[Lingtyp] "Hell if I know!" marker

[Wesley Kuhron Jones]

Hi Pun Ho,

To clarify, it is not vulgar or taboo. I didn't mean to use the English
"hell" in any vulgar way here, just emphatic.

Wesley

On Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 6:46 PM Pun Ho Lui <luiph001 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Wesley Kuhron Jones,
>
> I am not sure whether the *khuni *marker has some taboo connotation—I may
> be biased by the translation of ‘hell’, but I would like to share a bit.
>
> In Cantonese, the 鬼 gwai ‘ghost’ can indicate negation in a rhetorical
> question:
>
> 鬼       知       咩
> ghost  know   Q
> ‘Hell if I know!’/ ‘I don’t know!'
>
> In my manuscript (under review), I call the ‘ghost’ and other similar
> items in other languages as "taboo negator”.
>
> Hope it helps!
>
> Warmest,
> Pun Ho Lui
>
> Wesley Kuhron Jones <wesleykuhronjones at gmail.com> 於 2024年2月1日 上午2:26 寫道：
>
> Hi all,
>
> Horokoi (Trans-New Guinea, Morobe Province, [gsp]) has two emphatic
> question markers that I know of so far: *kho* (currently glossing as
> 'I.wonder') and *khuní* (currently glossing as 'hell.if.I.know'). I am
> trying to figure out what terms to use to describe them.
>
> Note that *khuní* appears, from looking at the form, to be derived from
> *kho* plus a particle *ni* which is often used in other contexts for
> emphasis or contrastive focus.
>
> In exchange 1, the "I wonder" marker *kho* is used because speaker B also
> just noticed and wonders what happened.
>
> 1A: *Nga wo-re?*
> where go-3sg.prs
> 'Where did that person go?'
>
> 1B: *Nga wo-re kho?*
> where go-3sg.prs I.wonder
> 'Hey yeah, where did they go indeed?'
> (I didn't notice that they were gone until you said 1A, then I looked and
> also am wondering where they went.)
>
> In exchange 2, the "hell if I know" marker *khuní* is used because
> speaker B seems to already have wondered about this and accepted that they
> don't know the answer. Then speaker A asks them about it and they respond.
>
> 2A: *Nga wo-re?*
> where go-3sg.prs
> 'Where did that person go?'
>
> 2B: *Nga wo-re khuní?*
> where go-3sg.prs hell.if.I.know
> 'Yeah man, where *did* they go?'
> (Rhetorical, I have no idea what the answer is.)
>
> Both of these markers can also be used in questions that are not responses
> to other questions.
>
> 3. *Neku-kha ihe a-re kho?*
> who-foc pig kill-3sg.prs I.wonder
> 'Who killed the pig?'
> (Someone brings me a dead pig, I see it, and I ask this.)
>
> 4. *Neku-kha ihe a-re khuní?*
> who-foc pig kill-3sg.prs hell.if.I.know
> 'Who killed the pig?'
> (I know that a pig has been killed, so I go to the place where it is and
> ask this to the people there.)
>
> It seems that 1B and 2B are used rhetorically, while 3 and 4 are actually
> seeking answers from the listener.
>
> I know of a few particles like *denn* in German and *acaba* in Turkish
> that have some similar functions to these. Please let me know any
> terminology about these kinds of markers, references, or examples from
> other languages.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Wesley Kuhron Jones
>
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