<html>
<body>
<font size=3>At 02:33 PM 3/9/2005, Matti Miestamo
<matmies@ling.helsinki.fi> wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">I'd also be interested in any
other cases of grammaticalization where a<br>
negative marker has developed into a question marker or vice
versa.</blockquote><br>
At 03:06 PM 3/9/2005, Edith Moravcsik <edith@uwm.edu> wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">The Mandarin Chinese question
marker "ma" is said to have historically<br>
derived from a negator. </blockquote><br>
The locus classicus is Y.R. Chao: see reference #1. But modern Mandarin
still has an interrogative use for the common adverbial negator _bu0_.
This is illustrated in sentence (c) below. <br>
(Tones 0 = neutral, 1 = high level, 2 = high rising, 3 = low, 4 = high
falling; all sentences transcribed with tone sandhi.)<br><br>
. 2.SG like go PN_The.Hague_
not like go PN_The.Hague_<br>
(a) Ni2 xi3huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2
bu0 xi3huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2?<br>
(b) Ni2 xi3huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2
bu0 xi3huan0 qu4?<br>
(c) Ni2 xi3huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2
bu0?<br>
(d) Ni2 xi3huan0 qu4
bu0 xi3huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2?<br>
(e) Ni2 xi3huan0
bu0 xi0huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2?<br>
(f) Ni2 xi2-
bu0 xi0huan0 qu4 Hai3ya2?<br>
. 'Do you like going to The Hague?'<br><br>
As shown, both the affirmative and the negative part of Mandarin
yes-or-no questions may take different forms. In (c), the negative part
consists of just _bu0_. Type (c) is usually avoided in writing, but it
does occur in spoken Peking Mandarin. Source: reference #2 (in Dutch);
similar developments are discussed in reference #3. <br><br>
In this sentence-final interrogative use, _bu0_ has a neutral tone. (Used
adverbially, it likewise has a neutral tone in normal tempos; but in slow
speech, the adverb is pronounced _bu2_ before 4th tone and _bu4_ before
other tones.)<br><br>
REFERENCES:<br>
(1) Pp. 801, 807-808 in Yuen Ren Chao, _A grammar of spoken Chinese_.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.<br>
(2) P. 185 in Jeroen Wiedenhof, _Grammatica van het Mandarijn_.
Amsterdam: Bulaaq, 2004.<br>
(3) Pp. 114-116 in Jeroen Wiedenhof, "[Negation in] Standard
Mandarin". Peter Kahrel and René van den Berg (eds.), _Typological
studies in negation_, pp. 93-124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins,
1994.<br><br>
GLOSSES:<br>
2.SG second person singular<br>
PN proper name<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
----------------------------------------<br>
Jeroen Wiedenhof
+31-71-527.2525<br>
Sinological Institute Leiden University<br>
P.O. Box 9515 / 2300 RA Leiden / Holland<br>
jeroen@wiedenhof.nl
<a href="http://www.wiedenhof.nl/" eudora="autourl">www.wiedenhof.nl<br>
</a>----------------------------------------<br>
</font></body>
</html>