Linguist Forum
Specializations => Morphosyntax => Topic started by: MonikerGhost on April 25, 2014, 05:38:10 PM
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Here is what I know:
I know that in Korean, to ask a question, one must end the sentence with a word. (When speaking, I'm not sure about written stuff)
I know that in English, to ask a question, we change our pitch in voice. When written we use a question mark.
What other ways do different languages accomplish this.
Is there a similar issue with Command Statements?
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I can think of four ways to indicate questions. Some of these may be combined in some languages.
1. Intonation
2. A question word like the English WH-words, or in some languages a yes-no question word-- for example Arabic 'hal' meaning 'whether' can be used as a yes-no question word, roughly 'where you are happy?' = "Are you happy?"
3. A question marker. This may overlap with a question word in some cases, but other times it is used along with the question word. For an example of a language that uses question particles, see Korean, I believe.
4. Word order-- English "Are you" vs. "You are".
Note that a question mark is just orthographic-- it's not really part of English, and could easily be used in any language for writing.
Is there a similar issue with Command Statements?
Hmm... I'm not sure. Intonation is important, and many languages have special forms for imperative verbs (or use some specific existing form), but beyond that I can't think of any special devices. English omits the pronoun "You" in commands.
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There are many languages in which wh questions dont(they are wh-in situ languages) move to the sentence initial slot.Korean,Japanese and many south Asian are such languages.
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Japanese might often have a word marking it's a question at the end of the sentence, but that's not always the case - and speakers also change the intonation in the sentence.
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What are the requirements for a group of words to be able to form a question?
I'm trying to think of examples in which it would be impossible for a group of words to utilized any of the above mentioned methods.
But I suppose with Intonation, anything can be made a question.
Then what about word order? Are there certain words that are necessary for something to be a question?
This would be including all implied words as well.
For example the sentence, "Markus?" implies the context of whoever the person is responding to.
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I can think of a few more question constructions. First, in English, we have tag questions:
"You're cold, aren't you?"
And similarly
"You're cold, right?"
Although maybe "right" here is a question particle.
Mandarin Chinese has another way of posing polar questions:
leng bu leng
cold NEG cold
'are you cold?'
(The thermostat for my office is in a sunny room and so the air conditioner has been on overdrive...)
What are the requirements for a group of words to be able to form a question?
I'm trying to think of examples in which it would be impossible for a group of words to utilized any of the above mentioned methods.
I'm not sure you're going to find requirements that hold cross-linguistically. What does it mean for a group of words to not be able to utilize the above-mentioned methods? Are you just asking if there are question constructions that have not been listed yet? Or are you wondering if there are some questions that cannot be asked using natural language?
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A question marker. This may overlap with a question word in some cases, but other times it is used along with the question word. For an example of a language that uses question particles, see Korean, I believe.
... Or multiple question markers used with or without question words for different kinds of questions (e.g. Standard interrogative, negative interrogative, polar questions, choice-markers, etc.).
I would also add that languages differ greatly in their variety of question words, many exceed those of English. Also, many question words in huge worlds languages are verbs rather than nouns, e.g. how.to.do-1sg-irr 'how do I do it?
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jkpate added some good other types, though I think they are, in a sense, less strictly structural ways of marking questions and more pragmatic/conventional. But it's good to add them to the list:
First, in English, we have tag questions
Tags are used in many languages. But they basically attach to a normal declarative sentence then ask a new question about whether it is correct or not. They're like the counterparts to "yes" and "no" a question words. Whether some tags are actually question markers is a good question. I think question markers tend to be grammatical and non-optional, although I don't know that is a rule. I suppose Canadian English "eh" can be considered a QM, and then maybe "right" should be too, although I suspect the intonation patterns would be different with "eh" inside the clause and "right" in a new intonational phrase.
Mandarin Chinese has another way of posing polar questions
Ah, yes, that alternatives style. I know I've seen that somewhere else, but I can't remember where. Again, I'm not sure I'd consider this strictly to be a question structure in itself, but more like a list of alternatives used conventionally to imply a question-- probably with the help of intonation.
And I'll add one more:
In French, questions are often introduced in subordinate/embedded clauses. Roughly:
Is-it (the case) that you speak French?
Est-ce que tu parles français?
This looks something like the tag strategy above, but it is really just a normal part of French grammar being used conventionally to question a statement.