[Lingtyp] Fragment Answers to wh-questions

[Ellison Luk]

Hi Johannes,

In Cantonese, based on native speaker intuition, I would find it weird to
answer a question without the copula 係 *hai6*, but I can't say for sure if
it is totally forbidden. Without the copula, you could form an answer with
a 'neutral' sentence (4). Otherwise, if I heard 'Alice' without the copula,
I would assume it to be a fronted topic to be followed by an explicative
sentence (6).

Q) 個蛋糕 係 邊個 焗 㗎?
*go3 daan6gou1 hai6 bin1go3 guk6 gaa3*
counter cake COP who bake QU
"Who baked the cake?"

1) 個蛋糕係Alice焗嘅
*go3 daan6gou1 hai6 Alice guk6 ge3*
counter cake COP Alice bake ATTR
"The cake was baked by Alice"

2) 係Alice焗嘅
*hai6 Alice guk6 ge3*
COP Alice bake ATTR
"It was baked by Alice" / "It was Alice who baked the cake"

3) 係Alice
*hai6 Alice*
COP Alice
"It was Alice"

4) Alice焗嘅
*Alice guk6 ge3*
Alice bake ATTR
"Alice baked it."

5) ??Alice
intended: "Alice"

6) Alice, 係佢焗嘅
*Alice hai6 koei5 guk6 ge3*
Alice, COP 3sg bake ATTR
"Alice, she baked it"

The same goes for locational questions, which would use the locational
copula 喺 *hai2*, but verbless fragments are fine for time questions.

Best,
Ellison Luk

On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 at 14:03, Johannes Hirvonen via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am curious if there is a language that prohibits the use of a single
> constituent or phrase in response to a wh-question instead of a full
> clause with a predicate, as in the scheme below:
>
> Language XY:
> (1) Who baked the cake? – *Alice. (OK: It was Alice. / Alice did it. /
> Alice baked. / Alice baked the cake.)
>
> I would expect every language to have some form of ellipsis (e.g. in
> conjunctions), but do you happen to know of a language in which speakers
> reject or at least disprefer this type of fragment answer to a wh-question?
>
> Thank you and best regards
> Johannes Hirvonen
>
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