[Lingtyp] Fragment Answers to wh-questions

[Ellison Luk]

P.S. Just to add, in Cantonese, you could expect a verbless, copula-less
answer if you have a sentence-final particle (used to express certainty,
surprise, expectedness). I don't think the number of available particles
are as varied as with sentences, but the following are possibilities.

7) Alice囉!
*Alice lo1*
"Alice!" (It was her, I have direct evidence to it)

8) Alice啩...
*Alice gwaa3*
"Alice maybe..." (not sure, I have no evidence either way)

On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 at 14:33, Ellison Luk <ellisonluk at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>>
>
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