Interogetives

Jim Grossmann wrote:

Mark P. Line wrote:

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.

1. Mark the relevant noun ('time', 'place', 'person', etc.) for WH
   1. by attaching an affix
   2. by changing the stress pattern
   3. by changing the tone
   4. by suprasegmental nasalization
   5. by suprasegmental breathiness
   6. by suprasegmental faucalization
   7. by mutating the initial consonant
   8. by mutating (ablaut/umlaut/etc.) the stressed vowel
   9. by using a preposed or postposed particle or clitic
   10. by inventing new lexical items [nope, that's what English does]
2. Force a periphrastic construction based on relativizers (instead of interrogatives): "I don't know the place at which you live." (= "Where do you live?") [you can create a suite of relativizers in all the same ways you can create interrogatives]
3. Mark the main verb for WH-ness of the topic constituent
   1. by attaching an affix
   2. by changing the stress pattern
   3. - j. [etc.]
4. Mark the sentence for WH-ness of the topic constituent
   1. by using a sentence-initial or sentence-final particle or clitic
   2. by changing the intonation pattern of the sentence
   3. by suprasegmental nasalization
   4. by suprasegmental [etc.]

Copyright © 1997, Jack Durst,
Last updated: 8 May, 1997