Questions in natural and artificial languages (original) (raw)
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Yes Or No Questions in Kanuri: A Minimalist Approach
Greener Journal of Art and Humanities
This paper examines the three types of echo question sentences in Kanuri within the minimalist program. In conducting the research, the researcher uses his native speaker intuition and three other competent native Speakers to validate the data. The study identifies three types of movement: Subject movement from Spec. IP position to Spec. CP position, Object movement from Spec. VP position to Spec. CP position and finally the movement of the finite non auxiliary verb under Spec. V position to Spec. CP position to check question feature of Comp in Kanuri. The Study also identifies Structural ambiguity when one constituent moves across another constituent in Kanuri sentence structure. Case marking is used to disambiguate such sentence structures.
Features of questions and interrogatives
The central purpose of this study is to develop a well-founded classification of CP layers into certain projections: here we focus on ForceP and TypeP. The fact that Korean polar alternative questions (PAQs) are incompatible with constituent questions in main clauses, but compatible with them in embedded clauses implies that the notion of question is necessarily distinct from the notion of ‘interrogative’ in syntax. This study proposes that ForceQ features sit in the head of ForceP (Rizzi 2001) and TypeINT feature sits in the head of TypeP (Cheng 1997; Rizzi 2001). The asymmetric compatibility of Korean PAQs with constituent questions in main versus embedded clauses is observed in the English translations of these sentences as well: example (1) is ungrammatical in both Korean and English, while (2) is grammatical in both languages. (1) * nwu-ka hakkyo-ey ka.ss-ni mos ka.ss-ni ? who-NOM school-LOC. went-Q can.not went- Q *Who could or couldn’t go to school? (Who could go to school or not)’ (2) nwu-ka hakkyo-ey ka.ss-nun.ci who-NOM school-LOC. went- INT mos kass-nun.ci kwungkumha-ta. can.not went- INT wonder-DECL ‘(I) wonder who could or couldn’t go to school.’ In this paper, we claim that the asymmetric behaviour of Korean PAQs is due to the fact that questions and ‘interrogatives’ operate in different domains of Universal Grammar: the semantic or pragmatic differences have syntactical consequences. If we follow the assumption that WH-elements occupy the Spec of FocusP and interrogative force occupies the Spec of IntP or question force occupies the Spec of ForceP (Rizzi 2001), there is no explanation for the ungrammatical of (1) — and this is in fact the essence of our analysis of (2). Assuming that the head of ForceP is associated with one yes-no or Wh- illocutionary Force QUESTION feature, the ungrammaticality of (1) is argued to be due to the inability of the features in the head of Force to merge with both features on the constituent question morpheme nwu ‘who’ and the PAQ morpheme –ni-mos-ni (i.e. A-not-A) ‘can or cannot’. The asymmetrical analysis of questions and ‘interrogative’ is also supported by the fact that complementizers with different illocutionary force (yes-no question (–l-lay, -l-kka, and –ni), tag question (ci), and echo question (–tako)) appear in main clauses in Korean, but only the neutralized interrogative complementizer nun.ci occurs in embedded clauses. Thus, we claim that ForcePQ is strictly a category of main clauses, disputing the conclusions of Baker (1970). What has been assumed to be ForceP in embedded clauses is TypeP. The novel data from Korean PAQs require a major rethinking of the received view on the analysis of ForceP and IntP as expressed in Rizzi (2001). Our analysis shows that the pragmatic categories of illocutionary force are highly significant for syntactic analysis in ways that have not been treated consistently in theoretical discussions of questions, in particular as regards the very distinct roles of questions and ‘interrogatives’.
Linguistic features of interrogative sentences
Philology Matters, 2022
In this article, the interrogative category, which is one of the specific categories of language aspects, is widely studied in linguistics at the lexical, morphological, semantic and functional level, as well as focusing on identifying their aspects related to the reflection of various situations and feelings in the language. Relationships between people are activated as a result of the use of verbal and non-verbal means. The goals and conclusions of people and their mutual conclusions are connected to the language expression of the events happening around. During the exchange of ideas, a speaker expresses information in different forms based on the sign of reality, using different linguistic levels.
1971
Pour hypotheses concerning the linguistic structure of yes-no questions and their answers are considered as hypotheses relating to the abstract structure of yes-no questions and to this abstract structure in all human languages. The universal base hypotheses are the following: (1) The abstract representation of all yes-no questions includes two disjunctively connected declarative sentences, symbolizable as X or Not-X. (2) The abstract representation includes a component paraphrasable as I ASK YOU TO TELL ME. (3) For a semantic subclass of yes-no questions, those called "biased" ones, the abstract representation includes an additional declarative sentence. (4) Answers and questions are in a member-to-class relationship with each other. Eighty-five languages form the data base against which these hypotheses are tested. The structure of all yes-no questions is shown to be, on some level of representation, complex rather than simple. The underlying X or Not-X structure is shown to he subordinated to a sentence paraphrasable as TABLE OF CONTENTS
Interrogative Construction in Aceh Language
JURNAL ARBITRER
The article deals with the interrogative construction in Aceh language. This study used a qualitative approach. The study aims to find out; (1) kinds of interrogative words in Aceh language (2) interrogative construction in Aceh language by using X Bar Theory. The data in this study are Acehnese sentences that contain Interrogative words. The data sources in this study are (1) Acehnese dictionaries, (2) Acehnese Book, and (3) Acehnese speakers. The data collection process by an interview with the Acehnese speaker in Langsa and data analysis used X Bar Theory. The results of the study show that;1) there are eight kinds of interrogative words in Aceh language especially in East Aceh dialect in Langsa such as: a) Pue. peue, b) Soe, c) Hoe, d) pat, dipat, e) pajan, f) pakon, g) padum, h) pane, i) pakiban. There are three categories of interrogative construction;(a) Open Interrogative, (b) Close Interrogative, (c) Rhetoric Interrogative. The Structure of the sentence in Aceh language con...
Sentential word order and the syntax of question particles
Polar question particles in languages with VO word order pose a problem for the otherwise robust Final-Over-Final Constraint, which rules out a head-final phrase immediately dominating a head-initial phrase (Holmberg 2000). This paper offers a description of these particles and the constraint, and offers data supporting the hypothesis that these final particles are different from their initial counterparts in a fundamental way.
The syntax and pragmatics of embedded yes/no questions
The paper investigates the distribution of English if and whether as complementizers for polar questions in extensional contexts, and specifically the restriction of if-questions to negative contexts. I will criticize the recent analysis by and suggest that markedness of embedded if-questions in certain contexts arises through the conspiracy of several factors. I follow Bolinger (1979) in assuming that the question "if S" presupposes an (ir-)relevance asymmetry between the proposition denoted by S and its negation. I argue that this leads to competition between embedded if-questions and that-clauses in the relevant constellations, which in turn excludes the if-question as the less optimal variant.
Interrogative “complements” and question design in Estonian
Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 2011
Some interrogative subject and object complement clauses are not treated as subordinate in Estonian interaction. ey are interactionally pro led, as participants answer them as questions. Grammatically, they behave like independent clauses, displaying inversion and the turn-nal question particle vä/ve. e main clauses considered in the chapter, ütle/öelge 'say!' , räägi 'talk/tell!' , ei tea 'not know' , and uvitav 'interesting' , instead function as (epistemic) particles projecting and designing questions in a sequentially and interpersonally sensitive way.
Syntax (Ling 4640), 2009
A brief overview of the syntax of Klingon question formation. This paper looks at yes/no questions, wh- questions and tag questions.