Where's where

[Claire Bowern]

I've never seen it in Australian languages, but the languages I've worked with
are moribund and I wouldn't want to say definitely that it isn't used. The
emphatic negatives I have in Yan-nhangu all involve overgeminating the k of
/yaka/ "no" (note, incidentally, that yaka is the regular Gupapuyngu negative
particle, but the Yan-nhangu one is /rulka/. Emphatic negatives seem to involve
using the Gupapuyngu particle!). Nor have I seen any etymological relations
between interrogatives and negatives in reconstructive work in Australia.
Claire


> Hence this call: please send me examples of languages in which (you are
> sure that) the phenomenon of 'where' or some other content interrogative
> word being used to express emphatic negation is NOT present.  One such
> language is English.  Please let me know of others.  Of course, I would
> still be interested in examples of other languages which have the
> phenomenon.
>
> If I get enough responses, I will post a summary (perhaps even a map).
>
> David
>

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