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Is there a clause-initial polar interrogative particle?

Summary

In this feature, we are looking for a polar interrogative particle that appears at the beginning of the clause. It is acceptable for a polar interrogative particle to appear in polar interrogatives and content questions, but the polar interrogative particle must be dedicated to marking questions that ask for the equivalent of an affirmative or negative answer (as opposed to content questions).

Dryer (2013) distinguishes neutral questions from leading questions in the paragraph quoted below. This feature in Grambank concerns neutral questions:

"Many languages have question particles or expressions that indicate that the question is a leading question, one where the speaker has an expectation as to what the answer will be. English, for example, employs what are called "tag-questions" for this purpose, illustrated in (13a), which differ from the neutral question form illustrated in (13b) in that its form indicates that the speaker expects a ‘yes’ answer.

13a. You’re planning to go to the beach, aren’t you?

13b. Are you planning to go to the beach?"

Procedure

1. Code 1 if polar interrogation can be marked through a dedicated phonologically free polar interrogative particle,
2. And this particle appears at the beginning of the clause.
3. Code 0 if there are no polar interrogative particles or if the polar interrogative particle does not appear at the beginning of the clause.

Examples

Nyigina (ISO 639-3: nyh, Glottocode: nyig1240)

Coded 1. There is an interrogative particle for yes/no questions. The particle almost always occurs in the first position of a clause.

marrinyan … kurru  warli  muk  ya-na-rr-i 
hungry      Q      meat   hit  1/2SG-FUT-PL-say
‘I’m hungry. Can we kill meat?’ (McGregor 2004: 236)

Further reading

Dryer, Matthew S. 2013a. Position of polar question particles. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Dryer, Matthew S. 2013b. Polar questions. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

Dryer, Matthew S. 2013a. Position of polar question particles. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

McGregor, William B. 2004. The languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London: Routledge.

Related Features

• GB257 Can polar interrogation be marked by intonation only?
• GB260 Can polar interrogation be indicated by a special word order?
• GB263 Is there a clause-final polar interrogative particle?
• GB264 Is there a polar interrogative particle that most commonly occurs neither clause-initially nor clause-finally?
• GB285 Can polar interrogation be marked by a question particle and verbal morphology?
• GB286 Can polar interrogation be indicated by overt verbal morphology only?
• GB291 Can polar interrogation be marked by tone?
• GB297 Can polar interrogation be indicated by a V-not-V construction?

Patron

Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins