grammar of negatives/interrogatives (what nots)

[Salinas17 at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/10/05 6:47:59 AM, robert at vjf.cnrs.fr writes:
<< Thus both the negation and the interrogative markers (as well as the
indefinite relative pronoun) are made with this -u suffix indicating that the
referred object/process is not located in the "space" of the speaker: >>

It does seem the connection between negative and interrogative markers would
have to do with concepts of inclusion or exclusion.  There are examples I
think in English where the interrogative can stand for a negative sense.  I
overheard the following:

- [I want to tell you why] this project is more important than X."
- Hey, am I here?  [meaning "You don't need to tell me.  Am I NOT here?]

In this case, "am I here?" equals the more literal "am I not here?".  But the
interrogative is enough.  Attention is focused on being _included_ among
those present.

A good example of the reassignment of attention to what might be excluded, in
emphasis on the high degree of inclusion, is the curious English compound
nominal, "what nots."  Note that there is no contrasting symmetry in describing a
group of objects as "whats."

In both of these examples, we see grammar being motivated by and struggling
with a need to define what exactly the language is referring to.  This goes
back to the Heideggerian base formula for defining any modality to which we can
attached words -- "the ultimate definition of any entity x is that it is all
that does NOT include y."

Reminds me of the old complaint in the form of a question - "What am I,
chopped liver?"

Regards,
Steve Long