Jim Grossmann wrote:
Mark P. Line wrote:I guess an interrogative pronoun would be a form that entails (a) that the speaker desires more specific identifying information about the pronoun's referent and (b) whatever other meanings are lexicalized in the pronoun (it has to be a person for "who", a non-person for "what", etc.).First, tell me how you know an interrogative pronoun and an interrogative adverb when you see one in any language, and then I'll tell you whether or not I think there are any languages that don't have any.JG I'm afraid I don't know any authoritative definition of an interrogative pronoun or interrogative adverb that would apply across languages.
An interrogative adverb would be a form that entails (a) that the speaker desires more specific identifying information about the referent the adverb is modifying and (b) whatever other meanings are lexicalized in the adverb (it has to be a place for "where", a time for "when", a reason for "why", etc.).
If you go along with these definitions, I'd have to say that I _have_ looked at languages that have neither interrogative pronouns nor adverbs (the good news), but I can't recall which ones (the bad news). As I mentioned elsewhere, there are languages that derive their WH interrogatives from an affix or free morpheme (which is usually an adjective, not a pronoun or adverb) representing the interrogative meaning and a noun representing the other constraints (time, place, person, thing, etc.).
You'd think there'd just be a database somewhere and you could just look it up, but no, descriptive linguists tend to be a pretty closed-fisted lot.
JG Actually, I'll settle for fewer. ANY non-English WH-question grammar that involves something more exotic than funny ways of pronouncing 'who,' 'what,' 'where,' 'when,''how,' and 'why' would be helpful at this point.Well, if it's brainstorming you want:
Copyright © 1997, Jack Durst,
Last updated: 8 May, 1997