A survey of polar interrogative strategies in the languages of China
2.1.1.1. Standard Chinese
2.1.1.1.1. Introduction: interrogative types in Standard Chinese3
Previous studies of polar questions in Sinitic languages have mainly focused on two subjects: the classification of question types, and X-neg-X questions in individual Sinitic languages. A difference in the classification of X-neg-X questions directly suggests a difference in the polar question systems by different linguists.
Chao (1968) does not give a clear classification of question types in (Standard) Spoken Chinese, although at least two types of questions were distinguished, i.e. disjunctive questions (including V-not-V) and those formed by question particles (see Chao 1968: 269, 734, 800-8).
(1) Chao’s classification of questions in (Standard) Spoken Chinese (i) Particle
(ii) Disjunctive (including V-not-V4)
Li and Thompson’s (1981) classification of questions in Chinese considers both meaning and formal representation. They distinguish particles, disjunctives, and question words (and also tag questions).
3 The classifications introduced here are mainly made on a formal ground, in particular,
whether a question uses sentence-final particles, X-neg-X structures, [X or Y] structures, or wh-phrases, although some linguists classify wh-questions as a subtype of alternative questions (e.g. Shao 1996, see below), which is clearly a semantic-based classification.
(This is one reason that content questions are also included here.)
4 Chao (1968: 669) also uses the term V-bu-V (bu ‘not’) to refer V-not-V questions.
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(2) Li and Thompson’s classification of questions in Standard Chinese (i) Question word
(ii) Disjunctive (including A-not-A) (iii) Particle
Zhu’s (1982: 202-4) classification is tripartite: yes/no, Alternative (including X-neg-X), and wh-questions. X-neg-X is classified as a subtype of Alternative questions because it seeks a choice of either X or not-X.
(3) Zhu’s classification of questions in Standard Chinese (i) yes/no
(ii) Alternative: (a) Alternative, (b) X-neg-X (iii) wh-
A binary classification is suggested by Fan (1982). He argues that the Chinese question system includes Alternatives (including yes/no, X-neg-X, and common Alternative) and wh-questions. Yes/no-questions are a subtype of Alternatives because one has to choose between yes or no, X-neg-X is to choose X or not-X, and a common Alternative is to choose X or Y (or Z…) (cf. Bolinger 1980, who argues that (English) yes-no questions are not alternative questions).
(4) Fan’s classification of questions in Standard Chinese (i) Alternative: (a) Alternative, (b) yes/no, (c) X-neg-X (ii) wh-
The classification proposed by Lü (1985) is also binary: yes/no-questions (including X-neg-X and Alternatives), and wh-questions. X-neg-X questions are classified as a kind of yes/no-question because they seek a yes/no value of X, and Alternative questions seek a yes/no value of one constituent among the two (or more).
(5) Lü’s classification of questions in Standard Chinese (i) yes/no: (a) yes/no, (b) X-neg-X, (c) Alternative (ii) wh-
Shao (1996: 6) proposes that all questions in Chinese are Alternatives, which have two subtypes, namely, polarity Alternative (Alternative I), including
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yes/no (one constituent) and X-neg-X (two constituents), and in/definite Alternative (Alternative II), including common (definite) Alternative (X or Y) and indefinite Alternative (wh- questions).
(6) Shao’s classification of questions in Standard Chinese (i) Alternative I: (a) yes/no, (b) X-neg-X
(ii) Alternative II: (a) Alternative, (b) wh-
The classification by Huang et al. (2009: 236) is tripartite: yes/no questions, disjunctive questions, and constituent questions. Huang et al. also note that
“these question types are also known as particle questions, Alternative questions, and wh-questions.”
(7) Huang et al.’s classification of questions in Standard Chinese (i) yes/no (= Particle)
(ii) Disjunctive (= Alternative, including A-not-A) (iii) Constituent (= wh-)
I summarize these previous classifications in the following table. Note that the label ‘Alternative’ implies different interpretations by individual linguists (see above).
Table 2.1. Types of questions in Standard Chinese
References yes/no X-neg-X Alternative wh-
Chao (1968) Particle Disjunctive / /
Li and Thompson (1981) Particle Disjunctive Disjunctive Q words
Lü (1985) yes/no yes/no yes/no wh-
Zhu (1982) yes/no Alternative Alternative wh- Fan (1982) Alternative Alternative Alternative wh-
Shao (1996) Alternative Alternative Alternative Alternative Huang et al. (2009) yes/no Disjunctive Disjunctive wh-
The present work adopts the label ‘polar question’, which is intended to cover all non-wh-questions, including yes/no, X-neg-X, and Alternative questions.
