A survey of polar interrogative strategies in the languages of China
2.2.2. Mongolian languages
Mongolian
In Mongolian, polar question strategies include final question particles and alternative structures.
Some common question particles include b(ee), used in normal questions;
and jɷɷ/juu, ɷɷ/uu, used in no-doubt questions (jɷɷ/juu in vowel-ending words, and ɷɷ/uu in consonantal-ending ones); and biddəə/baa, used in guesses or situations when a speaker has already known something and seeks for more information, e.g. assertion. Questions formed by final question particles are normally in falling intonation (see Daobu 1983: 99-100, 135).
(137) Mongolian (Daobu 1983: 100) tʃii nεεrd jabsā biddəə?
you PN go PRT
‘Did you attend the nεεrd (festival)?’
The structure of alternative questions in Mongolian is X prt? Y prt? with a pitched accent on each particle, and also a falling intonation after each of them (Daobu 1983: 135-6), rather than a rising one as it is found in many other languages.
(138) Mongolian (Daobu 1983: 99) tər bus sεεn ɷɷ, mɷɷ jɷɷ?
DEF cloth good PRT bad PRT
‘Is that cloth good or bad?’
Tu
The polar question system of Tu shares some similarities with Mongolian. It mainly uses final question particles and alternative structures. The structure of alternative questions is X prt Y prt (Zhaonasitu 1981b: 56-8).
(139) Tu (Zhaonasitu 1981b: 57)
tɕərm seer ii jiuu, guii jiuu?
you money have prt not.have prt
‘Do you have money or not?’
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Nevertheless, the usage of question particles in Tu is complicated. Some most frequently used question particles include uu, nuu, jiuu, laii, and sa. uu is used after declarative sentences and usually brings about syllable assimilation (140a).
nuu is used after a or va ‘be’, which together (a/va nuu) mean ‘is it?’ (140b). jiuu is used only after the -ii-ended copula, like ii, guii, nəmbii, and puɕii (140c). The usage of sa is similar to uu, though it does not cause any syllable assimilation (140d).
(140) Tu (Zhaonasitu 1981b: 56-8) a. tɕə mudev(a) uu?
2SG know PRT
‘Do you know (that)?’
b. nadnə xanadʑ(ə) a nuu?
illness cure be PRT
‘Has he recovered (from the illness)?’
c. tɕə dordʑə nəmbii jiuu?
2SG dordʑə be PRT
‘Are you dordʑə?’
d. duiidʐaŋ mudedʑ(ə) a sa?
chief know be PRT
‘Did the chief know (that)?’
Daur
The final question particle jəə is used very common in Daur polar questions.
jəə is also used in tag questions.
(141) Daur (Zhong 1982: 60, 85) a. ʃii id-bəi-ʃii jəə?
2SG eat-FUT-2SG PRT
‘Are you going to eat?’
b. tʃinguruŋ dʒinguruŋ təgər bəi, biʃiŋ jəə?
Qin Jin equal be not.be PRT
‘Qin and Jin are equal countries, aren’t they?’
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Dongxiang
The most frequently used question particles in Dongxiang are u (nu) and ba.
u is very easily assimilated into the previous syllable (142a), nu is used after the copula wo ‘be’ (142b), and ba bears more or less assertion and is used both in questions and imperatives (142c).
(142) Dongxiang (Liu 1981: 82, 104)
a. tʂɯ maɣaʂə irənu? (irənu < irənə u) 2SG tomorrow come
‘Are you coming tomorrow?’
b. tʂɯ bədʑinsə irəsən kun puʂɯwo nu?
2SG Beijing come people not.be PRT
‘Aren’t you from Beijing?’
c. ənə tʂɯni ʂu wo ba?
DEF 2SG.GEN book be PRT
‘Is this your book?’ Literally, ‘This is your book? (I suppose so.)’
Alternative questions in Dongxiang normally take X prt Y structure.
