[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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