The term ‘X-neg-X question’ deserves a short explanation here. It covers both VP-neg-VP and Adj-neg-Adj questions. VP-neg-VP is a reduplication of a
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verb (phrase) (could be V-neg-V, V-neg-VP, VP-neg-V, or VP-neg-VP); A-neg-A is a reduplication of an adjective (phrase).
Some other labels are equivalent to X-neg-X here, e.g. V-not-V (Chao 1968), A-not-A (Li and Thompson 1981), VP-neg-VP (Zhu 1985), disjunctive (-negative), positive-negative, etc. The labels V(P)-neg/not-V(P) and A-not-A are misleading because adjectives can also enter into the X-neg-X construction, and A is very frequently used as an abbreviation for adjectives.
In Chinese linguistics, X-neg-X questions have aroused wide attention initiated by Zhu’s (1985) pioneering work. In his paper, Zhu claims that ke-VP (ke- is a pre-verb interrogative marker) is a kind of VP-neg-VP question and the two are not found to coexist in individual Sinitic languages, both diachronically and synchronically. Nevertheless, latter studies provided evidence that ke-VP and VP-neg-VP questions do coexist in Sinitic languages, e.g. Yangzhou Mandarin (Wang 1985), Lishui Mandarin (Huang 1996: 714). Some subsequent studies also propose that ke-VP is a subtype of yes/no-question (see, e.g. Liu 1991).
Neverthless, very little attention has been paid to polar questions formed by intonation. A pioneering study is Liu (1988), who proposes that there are mainly two types of intonation questions, one is the so called echo question, which expresses doubt or surprise at hearing some words, and the other is somehow resembling a biased question, by which a speaker seeks further confirmation, though with little doubt about the answer.
2.1.1.1.2. Interrogative intonation-only
In Standard Chinese, polar questions formed by terminal rising intonation- only are not as common as those formed by (sentence-final) question particles, X-neg-X structures, or alternative structures. Intonation-only questions rely heavily on context, for example, some common knowledge between addressor and addressee.
(8) Standard Chinese ni qu Beijing? ↗
2SG go Beijing
‘Are you going to Beijing?’
The sentence makes sense only if the speaker knows that the respondent is possibly going to Beijing, or both of them are in a public transportation.
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Otherwise it is strange, e.g. this is not how one asks a stranger this question at a campus cafeteria.
Polar questions of this kind must have a terminal rising intonation. For example, A is expecting to find a teacher at a certain classroom, but A did not find the teacher, in this case A asks B:
(9) Standard Chinese
A: laoshi bu zai zher? ↗
teacher not be.in here
‘Is the teacher not here?’
B: (laoshi) bu zai (zher).
teacher not be.in here
‘No. (The teacher is not here.)’
The sentence sounds very strange to B if A does not use a rising intonation at the sentence end, especially in the case that A and B do not know each other well.
Except for those context-based intonation-only questions, there is another similar polar question, that is, a repetitive one, by which a speaker seeks further confirmation of what the other person has just said, by repeating (whole or a part of) the person’s words and adding a rising intonation at the end of the sentence5. (10) Standard Chinese
A: ta bayue lai deguo.
3SG August come Germany
‘S/He will come to Germany in August.’
B: ta bayue lai deguo? (repeating) 3SG August come Germany
‘Will s/he come to Germany in August?’
A: shide. (ta bayue lai deguo.)
yes 3SG August come Germany
‘Yes, it is the case.’
5 Strictly speaking, repetitive questions and context-based questions here are not intonation-
only, as they rely either on a previous sentence (to repeat) or a special context.
“Repetitive” questions are a subtype of echo questions. However, considering that echo questions also include (and commonly considered to be) content questions (e.g. English I am leaving on Sunday. → You are leaving when?), the label “echo” is hence not used here.
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In (10), respondent B’s question is a whole repetition of A’s words. Nevertheless, B can also repeat the words partially, depending on which piece of information is more relevant to B. For example, B can ask ta? ‘her/him?’, bayue? ‘(in) August?’, (lai) deguo? ‘(come to) Germany?’, ta lai deguo? ‘s/he come to Germany?’, bayue lai? ‘come in August?’, and so on.
