Cover not available
Article published In:
Concentric
Vol. 47:2 (2021) ► pp.253–299

Taxonomy of questions in Taiwan Southern Min

| Tunghai University
| Tunghai University | National Chengchi University
Contra the conventional four-way distinction of syntactically-formed questions in Taiwan Southern Min (TSM): (i) yes-no, (ii) A-not-A, (iii) disjunctive, and (iv) wh-questions (e.g., Lau 2010a), we justify a more revealing dichotomy of confirmation-seeking (CS) polar questions and information-seeking (IS) constituent questions, based on a suite of semantic and syntactic tests proposed in extensive literature for Mandarin and adapted further for TSM, where A-not-A belongs to the disjunctive type, which is in turn a subcategory of IS constituent questions. Controversies over the proper status of some sentence-final question particles and kám questions are also deliberated. Dismissing some alleged polar question particles as polar or A-not-A tags, we recognize nih and honnh as interrogative polar particles. We also show that kám has two underlying forms. One is a portmanteau word of the modal kánn and the negator m̄ and thus forms a whether-or-not disjunctive question (Huang 1988a, 1991). However, when kám is short for kámkong ‘don’t tell me’, similar to the Mandarin nandao, it appears in a polar question.
Keywords: TSM, IS constituent questions, CS polar questions, question particles, kám questions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Criteria for a two-way distinction in Mandarin
    • 2.1The two-way semantic distinction in terms of answers
    • 2.2The ‘ma vs. ne’ distinction
    • 2.3The ‘nandao vs. daodi’ distinction
    • 2.4Intervention effect
    • 2.5The availability of the indirect question counterpart
    • 2.6An interim summary
  • 3.Taxonomy of questions in TSM
    • 3.1Previous four-way classification
    • 3.2IS questions vs. CS questions in TSM
    • 3.3Disjunctive questions and wh-questions as IS questions
    • 3.4An interim summary
  • 4.Questions with interrogative sentence-final particles
    • 4.1A-not-A questions
    • 4.2Sentence-final polar question particles or question tags?
    • 4.3An interim summary
  • 5.The status of kám questions
    • 5.1Two forms of kám
    • 5.2The interrogative kám questions as A-not-A questions
    • 5.3The focus effects of the interrogative kám
    • 5.4An interim summary
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 17 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.00029.her
References
Beck, Sigrid
1996 Wh-constructions and Transparent Logical Form. Doctoral dissertation, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
2006 Intervention effects follow from focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics 141:1–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beck, Sigrid, and Shin-Sook Kim
1997 On wh- and operator scope in Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 61:339–384. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhatt, Rajesh, and Veneeta Dayal
2020 Polar question particles: Hindi-Urdu kya: . Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 381:1115–1144. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight
1978 Yes-no questions are not alternative questions. Questions, ed. by Henry Hiż, 87–105. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Reidel. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Matthew Y.
1987 The syntax of Xiamen tone sandhi. Phonology Yearbook 41:109–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Robert Liang-Wei
1977 Taiwanese question particles. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 51:153–185.Google Scholar
1997 Taiyu, Huayu de Jiegou ji Dongxiang III: Tai, Huayu de Shikong, Yiwen yu Fouding. [Taiwanese and Mandarin Structures and Their Developmental Trends in Taiwan III: Temporal and Spatial Relations, Questions and Negatives in Taiwanese and Mandarin.] Taipei: Yuan-Liou Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Chou, Chao-ting Tim
2005 On the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface in Chinese: A Case Study of the Attitudinal Adverb Daodi . MA thesis, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu.
Embree, Bernard L. M.
