[Lingtyp] query: declarative 'or' vs. interrogative 'or'

[Caterina Mauri]

Dear Tianhua,

I have worked on this specific topic from a typological and from a diachronic perspective and found a number of languages having different 'ors' depending on the interrogative vs. declarative context.

You may find the typological findings in:
- Mauri, C. (2008) Coordination relations in the Languages of Europe and Beyond. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter (especially chapter 5 on disjunction).
- Mauri, C. (2008b) The irreality of alternatives: towards a typology of disjunction. Studies in Language 32/1: 22-55.

I hope you may find them useful for your research!

All the best,
Caterina

--
Prof.ssa Caterina Mauri
Università di Bologna - Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture moderne
Via Cartoleria 5
40124 Bologna

Email: caterina.mauri at unibo.it<mailto:caterina.mauri at unibo.it>
Homepage: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/caterina.mauri



On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 3:19 AM +0200, "Tianhua Luo" <tianhualuo at zju.edu.cn<mailto:tianhualuo at zju.edu.cn>> wrote:


Dear all,

Is anybody familiar with languages in which different disjunctions are used in declarative sentences and alternative questions?  I am looking for further languages that employ a distinction between declarative 'or' (either 'or') and interrogative 'or' (whether 'or').

Thanks,

Tianhua

--
In English the same disjunction is used in both declarative sentences and alternative questions.
(1)  English
    a. I will come this afternoon or tomorrow morning.        b. Will you come today or tomorrow?
In Mandarin Chinese (and most other Sinitic languages), huozhe ‘or’ is used in declarative sentences and a different disjunction haishi ‘or’ is used in alternative questions.
(2)  Mandarin Chinese
a.

wo

jintian

xiawu

huozhe

mingtian

shangwu

lai.



1sg

today

afternoon

or

tomorrow

morning

come



‘I will come this afternoon or tomorrow morning.’


b.

ni

jintian

lai

haishi

mingtian

lai?



2sg

today

come

or

tomorrow

come



‘Will you come today or tomorrow?’




--
Tianhua Luo
Department of Chinese
Zhejiang University
Tian Mu Shan Lu 148
310028 Hangzhou
China
eMail: tianhualuo at zju.edu.cn<mailto:tianhualuo at zju.edu.cn>
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