Context-based intonation-only questions and repetitive ones exhibit differences and similarities in their functions. Basically, a repetitive intonation-only polar question implies that one is surprised or in doubt about the words of a speaker and with a question s/he seeks further confirmation of some information s/he wants to clarify. While a context-based one does not necessarily express surprise and/or doubt, it may also function as a rhetorical question.
(11) Standard Chinese
A: nimen shang-zhou mai-le yi-liang shenme che?
2PL last-week buy-LE one-CL what car
‘What kind of car did you buy last week?’
B: (women mai-le yi-liang) baoshijie.
1PL buy-LE one-CL Porsche
‘(We bought) a Porsche.’
A: (nimen mai-le yi-liang) baoshijie? (repeating) 2PL buy-LE one-CL Porsche
‘(You bought) a Porsche?’ (surprise and/or doubt) B: shide. ‘Yes, it is the case.’
In (11), by repeating/asking (ni maile yiliang) baoshijie?, A is surprised at B’s words, with also a natural reading that A is doubting how B could afford a luxurious car. This is also the case in (12), a context-based question, with B expecting that A knows s/he bought a car and being surprised that A actually doesn’t.
(12) Standard Chinese (context-based)
A: ni shuo shenme, nimen mai-le che?
2SG say what 2PL buy-LE car
‘What did you say? Have you bought a car?’
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B: en, ni bu zhidao?
Eh 2SG not know
‘Ah, yes, don’t you know that?’
Context-based intonation-only questions are also frequently used as rhetorical questions. For example, with (13a) a mother is asking her children to hurry up in the morning, and with (13b) a passenger is complaining that a smoker paid no attention to the DO NOT SMOKE sign at a railway station.
(13) Standard Chinese
a. hai bu qichuang qu xuexiao?
still not get.up go school
‘Won’t you get up and go to school?’
b. ni bu (ren)shi zi?
2SG not read character
‘Can’t you read?’
Polar questions formed by intonation-only are not a much-discussed topic in Chinese linguistics. The most salient feature is that they invariably adopt a rising intonation at the sentence end. Two subtypes, repetitive and context-based, have something in common, in representation (intonation-only) and function (surprise and/or doubt), but they also differ in their representation (one by repeating, another is not) and functions (a context-based one is more complicated in conveying pragmatic meanings).
2.1.1.1.3. Interrogative particles6
In polar questions of Standard Chinese, (sentence-)final question particles are frequently (although not obligatorily) used together with a rising intonation.
In fact, a polar question with final interrogative particles may take either a rising or falling intonation, as is exemplified in (14).
(14) Standard Chinese
a. ni hui shuo deyu ma? (rising/falling) 2SG can speak German QP
‘Can you speak German?’
6 See Chapter 3, for definition and a detailed discussion of interrogative particles.
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It can be seen that ma吗 is a question particle because the sentence remains to be interrogative in nature, regardless of what intonation it takes. An addressee could respond to it properly without any difficulty in understanding.
However, this is not so clear in the case of ba吧, with which a sentence normally could be either declarative or interrogative.
b. ni jin-nian you sanshi-le ba? (falling) 2SG this-year have thirty-LE PRT
‘Are you not younger than thirty-years-old?’
c. ni jin-nian you sanshi-le ba. (falling) 2SG this-year have thirty-LE PRT
‘You are no younger than thirty-years-old, I think.’
A sentence ending with ba normally takes a falling intonation, although it may adopt a rising one after verb-reduplicating structures to ask questions, in contrast to a falling one in declarative sentences.
d. ni qu kan-kan ba? (rising) 2SG go look-look PRT
‘Will you take a look (at it)?’
e. ni qu kan-kan ba. (falling)
‘Please take a look (at it).’
ba is different from ma in that it is a part-time polar question particle, whereas ma is always a polar question particle, which is its full-time job.
Whether the particle ne呢 is an interrogative final particle or a common final particle is also controversial (see Chapter 3 for details about final (question) particles). Questions with ne invariably adopt a rising intonation, making it hard to tell if interrogativity is carried by ne or rising intonation (or the X-neg-X structure, because it is still a polar question without ne and/or rising intonation).
(15) Standard Chinese
a. ni hui-bu-hui shuo deyu ne? (rising) 2SG can-not-can speak German PRT
‘Can you speak German or not?’
