[演講] 2024/04/20 玉山語言學沙龍 Adversative questions
2024/04/20 玉山語言學沙龍
Adversative questions
主講人：博士候選人Angelika Kiss（University of Toronto, Dep of Linguistics）
與談人：Prof. Lawrence Cheung（香港中文大學 語言學及現代語言系）
時間：2024/04/20（四）10:00
線上會議（名額有限，請盡早報名，4月16日後將寄發會議連結及資料）
報名網址：https://forms.gle/A3QKuqfAE735a5jW9
Abstract
Adversative questions are non-canonical questions that, besides raising an
issue, express that the speaker finds the preceding move controversial. Some
examples are shown in (1b) and (1c).
(1)
a. John is Chinese.
b. 他哪/怎麼是中國人? (Mandarin)
c. Sinds wanneer is hij chinees? (Dutch)
since when COP he Chinese
'Since when is he Chinese?"
Most accounts analyze the "strongest" use of adversative questions, that is,
the use that expresses the negation of their own propositional content. In the
case of (lb) and (1c), this would amount to conveying that the speaker does
not believe that 'John is Chinese' is true (Hsieh 2001). Cheung (2008, 2009)
argues that this is the only interpretation of adversative questions ("
negative wh-constructions"), and although they include a variety of question
words, their original meaning is bleached in such uses. In this question type,
the wh-word is in the scope of an empty answer set morpheme which brings
about the negation-like interpretation While this certainly is a most
prevalent interpretation of adversative questions, it is not the only one.
Kiss (2017) observes that question words in adversative questions are not used
interchangeably. In a context that makes the negation of the propositional
content of the preceding move infelicitous, questions with 'where' cannot
occur.
(3) [Context: A says an utterance to B in the tu-form]
B: Ma #dove/ da quando mi dai del tu? (Italian)
but where since when to me use.tu-form
"Since when do you use the ru-form with me?!"
In (3), the speaker does not negate that their interlocutor (A) is using the
ru-form towards them, they simply express surprise and disapproval. In my talk
, I show that at least in a small sample of languages, the surprise reading is
only available with question words other than "where". I propose that this
asymmetry is due to the fact that the wh-phrases in adversative questions are
not (fully) deprived of their canonical meaning, and as such, they can be
given a congruent answer (see also Hsieh 2001). The reason behind this is that
the question word "where" is not as freely available to modify any kind of
proposition as is "since when" or "how": any kind of state of affairs has a
starting point in time and a reason, but not necessarily a location.
Similarly to Cheung (2008, 2009), I analyze adversative questions as a
proposition-denoting sentence to which a wh-phrase is externally merged; and I
support this analysis by showing that adversative questions introduce a
propositional discourse referent.
主辦單位：國立台灣師範大學英語學系、師大玉山計畫辦公室
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