Summary: Knock! Knock! Who's there?

[Relja Vulanovic]

I'm surprised to find that Russian is a "Type B" language. I didn't
know you could respond simply with  "Kto?", I thought "Kto 'eto?"
was necessary. But Russian is not my mother tongue, so others
probably know better. In Serbo-Croatian, which is my mother tongue, a
typical response would be "Ko je?" (Serbian) "Tko je?" (Croatian),
both meaning "Who is?".


> Date:          Sun, 22 Nov 1998 22:35:10 +0100
> Reply-to:      David Gil <gil at EVA.MPG.DE>
> From:          David Gil <gil at EVA.MPG.DE>
> Organization:  MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology
> Subject:       Summary: Knock! Knock!  Who's there?
> To:            LINGTYP at LINGUIST.LDC.UPENN.EDU

> Here is an interim summary of the results of the "Knock! Knock! Who's
> there?" query, which I posted last week.  But if anybody has data from
> other languages, I'd still be very appreciative.
>
> First, as a reminder, the query itself:
>
>
> **********
>
>
> Imagine you're at home, and somebody knocks on the door.  What do you
> call out?
>
> In English, two common responses are:
>
> (1) Who's there?
> (2) Who it is?
>
> Similarly, in Indonesian, you can respond:
>
> (3) Siapa disana?
>     who there
> (4)  Siapa itu?
>     who that
>
> BUT, and this is what I'm interested in, in Indonesian you can ALSO
> respond simply with the bare interrogative:
>
> (5) Siapa?
>     who
>
> My question (a simple yes/know question) is:
>
> In "your" language(s), is it possible to respond with the bare
> interrogative form, as in Indonesian (5)?  (Ie. without any additional
> locative, demonstrative or copula.)
>
>
> **********
>
>
> In the following summary, I've classified languages into two Types:
>
> Type A (English) languages, in which you can't respond with a bare
> "who", and Type B (Indonesian) languages, in which you can.  Within each
> Type, I've grouped together languages that seem to form an isogloss with
> respect to the phenomenon in question:
>
>
> Type A:
>
> English, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, French, Italian
> (Standard), Italian (Sicilian), Polish, Romany, Hungarian, Maltese
>
> Hebrew
>
> Volga Tatar
>
> Chantyal
>
> Tok Pisin
>
>
> Type B:
>
> Lingala [Bantu, Niger Congo], Munukutuba [Bantu, Niger Congo], Sango
> [Creole - Bantu, Niger-Congo]
>
> Spanish
>
> Russian, Finnish
>
> Arabic (Palestinian), Arabic (Lebanese)
>
> Yukaghir, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Malay / Indonesian
>
> Plains Cree [Algonquian]
>
>
> Discussion:
>
> Some clear geographical patterns emerge.  Europe is a Type A area, with
> Type B at the peripheries.  One boundary separates Polish, Type A, from
> Russian and Finnish, Type B.  Another boundary separates French, Type A,
> from Spanish, Type B.
>
> A note on Basque:  for Basque the opinions were split, which places it
> right between French and Spanish (which is nice).  Five persons said the
> bare interrogative was impossible (Type A), two said it was possible but
> "rude", and one said it was possible (Type B).
>
> Two Type B areas are East Asia and Central Africa.
>
> On the other hand, Israel provides an example of different types living
> side by side:  Hebrew (Type A) vs. Palestinian Arabic (Type B).
>
> I'd really appreciate more data from other languages, to fill in the
> map.
>
> As for typological correlates, I haven't found any clear ones yet.  Any
> ideas?
>
>
> Thanks to the following persons for responding:
>
> Gontzal Aldai, Jan Anward, John Ole Askedal, Dik Bakker, Peter Bakker,
> Pier Marco Bertinetto, Arantxa Eizmendi, Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen, Ray
> Fabri, Marta Alday Garay, Lucyna Gebert, Seth Jerchower, Ms. Kannewurf,
> Valeri Khabirov, Alan King, Ricardo Gomez Lopez, Bingfu Lu, Elena
> Maslova, Yaron Matras, Matti Miestamo, Nadejda Moiseeva, Michael Noonan,
> Miren Lourdes Oinederra, Sang-Won Peck, Waldfried Premper, Hans-Juergen
> Sasse, Leon Stassen, Thomas Martin Widmann.
>
>
> --
> David Gil
>
> Department of Linguistics
> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
> Inselstrasse 22, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
>
> Telephone: 44-341-9952310
> Fax: 44-341-9952119
> Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
>




****************************************************************
  Dr. Relja Vulanovic
  Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
  Kent State University - Stark Campus
  6000 Frank Avenue, NW
  Canton, OH 44720-7599

  rvulanovic at stark.kent.edu
  (330) 499-4075 (from Kent call 535-3377) x 416
  fax: (330) 494-6121
  http://www.stark.kent.edu/~rvulanovic/
****************************************************************