Lu (1984) argues that ne is a question particle in Standard Chinese, because there
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is a type of question formed by a declarative sentence (or a noun/verb phrase) plus ne, normally semantically equivalent to a wh-question, like ‘how about …?’
or ‘where is …?’. The sentence is no longer a question if ne is dropped. In the following examples, it turns out to be wo de shu ‘my book(s)’, which is a noun phrase (b); or wo bu yao qian ‘I do not want money’, which is a declarative sentence (c).
b. wo de shu ne?
1SG GEN book PRT
‘{Where is / How about} my book(s)?’
c. wo bu yao qian ne?
1SG not want money PRT
‘What if I do not accept the money?’
Lu (1984) proposes that question particles in Standard Chinese should be understood as only including ma, ba, and ne. This is, however, not the whole story.
First, there are some other polar question particles. For example, me么, mo
嚜, and bo啵 are also used in Standard Chinese, although me and mo are more frequently found in the written language (but cf. Bloomfield 1933: 252 for mo in echo questions), while bo is a combination of the negation word bu不 and the final particle o哦 and is used more often in oral language.
In a preliminary investigation of questions containing shi me是么 (be QP)
‘is that true?’ and zhidao me知道么 (know PRT) ‘(do you) know (that)?’ in the CCL corpus, 259 and 122 sentences were found to be attested, and most of them were polar questions. As to polar questions with bo, the CCL corpus also had 172 sentences, including some questions asked in a negative way, which suggests that bo is an independent question particle, not a negation word plus a final particle in Modern Standard Chinese (which is what it used to be historically). In a long modern novel (about 1,327,000 words), Shanghai-de Zaochen (Shanghai Morning), 172 questions with bo are attested, among which I found the following instructive questions, which are asked by a same person.
(16) Standard Chinese
A: ni bu xiaode bo?
2SG not know QP
‘You don’t know (that)?’
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B: wo bu xiaode.
1SG not know
‘I don’t know.’
A: ni zhen bu xiaode bo?
2SG really not know QP
‘You really don’t know (that)?’
B: zhen bu xiaode.
really not know
‘(I) really don’t know.’
A: shi zhende bu xiaode bo?
be really not know QP
‘Is it the case that you really don’t know (that)?’
In (16), A was not sure about B’s answer at the first time and asked B again, by adding ‘really’. Then A asked the third time to seek further confirmation from B, using shi…de ‘is it…?’. The three questions are ungrammatical if bo is changed into the ‘full form’ bu o, or any other negation word plus a final particle.
Second, ma, ba, and ne do not belong to the same subgroup, because ne appears only in wh-questions (and X-neg-X, alternative questions as well), but never in yes/no-questions.
(17) Standard Chinese
a. *ni shi daxue-sheng ne?
2SG be university-student PRT Intended meaning: ‘Are you a college student?’
b. *ta qu-guo Beijing ne?
3SG go-PST Beijing PRT Intended meaning: ‘Has s/he ever been to Beijing?’
Furthermore, many final particles can be added on in X-neg-X questions, like a
啊, ya呀, na呐, la啦, and so on, with a free choice in intonation.
(18) Standard Chinese
ni qu-bu-qu Beijing a/ya/na/la?
1SG go-NEG-go Beijing FP
‘Are you going to Beijing or not?’
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Consequently, the present work does not include ne in the list of polar question particles of Standard Chinese, but groups it with some other particles like a (and its variants na, ya) and la as commom final particles (for more discussions on question particles, final particles, as well as modal particles, see Chapter 3).
2.1.1.1.4. X-neg-X questions
In the category of X-neg-X, I include those disjunctive-negative questions by reduplicating the verb (phrase), i.e. VP-neg-VP, and adjective (phrase), i.e.
AP-neg-AP, as well as noun (phrase), i.e. NP-neg-NP.
(19) Standard Chinese
a. ni qu Beijing bu qu Beijing? (VP-neg-VP, common) 2SG go Beijing not go Beijing
‘Are you going to Beijing or not?’
b. ni qu bu qu Beijing? (V-neg-VP, common) c. ni qu bu qu? (V-neg-V, common) d. ni qu Beijing bu qu? (VP-neg-V, less common)
e. ni qu Beijing bu? (VP-neg, less common, dialectal) f. ni qu bu? (V-neg, less common, dialectal) g. (?)ni bu qu Beijing? (neg-VP, less common, contextual) h. (?)ni bu qu? (neg-V, less common, contextual)
All variations of VP-neg-VP questions (a-h) are grammatical, and among them VP-neg-VP, V-neg-V, and V-neg-VP are most common in Standard Chinese.