(ed.) 1984 A Dictionary of Southern Min [ Taiwanese-English Dictionary ]. Taipei: Taipei Language Institute.Google Scholar
Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka
2011 Sentence-final only and the interpretation of focus in Mandarin Chinese. The Proceedings of the 22nd North American Conference of Chinese Linguistics (NACCLS-22) and the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-18), ed. by Lauren Eby Clemens and Chi-Ming Louis Liu, 18–35. Columbus, OH: NACCL Proceedings Online, The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Hamblin, Charles Leonard
1958 Questions. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 36.3:159–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1973 Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language 10.1:41–53.Google Scholar
Han, Chung-Hye, and Maribel Romero
2004 The syntax of whether/Q…or questions: Ellipsis combined with movement. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 221:527–564. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Her, One-Soon, Dewei Che, and Adams Bodomo
(to appear) On a two-way distinction of questions: A case study of Mandarin and Xiang. The Linguistic Review.Google Scholar
Holmberg, Anders
2016 The Syntax of Yes and No. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Miao-Ling
2001 Form and Meaning: Negation and Questions in Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
2014 Taiwanese Hokkieh/Southern Min. The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, ed. by C.-T. James Huang, Y.-H. Audrey Li and Andrew Simpson, 629–656. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James
1988a Hanyu zhengfan wenju de mozu yufa [A modular grammar of Chinese A-not-A questions]. Zhongguo Yuwen 2041:247–264.Google Scholar
1988b Shuo shi he you [On ‘be’ and ‘have’ in Chinese]. The Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 59.1:43–64.Google Scholar
1991 Modularity and Chinese A-not-A questions. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language, ed. by Carol Georgopolous and Roberta Ishihara, 305–332. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James, and Masao Ochi
2004 Syntax of the hell: Two types of dependencies. Proceedings of the 34th Conference of the North Eastern Linguistic Society, ed. by Keir Moulton and Matthew Wolf, 279–294. Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications, University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James, Y.-H. Audrey Li, and Yafei Li
2009 The Syntax of Chinese. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huang, Chu-Ren
1988 Towards a morphosyntactic account of Taiwanese question particle kam . Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 59.2:425–447.Google Scholar
Huang, Lu-Shan
2016 A Study of Kam Questions in Taiwan Southern Min. MA thesis, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung.
Huang, Rui-Heng Ray
2008 Deriving VP-neg questions in modern Chinese: A unified analysis of A-NOT-A syntax. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 6.1:1–54.Google Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney
1994 The contrast between interrogatives and questions. Journal of Linguistics 30.2:411–439. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iûnn, Ún-giân
2003 Tai-Gu-Bun Gu-Su Kiam-Sek [Taiwanese Concordancer]. Retrieved February 26, 2021, from [URL]
Jones, B. Morris
1999 The Welsh Answering System. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Shin-Sook
2002 Intervention effects are focus effects. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 10, ed. by Noriko Akatsuka and Susan Strauss, 615–628. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Kuno, Susumu
1973 The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lau, Seng-hian
2010a Syntax of Kám Questions in Taiwanese. MA thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.
2010b Excising tags: Distinguishing between interrogative SFPs and tag questions in Taiwanese. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 8.1:1–28.Google Scholar
Lien, Chinfa
2011 Exploring three kinds of the DARE word in Southern Min: Sidelights on the hierarchical structure of functional categories. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 4.2:271–283. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lin, Huei-Lin
2004 Lexical vs. syntactic negation in Taiwanese. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 30.1:107–128.Google Scholar
Lin, Jo-wang
1994 Lexical government and tone group formation in Xiamen Chinese. Phonology 11.2:237–275. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luo, Tianhua
2013 Interrogative Strategies: An Areal Typology of the Languages of China. Doctoral dissertation, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Paul, Waltraud, and John Whitman
2008  Shi … de focus clefts in Mandarin Chinese. The Linguistic Review 251:413–451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pesetsky, David
2000 Phrasal Movement and Its Kin. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pope, Emily Norwood
1976 Questions and Answers in English. Mouton: The Hague.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. Elements of Grammar, ed. by Liliane Haegeman, 281–337. Dordrecht the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rooth, Mats
1985 Association with Focus. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
1992 A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics 11:75–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997 Focus. The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, ed. by Shalom Lappin, 190–210. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Sadock, Jerrold, and Arnold Zwicky
1985 Speech act distinctions in syntax. Language Typology and Syntactic Description, ed. by Timothy Shopen, 155–196. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sailor, Craig
