Question about answers

[Hengeveld, P.C.]

Dear Nick,
 
The topic you inquire about is briefly touched upon on pages 146-150 of: Hengeveld, Kees & Mackenzie, J. Lachlan (2008), Functional Discourse Grammar: A typologically-based theory of language structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
 
A language that is mentioned there as not having words for 'yes' and 'no' is Scottish Gaelic.
 
A distinction that we make in the description of this topic is between 'propositional yes/no' and 'actional yes/no'. The former would be the typical replies to yes/no questions, where English would use yes and no. The latter would be typical replies to orders, complying (as with English OK) or rejecting (where English would use no again). This is a distinction that may be relevant to your question, as some languages may lack words for 'yes' or 'no' in only one of these two domains. For instance, Warí is characterized in Everett & Kern (1997) as having propositional 'yes' and 'no', actional 'yes', but no actional 'no'.
 
I have noticed that in Spoken Brazilian Portuguese there is a tendency to avoid propositional 'yes', while propositional 'no' is used without restrictions.
 
Best, Kees
 
Kees Hengeveld
home.hum.uva.nl/oz/hengeveldp
 
 
From: Discussion List for ALT [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Nick Enfield
Sent: zaterdag 2 januari 2010 17:42
To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Question about answers
 
Happy new year everyone -

Colleagues and I are comparing how polar questions are answered in various languages. There appear to be two basic types of strategy for answering a polar question such as 'Is John working today?': 1. with an 'interjection answer' such as "yes", "no", "of course", or 2. with a 'repetitional answer' (modifiable in various ways) such as "John is working today", "He's working", "He is". This suggests three possible types of system for a language:

A. Interjection only: the language has no 'repetitional' type strategy, and it is only possible to answer by saying things like 'Yes'.

B. Repetitional only: the language has no 'interjection' type strategy, and it is only possible to answer by saying things like 'He is'.

C. Mixed. The language makes both strategies available (and the frequencies of use of one or the other alternative may vary across languages of this type)

QUESTION. Does anybody know of any claims that there are languages with systems A or B? It does not seem possible that System A exists, since presumably all languages can provide speakers with a way to take the proposition that was coded in the question and simply assert it as a way of answering (i.e., repeat in declarative form for 'yes', or with negation for 'no'). There does, however, seem to be a common view that System B occurs. We have heard it said, for example, that Celtic languages like Welsh have no interjection strategy, but this is clearly not the case for Welsh itself, as shown by Bob Morris Jones in his book 'The Welsh Answering System'. In that book, Jones cites other languages as having repeat-only strategies (Gaelic, Breton) but he is not able to present sufficient data to establish that there is really no way to answer a polar question with an interjection type answer. (Note that under 'interjection type answer' we would include items like 'yep', 'uh-huh', 'mm', and nods of the head.)

I would much appreciate any references to literature in which it is shown, or claimed, that a language has no means of answering a polar question with an interjection type strategy (functionally equivalent to 'yes' and 'no' in English), meaning that a 'repetitional' answer is the only means for answering a polar question.

Many thanks in advance,

Nick Enfield 
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