This article analyzes Knowledge Confirmation Questions (KCQ) in Basque, an instance of non-canonical questions that has not been analyzed yet. KCQs display three characteristic elements, namely, (i) a declarative-type syntax, (ii) an interrogative-like intonation, and (iii) the discourse particle ba; and are interpreted as follows: “Do you know that p?”. Here, I propose that the meaning contribution of KCQs derives from the interaction of these three elements. More precisely, I argue that their question-like intonation, which adds interrogative interpretation, takes scope over ba, which regulates the addressee’s Doxastic State and undergoes context shift. Basque KCQs constitute an interesting case study, because they raise some interesting questions on the syntactization of discourse and the properties of discourse particles, as they seem to contradict the assumption that discourse particles do not fall under the scope of sentential operators.

This article aims to draw a syntactic analysis that accounts for the differing properties of two sets of discourse particles: Outer (or Final) Particles (OutPs) and Tag Particles (TagPs). In recent years, researchers have built a syntactic model to accommodate OutPs (Haegeman 2014; Wiltschko & Heim 2016; a.o.), but TagPs have received little attention. In order to highlight the different nature of these two sets of particles, I will focus on two segmentally homophonous Basque particles: alaOutP and alaTag . After discussing their distinct prosodic, syntactic and pragmatic properties, I will argue that these particles show structural differences: while OutPs merge in the right periphery of the clause, TagPs are intransitive X0s and head their own Speech Act Phrase (SAP).