(143) Dongxiang (Liu 1981: 105)
mini kiəliəsənni tʂɯ tʂənliən(ə) u, uliə tʂənliənə?
1SG say 2SG listen PRT not listen
‘Will you listen to me or not?’
Bao’an
Bao’an has three question particles, u, ʂa, and ba. Like Tu and Dongxiang, u also brings about phonological assimilation in a recursive way (144a).
Alternative questions of Bao’an also take X prt Y structure (144b).
(144) Bao’an (Buhe and Liu 1982: 61-2, 77) a. tɕĭ gatɕĭnə samogədʑi kal(o) u?
2SG words clear say PRT
‘Did you hear the words clearly?’
2 A survey of polar interrogative strategies
b. tɕĭ ’gudə nadə asχodʑi okəsaŋ ser
2SG yesterday 1SG borrow give money
tawuŋ u, dʑirɢuŋ o?
five PRT six be
‘Did you lend me five Yuan or six?’
Literally, ‘The money you lend me is five Yuan or six?’
Eastern Yugur
The final question particle u is also found in Eastern Yugur, which is used after a CV and has the short vowel dropped, whereas its variant ju is used after a long vowel or a VV. Other question particles, like ja, ba, and ʃa, do not demonstrate such distinction (Zhaonasitu 1981a: 58-9). In the following example, (145b) is an alternative question with a X prt Y prt structure.
(145) Eastern Yugur (Zhaonasitu 1981a: 58) a. mudʒaŋ b(e) u?
carpenter be PRT
‘Are you a carpenter?’
b. tʃəmadə qudaʁa bii ju, uɣui ju?
2SG knife have PRT not.have PRT
‘Do you have a knife or not?’
Kangjia
Final question particles and alternative structures are reported in the polar interrogatives of Kangjia.
Question particles mainly include ʉ, ba, and ma. Among the question particles, ʉ is used most commonly, which comes from uu in Mongolian languages; ba is used both in polar questions and content questions, and is a cognate of the Mongolian ba; and ma is only found in speculative questions (cf.
English Is it true that…?). The structure of alternative questions is X prt Y (Siqin 1999: 214-7).
In Kangjia, polar questions are asked via a change of the interrogative verb morphology, which happens always in collaboration with a change of question particles.
Imperatives are seldom used to ask questions, although in marginal cases
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one may find questions like tʃi dʒigʉn bʉ? (2SG go PRT) ‘Will you go (there)?’, bi dʒi-ja ba!? (1SG go-VOLPRT) ‘I go!?’ (Siqin 1999: 140).
Interrogative verb morphology changes according to tenses, as it shows in the following table (taken from Siqin 1999: 140-51).
Table 2.23. Kangjia interrogative verb morphology Past tense I -vʉ
Past tense II -dʒʉ / -dʒiʉ, ba Non-Past -nʉ / -mʉ , -gʉ-n…bʉ Present I -sʉ / -sʉnʉ
Present II -dʒinʉ Future -gʉ(n)...bʉ
In Kangjia, a serial verb construction normally has an -ʉ on the latter verb.
The construction is called ‘adverbial verbs’ in Siqin’s (1999: 151-64) terminology, which could be further divided into twelve subtypes.
(146) Kangjia (Siqin 1999: 153) tʃi mɔri uni-dʒi re-vʉ? 2SG horse ride come-PRT
‘Did you come by riding a horse?’
There is an “adjective verb” in Kangjia, which shares similarities with adjectives. For example, both of them can function as a modifier of a noun phrase, or have markers of case, number, and genitive, like bi dandi-sʉn mɔrini (I buy horse) ‘the horse I bought’ (-sʉn is a marker of ‘adjective verb’). The polar question system of an ‘adjective verb’ sentence is to have the question particle ʉ/bʉ/vʉ at the end if it is perfective, and bʉ/ʉ/are if it is non-perfective, and bʉ if it is a usual event, and ʉ if it is an on-going event (Siqin 1999: 164-75).
2 A survey of polar interrogative strategies