpart are being used to form such interrogatives

Ex Mandarin zh˜ng-s˜n xohuan ho ji duigrave bu duigrave Zhang-san like drink wine right NEG right lsquoZhang-san likes to drink wine rightrsquo

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Ex Hindi सरज बहत अचछा आदमी ह ह ना Suraj is a very nice man Right

Ex Bhojpuri हम फिबहन कॉलज जा तानी ठीक बा I am going to college tomorrow Okay

Ex English Your father is very old right

Ex Nepali फिनशचय साथ भनन सकदन मिलयो Cannot say it confidently Understand

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ORDER OF CONSTITUENTSOne of the strategies of marking polar interrogatives that languages across the world are not particularly likely to manifest is a change in the order of their basic constituents (inversion)

English Ex John is a policeman Is John a policeman

French Ex John est un policier -Does not valid John un policier -Since French is VSO in question form it kicked out

Inversion of the verb-fronting type can only occur in languages whose basic word order type is either SVO or SOV it is ruled out for VSO-languages

17-Feb-16

In English inversion is restricted to auxiliaries and modals and do-support is necessary to convert clauses lacking such operators into polar interrogativesEx John phoned me yesterday Did John phone you yesterday

There are only seven examples of inverting languages to be found and six out of these seven languages come from Europe(English Finnish French Hungarian Rumanian Russian)

The only non-European language in this sample to demonstrate inversion is Malay

17-Feb-16

VERBAL INFLECTION

Relatively rare in terms of frequency

The strategy employed by Kalaallisut and Eskimo language (Inuit)

Special verbal morphology

Exclusively dedicated to interrogative formation so that it makes sense to assume an interrogative mood for this group of languages

17-Feb-16

Ex takuvoq lsquoHe seesrsquo वह दखता ह takua lsquoDoes he seersquo कया वह दखता ह

Ex nerivutit lsquoyou atersquo तमन खाया nerivit lsquoDid you eatrsquo कया तमन खाया

17-Feb-16

18CONSTITUENTS INTERROGATIVES

In the constituents interrogatives we find an interrogative word (who what when etc) in the position of the unknown informationSpeaker expects the addressee to supply adequate information for these variablesEx What is the ISIS

There could be interrogative with one or with multiple interrogative wordsA Who opened the door B Who did what to whom

17-Feb-16

Strategies discussed in the previous section can also be found with these interrogatives but they play a less important role in this domain and are normally optional

Therefore I will discuss the constituents interrogative in different aspects

1 The position of interrogative words2 Key properties of interrogative words3 Additional uses of interrogative words

17-Feb-16

THE POSITION OF INTERROGATIVE WORDS

According to the position of interrogative words languages fall into three types

1 Those that put interrogative words obligatorily in clause-initial position (fronting languages )

2 Those in which interrogative words occupy the same position as the constituent questioned (in-situ languages)

3 Those languages that allow either of these two positions (optional fronting languages)

17-Feb-16

Examples FinnishA Maija ottaa omenaa Maija take3SG applePAR lsquoMaija is taking an applersquo

B Mitauml Maija ottaa whatPAR Maija take3SG lsquoWhat is Maija takingrsquo

MandarinA Hufei m1i-le y1048576-bn-sh1048576 Hufai buy-ASP one-CL-book lsquoHufai bought a bookrsquo

B Hufei m1i-le sheacutenme Hufai buy-ASP what lsquoWhat did Hufai buyrsquo

SwahiliA A-li-fika lini 3SG-PAST-arrive when lsquoWhen did she arriversquo B kwa nini chakula ki-me-chelewa why food 3SG-PERF-late lsquoWhy is the food latersquo

17-Feb-16

Additional fronting languages include English German Hebrew Supyire Yoruba Zapotec

Further examples of in-situ languages are Indonesian Japanese Lezgian and Mandarin

Egyptian Arabic Kannada Korean or Palauan belong to the group of optional fronting languages

17-Feb-16

KEY PROPERTIES OF INTERROGATIVE WORDS

Languages can vary greatly in the number of interrogative words they possess

Nevertheless one typically finds two basic kinds of interrogative words

1 Those that substitute for the core arguments of a predication (who what) and which inquire about the central participants of the situations denoted by the relevant clauses

