On a dichotomy of question types

Abstract

This paper reexamines the conventional classification of questions in the Formosan language Paiwan: polar, disjunctive, and wh-questions and seeks to rectify some previous observations and offer a more insightful taxonomy. Specifically, we support the position in Egli (1990) and Huang et al. (1999) and demonstrate that polar questions are formed by a rising intonation alone and that the putative polar question particles (ui) dri, (ui) pai, na, and ui lja are in fact polar question tags, while a and ayau are non-interrogative interjection particles. There are thus no morphosyntactically formed polar questions in Paiwan. Crucially, questions formed with the sentence-initial tuki and its variants aki, ki, and tui are disjunctive questions, not polar questions. We argue that manu, previously seen as a disjunctive interrogative conjunction, is actually an emphatic adverbial instead, meaning ‘in the end,’ which can thus appear in all types of questions and declaratives. Disjunctive questions, in either A-or-B or A-not-A form, can also be formed with a silent disjunctive interrogative conjunction. Finally, we demonstrate that disjunctive and wh-questions share fundamental properties and should be recognized as two subcategories of constituent questions, as opposed to polar questions. A two-way distinction is thus obtained for questions in Paiwan.