GB326
Is there a commonly used content question construction in which the interrogative pronoun or NP (e.g. English who or which one) occurs in the normal position for a non-interrogative NP in the same participant role (i.e. ‘in situ’)? Many languages usually place the wh-constituent in situ (e.g. The man took what?; cf. The man took an umbrella.), while others require wh-constituents to occur in a specific position (e.g. clause-initially) regardless of the usual position of the corresponding non-interrogative NP (e.g. English What did the man take?). Here we are interested in identifying languages that frequently or generally use an interrogative construction with nominal wh-constituents in situ. This question should be coded 1 if questions formed with in situ interrogatives are pragmatically unmarked and are used commonly (e.g. not only in restrictive contexts such as echo questions or constructions with multiple interrogatives).
- Identify the constructions used for content questions, and determine which are commonly used and pragmatically unmarked (e.g. exclude echo questions, constructions with multiple interrogative constituents).
- Identify the constituent order(s) that occur in non-interrogative clauses (i.e. declarative transitive and intransitive clauses).
- If, in any common construction identified in step 1, nominal wh-constituents (e.g. ‘who’, ‘which one’) occur in the same position(s) identified in step 2 for non-interrogative NPs with the same participant role (i.e. in situ), code 1.
- If, in all common constructions identified in step 1, nominal wh-constituents occur in a fixed position (e.g. clause-initial) that does not always correspond to the position of a non-interrogative NP with the same participant role, code 0.
- If word order is described as free or flexible and examples suggest that nominal wh-constituents can occur in the same positions as non-interrogative NPs with the same participant roles, code 1.
- If word order is described as free or flexible but it is unclear from descriptions and examples whether nominal wh-constituents occur in a special position rather than in situ, code ? and provide a comment.
- If there are no nominal wh-constituents (e.g. where wh-verbs are used instead), code 0 and provide a comment.
- If there is insufficient evidence to identify the common, pragmatically unmarked content question construction(s), code ? and provide a comment.
Second Mesa (ISO 639-3: hop, Glottolog: seco1242)
In the Hopi language of Second Mesa, question words can occur either in situ or in a fronted position, as shown below (Jeanne 1978: 178-179):
ya ʔɨm haki-y wɨvaʔta
Q you who-OBL hit
‘Whom did you hit?’ (wh-in situ)
ya haki-y ʔɨm wɨvaʔta
Q who-OBL you hit
‘Whom did you hit?’ (wh-fronted)
Fronting is entirely optional, and neither of these constructions is pragmatically marked or restricted in use. Because the wh-in situ content question construction is commonly used and pragmatically unmarked, it triggers a 1 value for this feature for Second Mesa.
Canichana (ISO 639-3: caz, Glottolog: cani1243)
According to Crevels (2012: 443), interrogative pronouns in Canichana always occur in clause-initial position, as in the example below:
nacu een-ariva
what 2SG-want
‘What do you want?’
(Cardús 1886: 317, as cited in Crevels 2012)
Canichana is coded 0, as Canichana uses (S)VO word order in the corresponding non-interrogative constructions and the uniformly clause-initial wh-pronouns in the common interrogative construction thus cannot be considered to be in situ (Crevels 2012: 443).
English (ISO 639-3: eng, Glottolog: stan1293)
The standard content interrogative construction in English obligatorily places the wh-constituent in a clause initial position (e.g. What did the man take?). However, it is also possible to leave the wh-constituent in the same position that a non-interrogative NP with the same participant role would occur, accompanied by a special intonational pattern (e.g. The man took what?). However, the wh-in situ question construction in English is used for echo questions or when multiple wh-constituents occur (e.g. Who took what?), and is not the general, frequently used interrogative construction in the language. Therefore, English is coded 0.
Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen. 1991. On the typology of wh-questions. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Watanabe, Akira. 1991. Wh-in situ languages. In Mark Baltin & Chris Collins (eds), The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory, 203–225. Oxford: Blackwell.
Crevels, Mily. 2012. Canichana. In Mily Crevels & Pieter Muysken (eds), Amazonía, 415–449. La Paz: Plural Editores.
Jeanne, Leanne M. 1978. Aspects of Hopi grammar. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Doctoral dissertation.)
- GB324 Is there an interrogative verb for content interrogatives (who?, what?, etc.)?
- GB325 Is there a count/mass distinction in interrogative quantifiers?
Hannah J. Haynie