[Lingtyp] Languages without concealed questions
Jeanne Lecavelier des Etangs-Levallois
lecavelierde at uni-potsdam.de
Mon Sep 15 10:14:20 UTC 2025
Dear all,
I wonder if any of you knows of a language that doesn't have concealed
questions? Concealed questions are DPs that appear under question-embedding
predicates (know, ask, tell, etc.), as in:
(1) I know [the capital of Ghana].
(2) She told me [the price of the book].
(3) I asked her [the (type of) wine she likes best].
While I know of languages in which question-embedding predicates cannot take
clausal complements, and only nominal complements, I don't know of any
language exhibiting the opposite pattern: taking only clausal complements,
and not nominal complements – hence my question.
Note: for some languages like English, concealed questions are restricted to
certain question-embedding predicates. But that does not interest me. What I
am looking for is a language for which concealed questions cannot appear
under ANY question-embedding predicate!
Many thanks in advance!
Best,
Jeanne
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