2012 Tag Questions and the Typology of VP Ellipsis. Retrieved January 6, 2021, from [URL]
Shen, Shih-Chung Henry
1997 On Taiwanese Kam Constructions. MA thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.
Soh, Hooi Ling
2005  Wh-in-situ in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistic Inquiry 36.1:143–155. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tang, Ting-Chi
1981 Guoyu yiwenju de yanjiu [A study on Mandarin questions]. Shida Xuebao [Journal of National Taiwan University] 261:219–277.Google Scholar
1984 Guoyu yiwenju yanjiu xulun [A further study on Mandarin questions]. Shida Xuebao 291:381–437.Google Scholar
1994 On the semantics and syntax of negatives in Southern Min. Studies on Chinese Morphology and Syntax 5, 119–169. Taipei: Student Book Co., Ltd.Google Scholar
1998 Minnanyu de shifei wenju yu zhengfan wenju [Yes-no and V-not-V questions in Southern Min]. Hanxue Yanjiu 16.2:173–195.Google Scholar
1999 Minnanyu Yufa Yanjiu Shilun [Essays on Southern Min Grammar]. Taipei: Student Book Co., Ltd.Google Scholar
Teng, Shou-Hsin
1979 Remarks on cleft sentences in Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7.1:101–114.Google Scholar
1992 Diversification and unification of negation in Taiwanese. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica: Chinese Languages and Linguistics I, 609–629. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan
1994 On Economizing the Theory of A-bar Dependencies. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
1999 On lexical courtesy. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 81:39–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsao, Feng-fu
1998 On three aspect-related morphemes “U”, “Ø”, “A” in Taiwanese Minnan. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 28.3:299–334.Google Scholar
Wang, Pen-ying, and Chinfa Lien
1995 Taiwan minnanyu zhong de fanfu wenju [A-not-A questions in Taiwan Southern Min]. Taiwan Minnanyu Lunwenji [Papers from the 1994 Conference on Language Teaching and Linguistics in Taiwan: Southern Min], ed. by Feng-fu Tsao and Mei-hui Tsai, 47–69. Taipei: The Crane Publishing.Google Scholar
Wei, Pei-chuan
2007 Cong foudingci dao yiwen zhuci [The pathway from negatives to question particles]. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 1.2:23–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Shifou-V(N)P jushi de youlai [The history of the interrogative structure shi fou-V(N)P]. Language and Linguistics 11.2:335–392.Google Scholar
Wu, Jiun-Shiung, and One-Soon Her
2020 On the dichotomy of questions in Mandarin: A formal semantic account. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Wu, Hofa Meng-Jung
2016 The Syntax of Polar Questions and Their Answers in Taiwanese. Doctoral dissertation, Newcastle University, Newcastle.
Xie, Zhiguo
2013 Exhaustifying focus intervention effects: A crosslinguistic study. Berkeley Linguistics Society 391:317–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xu, Liejiong
2013 Are A-not-A questions alternative questions or wh-questions? Breaking Down the Barriers: Interdisciplinary Studies in Chinese Linguistics and Beyond, ed. by Guangshun Cao, Hilary Chappell, Redouane Djamouri and Thekla Wiebusch, 305–319. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Yang, Barry Chung-Yu
2008 Intervention Effects and the Covert Component of Grammar. Doctoral dissertation, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu.
2012 Intervention effects and wh-construals. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 211:43–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Xiu-fang
1991 Taiwan Minnanyu Yufa Gao [A Draft for Taiwan Southern Min Grammar]. Taipei: Ta-an Press.Google Scholar
Yue-Hashimoto, Anne O.
1991 Stratification in comparative dialectal grammar: A case in Southern Min. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 19.2:172–201.Google Scholar
Zhu, Dexi
1985 Hanyu fangyan-li de liang-zhong fanfu wenju [Two types of disjunctive questions in Sinitic languages]. Zhongguo Yuwen 1841:10–20.Google Scholar
1991 V-neg-VO yu VO-neg-V liang-zhong fanfu wenju zai Hanyu fangyan-li de fenbu [The distribution of V-neg-VO and VO-neg-V questions in Chinese dialects]. Zhongguo Yuwen 224.5:321–332.Google Scholar