[Lingtyp] Languages with only one complementiser

[Christoph Holz]

Dear Jeanne,



Tiang (Oceanic, Papua New Guinea) has a complementiser *po*, which can be
used in both declarative and interrogative complement clauses. The
interpretation depends on the context and the verb.



The verb *kalapa**ŋ* ‘to know’ can be interpreted both as declarative and
interrogative with *po* when it is preceded by *buák* ‘want’ (1), but on
its own, it is always declarative in my corpus (2).



(1)         *nó          buák     kalapaŋ             lâŋ=âtâ,*

2SG       want     know                  like=VIS.DIST



[*po        patita                  si=m      a            rokon    tâmo*
]COMP

COMP   sweet.potato    AL=2SG PFV       good     now

‘You want to know that/whether your sweet potatoes are good now.’



(2)         *niáu       ók          kalapaŋ,*            [*po
nan       mo         a           puka*]COMP

1SG       FUT       know                  COMP   3SG       only      PFV
fall

‘I will know that only he will have fallen down.’



(There is also a second complementiser, *ina*, which derives from the
inalienable possessive preposition *i(n)*. *Ina* always has a declarative
meaning, usually with purposive overtones, and *kalapaŋ ina* means ‘to know
how to do sth.’)



More information in:

Holz, Christoph. 2023. *A comprehensive grammar of Tiang*. Cairns: Central
Queensland University dissertation.

-          complement clauses: pp. 681–692

-          complement-clause-taking verbs: pp. 142–143

-          *po*: pp. 485–488

-          *ina*: pp. 491–493



Best wishes

Christoph


On Fri, 6 Mar 2026 at 19:24, Jeanne Lecavelier des Etangs-Levallois via
Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I am looking for languages which have only one complementiser for clausal
> embedding (with no further marking to distinguish between declarative
> clauses and polar questions).
> For instance, Akan uses the complementiser 's3' for both declarative
> clauses
> (e.g. "THAT it is raining" in (1)) and interrogative clauses (e.g.
> "WHETHER
> it is raining" in (2)), see below. The interpretation depends on the
> predicate (gye di 'believe' in (1), bisaa 'asked' in (2)).
>
> (1) Yaw [gye di] s3 nsuo reto.
> Yaw believes COMP rain is.falling
> 'Yaw believes THAT it is raining.'
>
> (2) Yaw bisaa me s3 nsuo reto.
> Yaw asked me COMP rain is.falling
> 'Yaw asked me WHETHER it is raining.'
>
> Interestingly, even though Akan nim 'know' can take both declarative and
> interrogative complements, it interprets s3-clauses (without further
> markings) as exclusively declaratives, see (3).
>
> (3) Yaw nim s3 nsuo reto.
> Yaw knows COMP rain is.falling
> 'Yaw knows THAT it is raining.' (not: 'Yaw knows WHETHER it is raining.')
>
> If you know of any other language that behaves like Akan for (1) and (2)
> (i.e., one complementiser for both polar questions and declaratives),
> could
> you please let me know?
> And, optionally: could you tell me what interpretation arises under
> 'know',
> if you know it? (are both possible, or is there only one possible reading?)
>
> Many thanks in advance!
>
> Best,
> Jeanne
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