2 Interrogative words that seek circumstantial information of the situation in question and which syntactically speaking one would have to analyze as adjuncts

(a) Who invited him Who did he invite (b) When where did he arrive

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MULTIPLE OCCURRENCES OF INTERROGATIVE WORDS

Particularly interesting parameters of cross-linguistic variation can be observed with those clauses that contain not just one interrogative word but multiple occurrences of themEx Who did what to whom

Based on position of occurrences

Ex (a) Ram gave the book to Radha सरज न कबर को गद दिदया (b) Who gave what to whom किकस न किकस को कया दिदया

Additional languages following the English pattern include German Dutch Swedish Italian Spanish

17-Feb-16

Well defined orderLanguages in which multiple occurrences of interrogative words all occur clause-initially although often in a well defined order

Such multiple fronting languages are most likely a proper subset of fronting languages

Ex Bulgarian Koj kogo e vidjal who whom saw3SG lsquoWho saw whomrsquo

PolishCo komu Monika da1048576awhat to whom Monica gavelsquoWhat did Monica give to whomrsquo

RussianKto kogo ljubitwho whom loveslsquoWho loves whomrsquo

Very strong requirement to front all interrogative words 17-Feb-16

ADDITIONAL USES OF INTERROGATIVE WORDS

In most European languages interrogative words are also used as relative pronouns

Ex German a Wer kommt da lsquoWho is comingrsquo

b Da kommt wer lsquoSomeone is comingrsquo

Languages may either use interrogative words as a source for the development of indefinites or simply use the same form for either function

17-Feb-16

28REFERENCES

Ackema Peter amp Neeleman Ad 1998 ldquoOptimal ques-tionsrdquo Natural Language amp Linguistic Theory 163 443-490

Baker Carl Lee 1970 ldquoNotes on the description of English questionsrdquo Foundations of Language 6 197-219

Bazin Louis 1984 ldquoLa particule interrogative -mi en Turcrdquo In Valentin Paul (ed) Lrsquointerrogation Actes du colloque tenu les 19 et 20 decembre 1983 par le Department de Linguistique de lrsquoUniversiteacute de Paris-Sorbonne 89-94

Chang Suk-Jin 1996 Korean Amsterdam Benjamins Cheng Lisa Lai-Shen 1997 On the typology of wh-questions New York Garland Chisholm William S amp Milic Louis T amp Greppin John AC (eds) 1984 Interrogativity A colloquium on

the grammar typology and pragmatics of ques-tions in seven diverse languages Amsterdam Ben-jamins

Comrie Bernard 1981 Language universals and lin-guistic typology Oxford Blackwell Comrie Bernard 1984 ldquoRussianrdquo In Chisholm Wil-liam S et al (eds)

17-Feb-16

HUL464 INTERROGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

INTRODUCTION

TYPES OF INTERROGATIVES

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

POLAR INTERROGATIVES (2)

CONSTITUENTS INTERROGATIVES

CONSTITUENTS INTERROGATIVES (2)

REFERENCES

2INTRODUCTION

Acquire information is very important to the human species Apparently most if not all languages have developed some particular means dedicated to eliciting information henceforth called interrogative constructions

An interrogative construction is a grammatical form used to ask a question

17-Feb-16

4INTRODUCTION

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5INTRODUCTION

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6INTRODUCTION

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7INTRODUCTION

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

4INTRODUCTION

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5INTRODUCTION

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6INTRODUCTION

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7INTRODUCTION

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

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4INTRODUCTION

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5INTRODUCTION

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6INTRODUCTION

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7INTRODUCTION

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

5INTRODUCTION

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6INTRODUCTION

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7INTRODUCTION

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

6INTRODUCTION

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7INTRODUCTION

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

7INTRODUCTION

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

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INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

INTERROGATIVE TAGS

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

REFERENCES

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

INTRODUCTION (3)

INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

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VERBAL INFLECTION

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION (2)

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INTRODUCTION (4)

INTRODUCTION (5)

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28REFERENCES

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28REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION (5)

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Education

Interrogative constructions