(e)-(f) are more characteristic of the northern dialect of Mandarin, and (g)-(h) are highly context-based and used only in situations known between addressor and addressee.
(20) Standard Chinese
a. zhe-ben shu hao-kan bu hao-kan? (AP-neg-AP, common)
DEF-CL book good-read not good-read
‘Is the book good/interesting or not?’
b. zhe-ben shu hao-bu-haokan? (A-neg-AP, common) c. zhe-ben shu hao-bu-hao? (A-neg-A, common)
d. *zhe-ben shu haokan-bu-hao? (AP-neg-A, ungrammatical)
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e. zhe-ben shu haokan-bu? (AP-neg, less common, dialectal) f. zhe-ben shu hao-bu? (A-neg, less common, dialectal) g. (?)zhe-ben shu bu-haokan? (neg-AP, less common, contextual) h. (?)zhe-ben shu bu-hao? (neg-A, less common, contextual) All variations of AP-neg-AP questions are grammatical except (d). In the adjective-reduplicating questions, AP-neg-AP, A-neg-A, and A-neg-AP are used more commonly, while (e)-(f) are characteristic of the northern dialect of Mandarin, (g)-(h) are highly context-based.
Hence, a preliminary generalization that could be drawn is that X-neg-X questions of Standard Chinese prefer to have two Xs of equal heaviness, or to have a lighter X preceding. A heavy X should not appear early. In other words, the latter X is syllabically no lighter than the preceding X.
In Standard Chinese, there is also a polar question formed by using a NP-neg-NP structure, although not often found in formal text. This structure is becoming more and more popular in internet language and the language of younger generations. In parallel with those X-neg-X questions by verbs and adjectives, I label a monosyllabic noun as N, and a non-monosyllabic one as NP, regardless of the structure of the noun, for example, in (21), shu-nü
‘graceful-lady’ is an adjective-noun compound.
(21) Standard Chinese
a. nimen juede wo shunü bu shunü? (NP-neg-NP) 2PL feel 1SG graceful.lady NEG graceful.lady
‘Do you think I am a graceful lady or not?’
b. nimen juede wo shu bu shunü? (N-neg-NP) c. *nimen juede wo shu bu shu? (N-neg-N) d. *nimen juede wo shunü bu shu? (NP-neg-N) e. nimen juede wo shunü bu? (NP-neg) f. *nimen juede wo shu bu? (N-neg) g. (?)nimen juede wo bu shunü? (neg-NP) h. *nimen juede wo bu shu? (neg-N)
In (21), only four sentences, i.e. NP-neg-NP, N-neg-NP, NP-neg, neg-NP are grammatical, among which neg-NP (21g) is highly context-based. This is basically in line with the generalization about those VP-neg-VP questions and AP-neg-AP questions, though N-neg-N questions are ungrammatical (21c).
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A question particle can be added after a NP-neg question.
(22) Standard Chinese
A: wo shunü bu a?
1SG graceful.lady NEG PRT
‘(You, tell me,) Am I a graceful lady or not?’
B1: ni cai bu shunü ne.
2SG even NEG graceful.lady PRT
‘Not at all.’
B2: ni shunü bu? ni za haoyisi wen ne?
2SG graceful.lady NEG 2SG why shameless ask QP
‘A graceful lady or not? How can you ask so shamelessly?’
NP-neg-NP questions are also found in some other Sinitic languages, like Yongxin Gan, yin wa ji dü ng dü? (2SG say 3SG pig NEG pig) ‘(You, tell me,) Isn’t s/he as stupid as a pig?’
In Standard Chinese and Yongxin Gan, a reduplicated noun (compound) acquires adjectival meaning and functions as an adjective. In Standard Chinese, shunü is ‘graceful-lady-like’; in Yongxin Gan, dü is ‘pig-like’, ‘stupid’. In this case it is appropriate to classify them as AP-neg-AP questions. However, since such words are never labeled as adjectives in a dictionary, I call a polar question with a reduplicating structure containing such items a NP-neg-NP question rather than an AP-neg-AP question.
2.1.1.1.5. Alternative questions
Alternative questions, also known as disjunctive questions, consist of two or more constituents which are linked by disjunctions, usually conjoined by haishi
Alternative questions, also known as disjunctive questions, consist of two or more constituents which are linked by disjunctions, usually conjoined by haishi